The Treachery of Curly Ben
"ere! you black boy, Tom!" and the Old Cattleman's voice rose
loudly as he commanded the approach of that buoyant servitor, who
supervised his master's destinies, and performed in the triangular
role of valet, guardian and friend. "Yere, you; go to the barkeep of
this tavern an' tell him to frame me up a pitcher of that peach
brandy an' honey the way I shows him how. An' when he's got her
organized, bring it out to us with two glasses by the fire. You-all
ain't filin' no objections to a drink, be you?" This last was to me.
"As for me, personal," he continued, "you can put down a bet I'm as
dry as a covered bridge." I readily assented to peach and honey. I
would agree to raw whiskey if it were needed to appease him and
permit me to remain in his graces.
"Thar's one thing, one redeemin' thing I might say, about the East,"
he went on, when the peach and honey appeared, "an' the same claims
my respects entire; that's its nose-paint. Which we shorely suffers
in the Southwest from beverages of the most ornery kind."
"There's a word I've wanted to ask you about more than once," I
said. "What do you mean by 'ornery,' and where do you get it?"
"Where do I get it?" he responded, with a tinge of scorn. "Where do
I rope onto any word? I jest nacherally reaches out an' acquires it
a whole lot, like I do the rest of the language I employs. As for
what it means, I would have allowed that any gent who escapes bein'
as weak-minded as Thompson's colt--an' that cayouse is that imbecile
he used tos wim a river to get a drink--would hesitate with shame to
ask sech questions.
"'Ornery' is a word the meanin' whereof is goin' to depend a heap on
what you brands with it." This was said like an oracle. "Also, the
same means more or less accordin' to who all puts the word in play.
I remembers a mighty decent sort of sport, old Cape Willingham it
is; an' yet Dan Boggs is forever referrin' to old Cape as 'ornery.'
An' I reckon Dan thinks he is. Which the trouble with Cape, from
Dan's standpoint, is this: Cape is one of these yere precise
parties, acc'rate as to all he does, an' plenty partic'lar about his
looks. An Osage buck, paintin' for a dance, wouldn't worry more over
his feachers, an' the way the ocher should be streaked on.
"Now this yere Cape is shy an eye, where an Apache pokes it out with
a lance, back in Cochise's time; an', as he regyards his countenance
as seemin' over rocky, bein' redooced to one eye as I relates, he
sends East an' gets a glass eye. This ain't where Cape's
technical'ties about his looks trails in, however; an', if he had
paused thar in his rehabilitations, Boggs allers put it up he'd a-
found no fault. But Cape notices that about tenth drink time his
shore-enough eye begins for to show up bloodshot, an' is a bad mate
for the glass eye, the same bein' onaffected by drink. So what does
Cape do but have a bloodshot eye made, an' takes to packin' the same
on his person constant. As Cape drinks his forty drops all
commodious, he sort o' keeps tabs on himse'f in the lookin' glass
back of the bar; an' when the good eye commences to turn red with
them libations he's countin' into the corral, he ups an' shifts his
bresh; digs out the white eye an' plants the drunken eye in the
place.
"Shore! none of us cares except Dan Boggs; but Dan feels it to that
extent, it's all Colonel Sterett an' Doc Peets an' Old Man Enright
can do, added to Dan's bein' by nacher a born gent that a-way, to
keep Dan from mentionin' it to old Cape.
"'A gent who comes from a good fam'ly, like you-all,' says Old Man
Enright to Dan, sort o' soothin' of him, 'oughter be removed above
makin' comments on pore old Cape shiftin' his optics. Troo! it's a
weakness, but where is the sport who hasn't weaknesses likewise.
