The Pleasantville press. (Pleasantville, N.J.) 1912-1929, 1916-03-04

at twenty is to blush unseen on the
Rio Grande border.
1t happened in old Justo Valdos'
gambling house. There was a poker
game at which sat players who were
not all friends, as happens often where
men ride in from afar to shoot Folly
as she gallops. There was a row over
so small a matter as a pair of queens,
and when the smoke had cleared away
1t was found hat the Kid had com-
mitted an indiscretion and his ad-
versary had been guilty of a blunder,
for the unfortunate combatant, instead
of being a greaser, was a high blooded
youth from the COW ranches, of about
the Kids own age and possessed of
friends and champions. His blunder
In missing the Kids right ear only a
sixteenth of an inch when he pulled
his gun did not lessen the indiscretion
of the better marksman.
The Kid, not being equipped with a
retinue nor bountifully supplied with
personal admirers and supporters-on
account of a rather outrageous repu-
tarion, even for the border-considered
it not incompatible with his indisputa-
BILE gameness to perform that %judicious
fractional act known as pulling his
freight"
Quickly the avengers gathered and
sought him. Three of them overlook
him within a rod of the station. The
Kid turned and showed his teeth in
that brilliant but mirthless smile that
usually preceded his deeds of insolence
end violence, and his pursuers fell back
without making it necessary for hin
even to reach for his weapon.
But in this affair the Kid had not
felt the grim thirst for encounter that
usually urged him on to battle. 1t had
been a purely chance row, born of the
cards and certain epithets impossible
for a gentleman to brook that had
passed between the two. The Kid had
rather liked the slim, naughty, brown
faced young chap whom his bullet had
cut off in the first pride of manhood.
And now he wanted no more blood.
He wanted to get away and have a
good long sleep somewhere in the sun
VII lhC h1CSquiI SIoSoJ WIN LIS h'h
kerchief over his face. Even a MeXi-
can might have crossed his path In
safety while he was in this mood.
The Kid openly boarded the north
bound passenger train that departed
five minutes later. But at Webb, a
few miles out, where it was tagged to
take on a traveller, he abandoned that
f Mo- -,o,O 4oIo
graph stations ahead, and the Kid look
ed askance at electricity and steam.
Saddle and spur were his rocks of
safety.
The man whom he had shot was a
stranger to him. But the Kid knew
that he was of the Coralitos outfit from
Hidalgo and that the punchers from
that ranch were more relentless and
vengeful than Kentucky feudists when
wrong or harm was done to one of
them. So, with the wisdom that has
characterized many great fighters, the
Kid decided to pile up as many leagues
as possible of chaparral and pear be-
tween himself and the retaliation of
the Coralitos bunch.
Near the station was a store. and
near the store, scattered among the
mesquits and elms, stood the saddled
horses of the customers. Most of them
waited, half asleep, with sagging limbs
and dropping heads. But one, a long
legged roam with a curved neck.
snorted and paved the turf. Him the
Kid mounted, gripped with his knees
and slapped gently with the owners
own quirt.
If the Staying of the temerarious
card player had cast a cloud over the
Kids standing as a good and true citi-
re this last act of his yelled his fig
ure in the darkest shadows of dispute.
On the Rio Grande border if you take
a mans life you sometimes take trash,
but if you take his horse you take a
thing the loss of which renders him
poor, indeed, and which enriches you
Motif you are caught. For the Kid
there was no turning back now.
With the springing roam under him
he felt little are or u~neaSiness. After
a five mile gallop he drew in to the
plainsman's jogging trot and rode
northeastward toward the Nueces riv-
er bottoms. He knew the country well
its most tortuous and obscure trails
through the great wilderness of brush
and pear and its camps and lonesome
ranches where one might find safe en-
tertainment. Always he bore to the
east. for the Kid had never seen the
ocean, and he had a fancy to lay his
hand upon the name of the great Gulf,
the gamesome colt of the greater wa
tiers.
So after three days he stood on the
shore at Corpus Christi and looked out
across the gentle ripples Of a quiet sea.
Captain Boone of the schooner Fly
away stood near his skiff, which n
of his crew was guarding in the surf.