The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1915-08-22

camp.
THE fifth evening after l had corraed my
costly but uncongenal muttons, l walked to
the ranch-house and stepped in the door.
"'Mr Ogden says l, you and have got to
get socable. Sheep all very we'll to dot the
Landscape and furnish eight-dollar cotton suitngs
they rank along with FIVE o'clock teazers If you've
got deck of cards, parchees outfit, game
OF authors, get EN- out, and let's get mental
basis. I've got to do something in an intellectual
line if it's only to knock somebody's brains out
This Henry Ogden was a peculiar kind of
ranchman He wore fnger-rngs and big gold
watch and careful neckties. And his face was
calm, and his nose-spectacles kept very shiny
l saw once in Muskogee, an outlaw hung for MUIR
dering six men, who was dead ringer for him.
But l knew a preacher in Arkansas that you would
have taken to be his brother. l didn't much
for him either way; what l wanted was some fell
. lowship and communion with holy saints or lost
sinners-anything sheepless would do.
"'Well, Saint Clair says he, laying down the
book he was reading, guess it must be pretty
lonesome for you at first. And l don't deny that
II
rallied your sheep they won't stray OUT
"'Theyre shut up tight the jury OF mil
lionare murderer says l. And III be back with
them long before they'll need their trained nurse
so Ogden digs up deck of cards. and we
play casino. After FIVE days and nights OF my
sheep-camp it was like foot on Broadway When
I caught big casino 1 felt excited as if had
-, A,d n
loosened up little and told the story about the
lady in the Pullman laughed for five minutes.
That showed what comparative thing life
is A man may see much that he'd be bored to
turn his head to look at 100000 FIRE or Joe
Weber or the Adriatic Sea But let him herd sheep
Tor spell, and you'll see him splitting his ribs
laughing at 'Curfew Shall Not Ring Tonight, or
really enjoying himself playing cards with ladies'
"By-and-by Ogden gets out decanter OF Bour
bon and then there is total eclipse OF sheep
do YOU remember reading in the papers, about
a month ago. says he, about train hold-up
the NJ. X. & T.? The express agent shot
through the shoulder, and about $4,000 in
rency taken. And it's said that only did
the job
happen so often they don't lnger long in the hu
man Texas mind. Did they overtake. overhaul
seize. or lay hands upon the despoer"
He escaped says Ogden. And + just
reading in a paper today that the officers have
tracked him down into this part of the country. 1t
seems the bills the robber got al! the first
issue Of currency to the Second National Bank of
Al a.. foII tbe
where they've been spent, and it leads this way
Ogden pours out Bourbon, and
shoves me the bottle.
81 imagine says l. after ingurgiatating an
other modcum OF the royal boose, that it wouldn't
be at all a disngenuous idea of train robber to
run down into this part of the country to hide for
a spell A sheep-ranch, now says l. would be the
finest kind of place. Who'd expect to find
such desperate character among these song-birds
and rtuttons and wild flowers? And by the way,
says l, kind of looking H. Ogden over. was there
any description mentioned OF this singe-handed
terror? Was his lineaments height and thickness
or teeth filings or style of habiliments forth in
print?
"'Why, no. says Ogden; they say nobody got
A good sight of him because he mask. But
they know it was train-robber called Black Bill
because he always works alone and because he
dropped a handkerchief in the express-car that had
his name it.
"'All right says I. I approve of Black Bills
retreat to the sheep-ranges. l guess they won't
find him
"'There's one thousand dollars reward for his
capture says Ogden.
az don't need that kind of money says /. look
ing Mr. Sheepnlan straight in the eye. The twelve
dollars month you pay me is enough. l need
rest, and l can up until get enough to pay
my fare to Texarkana, where my widowed mother
lives. If Black Bill goes on, looking significantly
at Ogden, was to have come down this way-say.
a month ago-and bought little sheep-raneh
and
"'Stop, says Ogden, getting out of his chair and
1ooL;,o vicious do you moan RI ;nsin-