Which you-all is a mighty sight to one side of bein' perfect
yourse'f, Dan, an' yet we don't go 'round breakin' the information
off in you every tinic you makes a queer play. An' you must b'ar
with Cape, an' them caprices of his.' "'I ain't denyin' nothin','
declar's Dan. 'I'm the last longhorn in Wolfville to be revilin' old
Cape, an' refoosin' him his plain American right to go pirootin'
'round among his eyes as suits his taste. But I'm a mighty nervous
man that a-way, an' Cape knows, or oughter know, how, as I states,
I'm nacherally all onstrung, an' that his carryin's on with them
eyes gives me the fantods. Onder all the circumstances, I claims his
conduct is ornery, an' not what a invalid like me has a right to
expect.'
"No; Dan never says nothin' to Cape; or does anythin' 'cept talk to
Enright an' the rest of us about how he can't stand Cape shiftin'
them eyes. An' it ain't affectation on the part of Dan; he shorely
feels them shifts. Many a time, when it's go to be red eye time with
Cape, an' as the latter is scroop'lously makin' said transfers, have
I beheld Dan arise in silent agony, an' go to bite hunks outen a
pine shelf that is built on the Red Light wall.
"'Which that ornery Cape,' says Dan, as he picks the splinters from
his mouth after sech exercises, 'would drive me as locoed as a
coyote if I don't take refooge in some sech play like that.'
"But, as I su'gests about this term 'ornery;' it depends a lot on
who uses it, an' what for. Now Dan never refers to old Cape except
as 'ornery;' while Enright an' the rest of us sees nothin' from soda
to hock in Cape, doorin' them few months he mingles with us, which
merits sech obloquys.
"No; ornery is a word that means what it says an' is shore
deescriptif. Coyotes is ornery, sheep is ornery; an' them low-flung
hoomans who herds sheep is ornery, speshul. Of course, the term has
misapplications; as an extreme case, I've even heard ign'rant
tenderfeet who alloodes to the whole West as 'ornery.' But them
folks is too debased an' too darkened to demand comments."
"You are very loyal to the West," I remarked.
"Which I shorely oughter be," retorted the old gentleman. "The West
has been some loyal to me. Troo! it stands to reason that a party
fresh from the East, where the horns has been knocked offen
everythin' for two or three hundred years, an' conditions genial is
as soft as a goose-ha'r pillow, is goin' to notice some turgid
changes when he lands in Arizona. But a shorthorn, that a-way,
should reserve his jedgment till he gets acquainted, or gets
lynched, or otherwise experiences the West in its troo colors. While
Arizona, for speciment, don't go up an' put her arms about the neck
of every towerist that comes chargin' into camp, her failure to
perform said rites arises rather from dignity than hauteur. Arizona
don't put on dog; but she has her se'f-respectin' ways, an' stands a
pat hand on towerists.
"If I was called on to lay out a system to guide a tenderfoot who is
considerin' on makin' Arizona his home-camp, I'd advise him to make
his deboo in that territory in a sperit of ca'm an' silent se'f-
reliance. Sech a gent might reside in Wolfville, say three months.
He might meet her citizens, buck her faro-banks, drink her nose-
paint, shake a hilarious hoof in her hurdy gurdies, ask for his
letters, or change in whatever sums seems meet to him at the New
York Store for shirts. Also, he might come buttin' along into the O.
K. Restauraw three times a day with the balance of the band, an'
Missis Rucker would shorely turn her grub-game for him, for the
limit if he so pleased. But still, most likely every gent in camp
would maintain doorin' his novitiate a decent distance with this
yere stranger; they wouldn't onbuckle an' be drunk with him free an'
social like, an' with the bridle off, like pards who has crossed the
plains together an' seen extremes. All this, with a chill onto it, a
tenderfoot would find himse'f ag'inst for the first few months in
Wolfville.
"An' yet, my steer to him would be not to get discouraged. The
camp's sizin' him up; that's all. If he perseveres, ca'm an'
c'llected like I states, along the trail of his destiny, he'll shore
come winner on the deal. At the end of three months, or mebby in
onusual cases four months, jest as this yere maverick is goin' into
the dance hall, or mebby the Red Light, some gent will chunk him one
in the back with his shet fist an' say, 'How be you? You double-
dealin', cattle-stealin', foogitive son of a murdererin' hoss-thief,
how be you?'
