Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1924-02-07
CHAPTER Discontinued.


He lifted his face after moment
and chuckIed complaisantly.
big jack" he went on, "couldnt
kill him with a niger maui. Didn't
e fetch that chuckle head a groanln
lick? Lord! Leetle too high, though
he commented in the nice criticism OF
a man who, in his day, was known TO
have been the most dangerous rough
and-tumble fighter on the border.
He paused, and his face assumed the
same puzzled expression it had worn
at the festival the evening before.
81 reckon hit couldn't "a ben, an
it's list as well not t say nothin' about
it." he went on, but / thought that
Teller favored that scape-galus OF Oh
Sime's-Ren Colin-what e would a
ben by now. l noticed it when e
fared up off'n the floor thar with the
knife"
Counterman leaned nearer.
"That's jist what I mosey'd up t
talk about" He lowered his voice.
'oThat wus Black Bogus"
Uncle Nick Strengthened.
MOP
"Hit were"
The old man swore, took out his pipe
again, stared at it and put it back in
his pocket.
"Black Bogus-hit couldn't-w'y,
theirs fifty sheriffs a-lookin' FIR him.
'Yes, an them same fifty sheriffs
amt none too dern'd anxious t find
i'm. He's a bad man with six-gun.
He may ~be Ken CoIin--that don't
know-but 1 do know he's Black
Bogus. l run afoul Of i'm three year
back, down Yincennes way. It wus
when"
The fisherman stopped, breathed
hard, pa. sed his hand up over his
sunken eye socket and sat staring out
into the gathering night. The aged
hunter studied him covertly. More
than once he had thought of asking
for the story of that lost eye, but the
innate delicacy Of the born woodsman
had restrained him.
"Calclate you wus some surprised
when e swarmed inn"
Counterman turned; felt along the
edge of the porch floor with his hands.
81 low I werdn't no worse surprised
than he'd "a ben if he "a saw me.
But 1 happened t. be back in the cor
ner blind the crowd-an' it's good
thing l were. ] dasn't come face t. face
with Black Bogus. He tricked me
once; he won't trick me no more
the old hunter saw the weather
stained fist of the fisherman grip
tight; heard his lanky jaws clamp to-
gether; watched him instinctively
hitch the holster of his long-barreled
six-gun to an easier position at his
hip-"an' I've already got enough blood
on my hands over"
He stopped abruptly and again sat
staring into the night.
The man was a mystery. He had
come to Buckeye as the driftwood
comes-nobody knew from where. He
paid his way, asked no questions, an
swered none In the silence that fell
Uncle Nick sat bordering him-what
his life story might have been.
The fisherman reused himself after
moment and went on.
"What crosses my path is, how e
come t. be there, p'tic'lar how e hap
pened t. come out s. specially if
e is the man you think e is. 1t amt
his way. He never would "a done it
If it hadn't "a ben FIR Zeke Pollok
squirt whisky" He Strengthened,
glanced around at his aged friend,
and had the light been sufficient, the
old man might have seen that the
twinkle, never long absent from the
doubly capable eye, had returned.
''Big Jack an the parson shore did
show i'm a good time while e
lasted
Uncle Nick grinned.
"That parson-lord! 1 amt ben t.
church in fifty year, but Tn calclatin'
Dn goin' next Sund'y. If that parson
can OUTAGE the devil the way he out
faced that hulkfn' chuckle-head, he
amt no bad man t. hitch up WITH"
"rm only hopin'," Counterman went