The daily Alaskan., 1915-06-19
Colonel Bunker
 By M QUAD Copyright, 1915, by the Mcclure Newspaper Syndicate.

''I was just thinking, suh," said Colo nel Bunker as he sat looking out of the window-"I was just thinking of an incident in my early career as a duel- ist. In fact, suh, when this thing came about l had not yet drawn my rapier on the field of honoh. In the southern town where I first hung out my shin gle as q lawyer were q dozen gay bucks of young men, and was one of them.
 "We were sports, suh. We rode, we gambled, and we swaggered. We talk ed about our honoh, and we took no advice from our elders.
 Ut was q wonder we kept clear of the duello among our own selves, for we were hOtheads. But destiny had something laid up for us, and at the proper time we learned what 1t was. When a dapper little man dropped into the town one day and gave his name i as Professor Maync and explained that he was something of naturalist we had no idea that his coat covered des. tiny.
 Ut was about n week after the pro fessOr's arrival, and none of us young blades had made his acquaintance yet when six of Us sat on the tavern veran- da of a summers evening arranging a fox hunt, when the stranger appeared among us, and, looking directly at me, he askcd
 May I have the honoh of asking your name|
 "I gave it as Bunker, of co'se.
 "'Bunkcr? BUnkcrT he repeated. Did you evah spell 1t with an HY "'Suh! Suh! What do you meanT
 "'Was the name originally JunkerT
 "Egad. suh, tue man was deliberately insulting me!
 "I always thought I carried things Orr very well for n first time. 1 raised my hat, handed him my card and turn ed away. He received it with bow and also turned.
 There you were. suh-thcre you were. \ duel for sunrise was arranged for within au hour. and was q hero.
 Could professor of natural his tory handle a rlpier like a young buc who wuS always at it?
 NO, of cu'sc not, and l should play with him. Should kill or only wound him? That question could wait and be settled after the blades had crossed. The most I had to fear, as my friends told me and as I firmly believed my self. was that the professor would ei- thcr send m abject apology or sneak away during the night He did net thcr, however
 I've talked the matter over, and all the bucks thought l ought to run the professor through the heart, and thus at once establish my reputation, but I decided that a wound that would lay him up about six weeks would do.
 Tt was only when the word had been given and our blades had crossed that I found out l had caught a tartar. Why, suh, the professor made me look like 1J cents, He disarmed me twice in ten minutes. He could have killed me during the next five, but he stayed his hand.
 At length, after humillating me for the best part of half an hour, he pink ed EIc in the shoulder and I was out of it. l wcpt bitter tears as the surgeon dressed my wound. The young bucks didn't know what to make of 1t, but agreed that they must find excuse to challenge the professor until some one had landed him.
 "Egal suh, they didn't have to go hunting far for excuses. He brought them along and laid them at the feet of those who waited. He stopped Dick BaScomJ cu the street and politely said to him:
 "Suh, nature has made mistake in your case
 "What do you mean, suhT asked Dick.
 "'That your nose is screwed on crooked
 'Suh, you must answer for this in- sultr
 "'YOurs to command
 "A second duel, you see, suh, and with the same weapons. wasn't there to sec, but they told me that he made a bigger monkey of Dick Bas- comb than he did of me. When he had made a show of him long enough he gave him the point in the same shoulder he had me and walked away whistling.
 We had a sensation in that town now and for fifty miles beyond 1t. The professor had made two victims and was liable to make others, but there wasn't much feeling against him nor much sympathy for those who had felt his steel
 Joe Beaumont was to be his third It was rapiers again. l rode to the grounds to sec the duel Joe went at it from the first like a butcher with a long knife and was disarmed every other minute. He got so mad that he cried like boy.
 Tt was the same old story-wounded in the same shoulder.
 "Three smart bucks. Three duels.