"Now, right thar is whar this yere shorthorn wants to maintain his
presence of mind. He don't want to go makin' no vain plays for his
six-shooter, or indulge in no sour ranikaboo retorts. That gent
likes him. With Wolfville social conditions, this yere greetin' is
what you sports who comes from the far No'th calls 'the beginnin' of
the thaw. The ice is breakin' up; an' if our candidate sets in his
saddle steady an' with wisdom at this back-thumpin', name-callin'
epock, an' don't take to millin' 'round for trouble, in two minutes
him an' that gregar'ous gent who's accosted him is drinkin' an'
fraternizin' together like two stage hold-ups in a strange camp. The
West ain't ornery; she's simply reserved a whole lot.
"Mighty likely now," continued my friend, following a profound pause
which was comfortably filled with peach and honey; "it's mighty
likely now, comin' down to folks, that the most ornery party I ever
knows is Curly Ben. This yere Ben is killed, final; clowned by old
Captain Moon. Thar's a strange circumstance attendin', as the papers
say, the obliteration of this Curly Ben, an' it makes a heap of an
impression on me at the time. It shows how the instinct to do
things, that a bent is allers carryin' 'round in his mind, gets sort
o' located in his nerves mebby, an' he'll do 'em without his
intellects ridin' herd on the play--do 'em like Curly Ben does,
after his light is out complete.
"This yere is what I'm trailin' up to: When Captain Moon fetches
Curly Ben that time, Curly is playin' kyards. He's jest dealin',
when, onbeknown to him, Moon comes Injunin' up from the r'ar
surreptitious, an' drills Curly Ben through the head; an' the bullet
bein' a '45 Colt's--for Moon ain't toyin' with Curly an' means
business--goes plumb through an' emerges from onder Curly Ben's off
eye. For that matter, it breaks the arm of a party who's playin'
opp'site to Curly, an' who is skinnin' his pasteboards at the time,
thinkin' nothin' of war. Which the queer part is this: Curly, as I
states--an' he never knows what hits him, an' is as dead as Santa
Anna in a moment--is dealin' the kyards. He's got the deck in his
hands. An' yet, when the public picks Curly off the floor, he's
pulled his two guns, an' has got one cocked. Now what do you--all
deem of that for the workin' of a left-over impulse when a gent is
dead?
"But, as I remarks yeretofore, Curly Ben is the most ornery person I
ever overtakes, an' the feelin's of the camp is in nowise laid waste
when Moon adds him to the list that time in the Red Light bar. It's
this a-way:
"It's about a month before, when Captain Moon an' his nephy, with
two 8-mule teams and four big three-an'-a-half Bain wagons, two lead
an' two trail they be, comes freightin' out of Silver City with
their eyes on Wolfville. It's the fourth night out, an' they're
camped near a Injun agency. About midnight a half dozen of the bucks
comes scoutin' 'round their camp, allowin' to a moral certainty
they'll see what's loose an' little enough for 'em to pull. The
aborigines makes the error of goin' up the wind from Moon's mules,
which is grazin' about with hobbles on, an' them sagacious anamiles
actooally has fits. It's a fact, if you want to see a mule go plumb
into the air an' remain, jest let him get a good, ample,
onmistakable smell of a Injun! It simply onhinges his reason; he
ain't no more responsible than a cimmaron sheep. No, it ain't that
the savage is out to do anything oncommon to the mule; it's merely
one of the mule's illoosions, as I've told you once before. Jest the
same, if them Injuns is comin' to braid his tail an' braid it tight,
that mule couldn't feel more frantic.
"When these yere faithful mules takes to surgin' about the scene on
two feet, Moon's nephy grabs a Winchester an' pumps a load or so
into the darkness for gen'ral results. An' he has a heap of luck. He
shorely stops one of them Apaches in his lopin' up, an' down the
land for good an' all.
