The Ekalaka eagle. [volume] (Ekalaka, Mont.) 1909-1920, 1913-10-17

= lOVn Las oASStO al IuO
burning sunshine at the end Of the
kitchen, Sam would lie on his cot
thinking what a happy world he lived
In and how kind it is to the ones whose
mission In life it is to give entertain
ment N pleasure. Here he had food
n lodging as good as he had ever
longed for; absolute immunity from
care or exertion or strife; an endless
welcome and a host whose delight at
the sixteenth repetition of a song or a
story Wao as keen as at its initial CIV
Ing. Was there ever a troubadour of
old who struck upon as royal a castle
in his wanderings:
Old man Ellison was his own va
ciero. That means that he supplied
his sheep camps with wood, water and
rations by his own labors instead Of
hiring a vaciero. On small ranches 1t
is often done.
One morning he started for the camp
of Incarnation Felipe de Ia Cruz Y
Monte Piedras Zone of his sheep herd
ers) with the weeks usual rations Of
brown beans, coffee, meal and sugar.
Two miles away on the trail from old
Fort Ewing he met. face to face, a ter
rible being called King James.
king James real name was James
King, but people reversed it because it
seemed to fit him better and also be-
cause it seemedoto please his majesty.
King James was the biggest cattleman
between the Alamo plaza in San An
tone and Bill Hopper's saloon in
Brownsville; also he was the loudest
and most offensive bully and braggart
and bad man in southwest Texas, and
he always made good whenever he
Dragged, and the more noise he made
the more dangerous he was. In the
story papers 1t is always the quiet.
mild hammered man with light blue
eyes and a low voice who turns out to
be really dangerous: but in real life
and In this story such is 10 the case.
Give me my choice between assaulting
a large, loud mouthed rough houser and
an l%noffensive stranger with blue eyes
sitting quietly in a corner. and you
will see something doing in the corner
every time.
King James, as I intended to say
earlier, was a fierce. 200 pound. sun
burned, blond man, as pink as an Oc-
tober strawberry and with two hori-
zontal Sits under shaggy red eyebrows
for eyes. On that day he wore a fan
mel shirt that was tan colored, with
the exception Of certain large areas
which We're darkened by transudations
due to the summer SUI There seemed
to be other clothing and furnishings
about him, such as brown duck troN-
sers stuffed into immense boots and
red handkerchiefs and revolvers and a
shotgun laid across his saddle and a
leather belt with millions Of cartridges
shining in it-but your mind skidded
off such accessories. What held your
gaze was just the two little horizontal
Sits that he used for eyes.
This was the man that old nan Eli
son met on the trail, and when you
count up in the baron's favor that he
was sixty-five and weighed ninety
eight pounds and had heard of King
James record and that he Nhe baron)
had a hankering for the vita simplex
and had no gun with him and wouldn't
have used it if he had, you can't cen
sure him if 1 tell you that the smiles
with which the troubadour had filled
his wrinkles went out of them and left
them plain wrinkles again. But he
was not the kind Of baron that flies
from danger.
King James expressed himself with
royal directness.
you're that old snoozer that's run
ming sheep on this range, amt your"
said he. What right have you got to
do It: Do you own any land or lease
anyy
II have two sections leased from the
state" said old man Ellison mildly.
Not by no means you haven't said
King James. Your lease expired YES
terday, and l had a man at the land
Office on the minute to take it up
You don't control a foot of grass in
Texas. You sheep men have got to
git. Your times up. It's a cattle
country, and there amt any room in
1t for snoozers. This range you've got
your sheep on is mine. I'm putting up
a wire fence, forty by sixty miles, and
if there's a sheep inside of it when
it's done it'll be a dead one. I'll give
you a week to move yours away. If
they amt gone by then I'll send six
men over here with Winchesters to
make mutton out Of the whole lot.
And if l find you here at the same time
this is what you'll get"
King James patted the breech of his