Carolina watchman. [volume] (Salisbury, N.C.) 1871-1937, 1917-10-10

Starbuck smoked in silence for a
long minute or two before he said: as
there another woman in it, John?"
"Yes; but not in the way you
mean"
"Corry's a mighty fine little girl,
JOHN" said Starbuck slowly. ANY
n of a dozen fellows l could name
would give all their old shoes to swap
chances with you"
"That isn't exactly the kind of adj
vice I'm needing" was the sober re-
joinder.
"No; but it was the kind you were
wanting, when you tolled me off up
here" laughed the ex-cowpuncher. II
know the symptoms. Had 'em myself
for about two years so bad that I could
wake up in the middle of the night and
taste 'em. Go in and win. Maybe the
great big stumbling-block you're wor-
rying about wouldn't mean anything
like Corona; most likely it wouldn't"
eff she could know the whole truth
and believe it," said Smith musingly.
You tell her the truth, and she'll
take car of the believing part of it,
all right. You needn't lose any sleep
about that"
Smith drew a long breath and re-
moved his pipe to say: II haven't the
nerve, Billy, and that's the plain fact.
l have already told her a little of it.
She knows that L"
Starbuck broke in with a laugh.
yes; it's a shouting pity about your
nerve! You've been putting up such Il
blooming Scary fight in this irrigation
business that we all know YOU haven't
any nerve. If l had your job in that,
I'd be going around here toting two
guns and wondering if l couldn't make
room in the holster for another"
Smith shook his head.
II was safe enough so long as Stan
ton thought I was the resident mama
ger and promoter for a new bunch of
big money in the background. But he
has had me Swallowed and tracked I'M
til now [ guess he is pretty we'll CON
WINGED that l actually had the audacity
to play a lone hand; and a bluffing
hand, at that. That makes a differ
ence, of course. Two days after I had
climbed into the saddle here, he sent a
couple of his strikers after me. I don't
know just what their orders We're, but
they seemed to want to fght-and they
got it. 1t was in Blue Pete's doggery,
up at the camp"
"Guns?" queried Starbuck.
"Theirs; not mine. because I didn't
have any. l managed to get the shoot
ing-irons away from them before we
had mixed very far"
you're just about the biggest. long
cared, stitf-backed, stubborn Wild ass
of the wallows that was ever let loose
in a half-reformed gun country"
grumbled the eN-coWman. you're fix
ing to get yourself all killed up, Smith.
Haven't you sense enough to see that
these rustlers will rub you out in two
witches of a dead lambs tail if they've
made up their minds that you are the
High Line main guy and the only one?'
"Of course" said the wild ass easily.
eff they could lay me up for a month
or two"
"Lay up, nothing" retorted Star
buck. "Lay you down, about six feet
underground, is what l mean"
"Pshaw!" exclaimed the one whose
fears ran in a far different channel
from any that could he dug by mere
corporation violence. This is Amer
lea, in the twentieth century. We don't
kill our business competitors nova
days"
Don't WEI" snorted Starbuck. "That
will be all right, too. Well suppose,
just for the sake of argument. that my
respected and respectable daddy-in-
law, or whatever other ~silk-hatted old
money-bags happens to he paying
Crawford S%tanton's salary and commits
sion, wouldn't send out an order to
have you killed off. Maybe Stanton.
himself, wouldn't stand for it if you'd
put it that barefaced. But daddy-iT-
law, and Stanton, and all the others.
hire %blacklegs and sharpers and gun
llItli tllld lltSS Hli VNtlN tlIte III ii
while somebody takes a wink for a nod
and bang! goes a gun"
"Well, what's the answer?" said
Pete Simms.'
"Tote an arsenal. yourself, and be
ready to shoot first and ask questions
afterward. That's the only way you
can live peaceably with such men as
Jake Boogerfeld and Lanterby and
Simms."
Smith got out of his chair and took
a turn up and down the length Of the
room. When he came back to stand
before, Starbuck. he said: II did that.
I've been carrying a gun for IL
week and more; not for these ditch
pirates, but for somebody else. The
other night, when l was out at Hill
crest, Corona happened to see it. I'm
not going to tell you what she said.
but when I came back to town the next
morning, I chucked the gun into a desk
drawer. And I hope I'm going to be
man enough not to wear it again."