"In less than no time the whole tribe is down on Captain Moon an'
his nephy, demandin' blood. Thar's plenty of some sorts of wisdom
about a savage, an' these yere Apaches ain't runnin' right in on
Moon an' his relatif neither. They was perfeekly familiar with the
accoomulation of cartridges in a Winchester, an' tharfore goes about
the stirrin' up of Moon an' that nepby plumb wary.
"Moon an' the boy goes in between the wagons, blazin' an' bangin'
away at whatever moves or makes a noise; an' as they've been all
through sech festivals before, they regyards their final chances to
be as good as an even break, or better.
"While them Apaches is dodgin' about among the rocks, an' howlin'
contempt, an' passin' resolootions of revenge touchin' the two
Moons, the Injun agent comes troopin' along. He seeks to round-up
his savages an' herd 'em back to the agency. The Apaches, on their
side, is demandin' the capture of the nephy Moon for sp'ilin' one of
their young men.
"The agent is a prairie dog jest out from the East, an' don't know
half as much about what's goin' on inside of a Apache as a horned
toad. He comes down to the aige of hostil'ties, as you-all might
call it, an' makes Moon an' his Winchester workin' nephy a speech.
He addresses 'em a whole lot on the enormity of downin' Apaches who
goes prowlin' about an' scarin' up your mules at midnight, in what
this yere witless agent calls a 'motif of childish cur'osity,' an'
he winds up the powwow with demandin' the surrender of the
'hom'cide.'
"'Surrender nothin'!' says Captain Moon. 'You tell your Injuns to
line out for their camp; an' don't you yourse'f get too zealous
neither an' come too clost, or as shore as I casts my first vote for
Matty Van Buren, I'll plug you plumb center.'
"But the nephy, he thinks different. In spite of Captain Moon's
protests, he gives himse'f up to the agent on the promise of
protection.
"'You're gone, lad,' says Moon, when the nephy insists on yieldin';
'you won't last as long as a pint of whiskey in a five-hand poker
game.'
"But this yere young Moon is obdurate an' goes over an' gives
himse'f to the agent, who puts it up he'll send him to Prescott to
be tried in co't for beefin' the mule-thief Apache that a-way.
"Shore! it turns out jest as Captain Moon says. Before they'd gone a
half mile, them wards of the gov'ment, as I once hears a big chief
from Washin'ton call 'em, takes the nephy from this yere fallacious
agent an' by fourth drink time that mornin', or when it's been sun-
up three hours, that nephy is nothin' but a mem'ry.
"How do they kill him? In a fashion which, from the coigne your
Apache views things, does 'em proud. That nephy is immolated as
follows: They ropes him out, wrist an' ankle, with four lariats;
pegs him out like he's a hide they're goin' to dry. Thar's a big ant
hill close at hand; it's with reference to this yere ant colony that
the nephy is staked out. In three hours from the tune them ants gets
the word from the Apaches, they've done eat the nephy up, an' the
last vestitch of him plumb disappears with the last ant, as the
latter resoomes his labors onder the earth.
"Why, shore! these yere ants'll eat folks. They re-yards sech
reepasts as festivals, an' seasons of reelaxation from the sterner
dooties of a ant. I recalls once how we loses Locoed Charlie, which
demented party I b'lieve I mentions to you prior. This yere Charlie
takes a day off from where he's workin'--at least he calls it labor-
-at the stage corrals, an' goes curvin' over to Red Dog. Charlie
tanks up on the whiskey of that hamlet, compared to which the worst
nose-paint ever sold in Wolfville is nectar. They palms off mebby
it's a quart of this jooce on Charlie, an' then he p'ints out for
Wolfville.
"That's the last of the pore drunkard. His pony is nickcrin' about
the corral gates, pleadin' with the mules inside to open 'em, in the
mornin', but no sign or smoke of Locoed Charlie. An' he never does
show up no more.
