Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1915-10-29

EAE 49,
new element OF trouble came into the
town in the person of a man from the
south whose real name was not known,
but who passed as Arkansaw Bill. He
gave evidence of being a desperate.
He knew nothing of the firmness of the
committee in carrying out the edict
against hole boring. and he held a law
against gun play In contempt. He an
nounced that any man who was dis
posed to interfere with him would get
holed, and since hole boring was a
right he did not intend to pay for ex-
ercising 1t.
TAI Bill Mt once proceeded to
make a nuisance of himself. lie In
sisted on being admitted to games Of
chance, cheated and when taken to
task instead of shooting his accuser in
vited him TO put Il hole in him. Bill
was doubtless ready to defend himself.
What he wanted was to take advan-
tage of his enemy.s indisposition to
pay $1,000 for shooting him to put the
orphan asylum edict into disrepute.
He insulted the women, choosing those
who had no men whose duty 1t was
to protect them.
It is very hard to make a law that
will not on occasion work disadvan-
%tageously. Any nan attempting to
put Arkansaw Bill out of the way
must pay $1,000 for the privilege, and
for every additional hole that was nee
essary to do the job he must pay an
additional thousand. And this was not
the worst of 1t. Arkansaw Bill was
known to be a ~marvelously quick shot,
and any man tackling him was likely
to get holed instead of holing him.
A meeting of the committee was
called to decide upon some way of get
ting rid of Arkansaw Bill. 1t was
moved that in case any one put a hole
in him the fine should be RENTED.
The motion was carried, but since any
one bent on putting a hole in the des-
perado was liable to get a hole in him
self the remission of the fine did not
especially improve matters. No one
seemed inclined to tackle him. An
drew Hunker proposed a simultaneous
attack upon the enemy, agreeing to
fire the first shot. But his proposition
did not meet with favor; one or more
lives of good citizens were liable to be
paid for that of a villain. 1t was con-
sidered advisable that some stratagem
should be devised by which he could
be eliminated without fine.
In the first place no III vas suffi-
GENTLY inventive to produce such a
stratagem, and In the second the con-
sensus of opinion was In favor Of a
fair fight even IL 1t was desirable to
eliminate one of the combatants. 1t
was finally proposed by Mr.. bunker
that each man tackle Arkansaw Bill
until some one of them downed him.
This proposition meeting with favor,
Mr.. Hunker offered himself as the first
victim. 1t is to the credit of the 9TH
ers that they declined to accept his
offer, averring that lots should be
drawn to determine who should be
first, second, third, and so on till the
six members of the committee each
had a place in the proceedings.
Six numbers were written on as
many bits OF paper, from one to six in
elusive, and placed in a hat. Then the
men successfully put a hand In the
hat and drew a number. He who
drew No. l was Abe Billings, a man
with a wife and four children. Hun
ker begged to be permitted to change
numbers with him. but Billings would
not consent, and the meeting, each
man having promised secrecy, broke
up. Billings was to choose his own
time for doing the job and was not re-
CURED to give any notice to any one.
In case he was killed in the attempt
drawn No. 2 was to make another, and
so on till Arkansaw Bill or the six men
should be eliminated.
Twenty-four hours passed, and both
Abe and Bill still lived. During the
second night after the lots had been
drawn several shots In quick success
sion were heard coming from the di-
rection of the quarters occupied by
the desperate. Every man of the COM
mittee believed that Bill or Abe-per-
haps both-had bitten the dust. Every
n of them got out of bed and hurried
to the scene of the fray. Abe's cabin
was lighted. His children were run
ming about in their nightgowns, but
neither their father nor mother was
visible.
One by one the committee as 1t
passed Abe's quarters asked the chill
dren what had happened, but getting
no coherent response hurried ON toward
Arkansaw Bits cabin. They met Mrs.
Billings coming away. Asked what
had occasioned the firing. for reply she
turned and led them to Bills house.
There in the doorway lay a body. Some
one struck Il match. held 1t to the dead
mans face and lighted up Bills ashen
features.
"Who did itY" asked Hunken.
81 did it." replied Mrs. Billings calm
1u UI nalloG hin,etO tbo 10o~ a,d lot