The Washington herald., 1920-06-06


hunting for tafantulas. would hop
upon the fence and salute him
with sweeping fourishes of its
long tail. In the eighthy-acre
horse pasture the pony with the
Dantesque face grew fat and al
most smiling. The troubadour
was at the end of his wanderings.
Old man Ellison was his own
vaciero. That means that he sup
piled his sheep camps with wood,
water, and rations by his own la
bors instead of hiring vaciero.
On small ranches 1t Is often done.
One morning he started for the
camp of Incarnation Felipe de la
Cruz y Monte Piedras Zone of his
sheep herders) with the weeks
usual rations of brown beans, cot-
fee, meal, and sugar. Two miles
away on the trail from old Fort
Ewing he met. fact, to face, a
terrible being called King James,
mounted on a fiery. prancing. Ken
tucky-bred horse.
King James real name was
James King; but people reversed
IL because IL seemed to mt him
better, and also because 1t seemed
to please mis- majesty. King
James was the biggest cattleman
between the Alamo plaza in San
Antoine and Bill Hopper's saloon
in Brownsville. Also he was the
loudest and most offensive bully
and braggsrt and bad man in
Southwest Texas. And he always
made good whenever he Dragged:
and the more noise he made the
more dangerous he was. In the
story papers IL is always the quiet.
mild-mannered man with light
blue eyes and a low voice who
turns out to be really dangerous:
but in real life and in this story
such is not the case. Give me my
choice between assaulting a large.
loud-mouthed rough-houser and
an inoffensive stranger with blue
eyes sitting quietly in a corner.
and you will see something doing
in the corner every time.
King James, as l intended to
say earlier. was a fierce. 20o-sun-
burned, blonde man. as pink as
an October strawberry, and with
two horizontal slits under shaggy
day he wore a flannel shirt that
was tan-colored. with the excep-
ton of certain large areas which
were darkened by transudations
due to the summer sun. There
seemed to be other clothing and
garnishings about him. such as
brown duck trousers stuffed into
immense boots. and red handker-
chiefs and revolvers; and a shot
gun laid across his saddle and a
leather belt with millions of cart
ridges shining in it-but your
mind skidded off such accessories;
what held your gaze was just the
two little horizontal slits that he
used for eyes.
This was the man that old man
Ellison met on the trail, and when
you count up in the baron's favor
that he was 65 and weighed nine
ty-eight pounds and had heard of
King James record and that he
Cthe baron) had a hankering for
the vita simplex and had no gun
with him and wouldn't have used
ii IL he had, you can't censure
him IL l tell you that the smiles
with which the troubadour had
filled his wrinkles went out of
them and left them plain wrinkles
again. But he was not the kind
of baron that flies from danger.
He refined in the mile-an-hour
pony (no difficult feaD. and sa-
luted the formidable monarch.
King James expressed himself
with royal directness.
You're that old snoozer that's
running sheep up this range. amt
your said he. What right have
you got to do it? DO you own
any land or lease any,
Il have two sections leased
from the State" said old man Ell
lison mildly.
Not by no means you haven't"
said King James. Your lease eX-
pired yesterday: and l had a man
at the land office on the minute
to take it up. You don't control a
foot of grass in Texas. You sheep
men have got to git. Your times
up. Its cattle country. and
there amt any room in it for
snoozers. This range you've got
your sheep on is mine. I'm put
ting up wire fence. forty by
sixty miles. and if there's a sheep
inside of il when it's done it'll be
a dead one. I'll give you a week to
move yours away. If they amt
gone by then. I'll send six men
over here with Winchesters to
make mutton out of the whole lot.
And il I find you here at the same
time this is what you'll get"
King James patted the breech
of his shotgun warningly.
4
camp of Incarnation. He sighed
many times, and the wrinkles in
his face grew deeper. Rumors
that the old order was about to
change had reached him before.
The end of Free Grass was in
sight. Other troubles, too, had
been accumulating upon his shoul-
ders. His f1ocks were decreasing
instead of growing; the price of
wool was declining at every clip:
even Bradshaw, the storekeeper
at Frio City, at whose store he
bought his ranch supplies. was
dunning him for his last six
months bill and threatening to
cut him off. And so this last
greatest calamity suddenly dealt
out to him by the terrible King
James was a crusher.
When the Oil man got back to
the ranch at sunset he found Sam
Galloway lying on his cot. propped
against a roll of blankets and
wool sacks, lingering his guitar.
Hello. Uncle Ben" the trouba-
dour called, cheerfulIy. You rolled
In early this evening. ] been try
ing a new twist on the Spanish
Fandango today. ! just about got
1t. Here's how she Goes-listen."
That's fine, that's mighty fine"
said old man Ellison. sitting on