"If it's Enright or Cherokee Hall, or any valyooed citizen, thar
would have issooed forth a war party, an' Red Dog would have been
sacked an' burned but what the missin' gent would have been turned
out. But it's different about Locoed Charlie. He hadn't that hold on
the pop'lar heart; didn't fill sech a place in the gen'ral eye; an'
so, barrin' a word or two of wonder, over their drink at the Red
Light, I don't reckon now the Wolfville folks disturbs themse'fs
partic'lar about the camp bein' shy Charlie.
"It's the second day when a teamster, trackin' over from Red Dog,
developes what's left of Locoed Charlie. He falls off his hoss, with
that load of Red Dog whiskey, an' every notion or idee or sensation
absolootely effaced. An' where Charlie loses is, he falls by a ant
hill. Yes; they shorely takes Charlie in. Thar's nothin' left of him
when the teamster locates the remainder, but his clothes, his spurs
an' his 'natomy. The r'ar gyard of them ants has long since retired
with the final fragments of Locoed Charlie. "You-all might o' seen
the story. Colonel Sterett writes it up in the Coyote, an' heads it,
'Hunger is a Terrible Thing.' This sot Charlie comin' to his death
that a-way puts a awful scare over Huggins an' Old Monte. It reforms
'em for more'n two hours. Huggins, who is allers frontin' up as one
who possesses public sperit, tries to look plumb dignified about it,
an' remarks to Dave Tutt in the New York Store as how he thinks we
oughter throw in around an' build a monument to Locoed Charlie. Dave
allows that, while he's with Huggins in them projecks, he wants to
add a monument to the ants. The founders of the scheme sort o'
splittin' at the go-in that a-way, it don't get no further, an' the
monument to Locoed Charlie, as a enterprise, bogs down. But to
continyoo on the trail of Captain Moon.
"Moon comes rumblin' into Wolfville, over-doo mebby it's two weeks,
bringin' both teams. Thar-upon he relates them outrages. Thar's but
one thought, that agent has lived too long.
"'If he was the usual common form of felon,' says Enright,
'ondoubted--for it would be their dooty--the vig'lance committee
local to them parts would string him up. But that ain't possible;
this yere miscreant is a gov'ment official an' wears the gov'ment
brand, an' even the Stranglers, of whatever commoonity, ain't strong
enough, an' wouldn't be jestified in stackin' in ag'in the gov'ment.
Captain Moon's only show is a feud. He oughter caper over an', as
private as possible, arrogate to himse'f the skelp of this yere
agent who abandons his relatif to them hostiles.'
"Wolfville listens to Captain Moon's hist'ry of his wrongs; but
aside from them eloocidations of Enright, no gent says much. Thar's
some games where troo p'liteness consists in sayin' nothin' an'
knowin' less. But the most careless hand in camp can see that Moon's
aimin' at reprisals.
"This Curly Ben is trackin' about Wolfville at the time. Curly ain't
what you-all would call a elevated character. He's a rustler of
cattle, an' a smuggler of Mexican goods, an' Curly an' the Yoonited
States marshals has had more turn-ups than one. But Curly is dead
game; an' so far, he manages to either out-luck or out-shoot them
magistrates; an', as I says, when Moon comes wanderin' in that time
mournin' for his nephy, Curly has been projectin' about camp for
like it's a week.
"Moon sort o' roominates on the play, up an' down, for a day or so,
makin' out a plan. He don't want to go back himse'f; the agent knows
him, an' them Injuns knows him, an' it's even money, if he comes
pokin' into their bailiwick, they'll tumble to his errant. In sech
events, they're shore doo to corral him an' give them ants another
holiday. It's the ant part that gives pore Captain Moon a chill.
"'I'll take a chance on a bowie knife,' says Moon to Dan Boggs,--
Dan, bein' a sympathetic gent an' takin' nacherally to folks in
trouble, has Moon's confidence from the jump; 'I'll take a chance on
a bowie knife; an' as for a gun, I simply courts the resk. But then
ants dazzles me--I lay down to ants, an' I looks on it as no
disgrace to a gent to say so.' "'Ants shorely do sound poignant,'
admits Dan, 'speshully them big black an' red ants that has stingers
like hornets an' pinchers like bugs. Sech insecks, armed to the
teeth as they be, an' laid out to fight both ways from the middle,
is likewise too many for me. I would refoose battle with 'em
myse'f.'
"It ain't long before Captain Moon an' Curly Ben is seen confidin'
an' conferrin' with one another, an' drinkin' by themse'fs, an' no
one has to be told that Moon's makin' negotiations with Curly to
ride over an' down the agent. The idee is pecooliarly grateful to
Wolfville. It stands to win no matter how the kyards lay in the box.
If Curly fetches the agent flutterin' from his limb, thar's one
miscreant less in Arizona, if the agent gets the drop an' puts out
Curly Ben, it comes forth jest the same. It's the camp's theery
that, in all that entitles 'em to death, the case stands hoss an'
hoss between the agent an' Curly Ben.
"'An' if they both gets downed, it's a whip-saw, we win both ways;'
says Cherokee Hall, an' the rest of us files away our nose-paint in
silent assent tharwith. "It comes out later that Moon agrees to give
Curly Ben fifteen hundred dollars an' a pony, if he'll go over an'
kill off the agent. Curly Ben says the prop'sition is the
pleasantest thing he hears since he leaves the Panhandle ten years
before, an' so he accepts five hundred dollars an' the pony--the
same bein' the nacher of payments in advance--an' goes clatterin'
off up the canyon one evenin' on his mission of jestice. An' then we
hears no more of Curly Ben for about a month. No one marvels none at
this, however, as downin' any given gent is a prop'sition which in
workin' out is likely to involve delays.
"One day, with unruffled brow an' an air all careless an' free,
Curly Ben rides into Wolfville an' begins orderin' whiskey at the
Red Light before he's hardly cl'ar of the saddle. Thar ain't nobody
in camp, from Doc Peets to Missis Rucker, but what's eager to know
the finish of Curly's expedition, but of course everybody hobbles
his feelin's in them behalfs. It's Captain Moon's fooneral, an' he
oughter have a first, oninterrupted say. Moon comes up to Curly Ben
where Curly is cuttin' the alkali dust outen his throat at the Red
Light bar.
"'Did you get him?' Moon asks after a few p'lite preeliminaries.
'Did you bring back his ha'r an' y'ears like we agrees?'
"'Have you-all got the other thousand ready,' says Curly Ben. 'in
the event I do?'
"'Right yere in my war-bags,' says Moon, 'awaitin' to make good for
your tine an' talent an' trouble in revengin' my pore nephy's
deemise by way of them insecks.' An' Moon slaps his pocket as
locatin' the dinero.
"'Well, I don't get him,' says Curly Ben ca'mly, settin' his glass
on the bar.
"Thar's a pause of mebby two minutes, doorin' which Moon looks
cloudy, as though he don't like the way the kyards is comin'; Curly
Ben, on his part, is smilin' like what Huggins calls 'one of his
songstresses' over in the Bird Cage Op'ry House. After a bit, Moon
resoomes them investigations.
"'Don't I give you four stacks of reds an' a pony,' he says, 'to
reepair to that murderer an' floor-manage his obsequies? An' don't I
promise you eight stacks more when you reports with that outcast's
y'ears an' ha'r, as showin' good faith?'
"'C'rrect; every word,' says Curly Ben, lightin' a seegyar an then
leanin' his elbows on the bar, a heap onmoved.
"'Which I would admire to know, then,' says Moon, an' his eyes is
gettin' little an' hard, 'why you-all don't made good them
compacts.'
"'Well, I'll onfold the reasons an' make it as plain an' cl'ar an'
convincin' as a spade flush,' says Curly Ben. 'When I gets to this
yere victim of ours, I finds him to be a mighty profoose an' lavish
form of sport. The moment I'm finished explainin' to him my mission,
an' jest as I onlimbers my six-shooter to get him where he lives, he
offers me five thousand dollars to come back yere an' kill you.
Nacherally, after that, me an' this yere subject of our plot takes a
few drinks, talks it over, an' yere I be.'
"'But what be you aimin' to do?' asks Moon.
"'What be you aimin' to do?' responds Curly Ben. As I states, he's
shore the most ornery coyote!
"'I don't onderstand,' says Moon.
"'Why it's as obv'ous,' retorts Curly Ben, 'as the Fence Rail brand,
an' that takes up the whole side of a cow. The question now is, do
you raise this yere gent? He raises you as I explains; now do you
quit, or tilt him, say, a thousand better?'
"'An' suppose I don't?' says Moon, sort o' figgerin' for a moment or
so. 'What do you reckon now would be your next move?'
"'Thar would be but one thing to do,' says Curly Ben mighty placid;
'I'd shorely take him. I would proceed with your destruction at
once, an' return to this agent gent an' accept that five thousand
dollar honorarium he offers.'
"Curly Ben is 'bad' plumb through, an' the sights, as they says in
the picturesque language of the Southwest, has been filed from his
guns for many years. Which this last is runnin' in Moon's head while
he talks with his disgustin' emmissary. Moon ain't out to take
chances on gettin' the worst of it. An' tharfore, Moon at once waxes
cunnin' a whole lot.
"'I'm a pore man,' he says, `but if it takes them teams of mine, to
the last tire an' the last hoof, I've got to have this agent's ha'r
an' y'ears. You camp around the Red Light awhile, Curly, till I go
over to the New York Store an' see about more money. I'll be back
while you're layin' out another drink.'
"Now it's not to the credit of Curly, as a crim'nal who puts thought
into his labors, that he lets Captain Moon turn his flank the easy
way he does. It displays Curly as lackin' a heap in mil'tary genius.
I don't presoome to explain it; an' it's all so dead onnacheral at
this juncture that the only s'lootion I'm cap'ble of givin' it is
that it's preedestinated that a-way. Curly not only lets Moon walk
off, which after he hangs up that bluff about takin' them terms of
the agent's is mighty irreg'lar, but he's that obtoose he sits down
to play kyards, while he's waitin', with his back to the door. Why!
it's like sooicide!
"Moon goes out to his wagons an' gets, an' buckles on, his guns.
Quick, crafty, brisk as a cat an' with no more noise, Moon comes
walkin' into the Red Light door. He sees Curly where he sits at
seven-up, with his back turned towards him.
"'One for jack!' says Curly, turnin' that fav'rite kyard. Moon sort
o' drifts to his r'ar.
"'Bang!' says Moon's pistol, an' Curly falls for'ards onto the
table, an' then onto the floor, the bullet plumb through his head,
as I informs you.
"Curly Ben never has the shadow of a tip, he's out of the Red Light
an' into the regions beyond, like snappin' your thumb an' finger.
It's as sharp as the buck of a pony, he's Moon's meat in a minute.
"No, thar's nothin' for Wolfville to do. Moon's jestified. Which his
play is the one trail out, for up to that p'int where Moon onhooks
his guns, Curly ain't done nothin' to put him in reach of the
Stranglers. Committees of vig'lance, that a-way, like shore-enough
co'ts, can't prevent crime, they only punish it, an' up to where
Moon gets decisive action, thar's no openin' by which the Stranglers
could cut in on the deal. Yes, Enright convenes his committee an'
goes through the motions of tryin' Moon. They does this to preserve
appearances, but of course they throws Moon loose. An' as thar's
reasons, as any gent can see, why no one cares to have the story as
it is, be made a subject of invidious gossip in Red Dog, an' other
outfits envious of Wolfville, at Enright's suggestion, the
Stranglers bases the acquittal of Moon on the fact that Curly Ben
deloodes Moon's sister, back in the States, an' then deserts her.
Moon cuts the trail of the base sedoocer in Wolfville, an' gathers
him in accordin', an' as a brother preyed on by his sister's wrongs
is shorely expected to do."
"But Curly Ben never did mislead Moon's sister, did he?" I asked,
for the confident fashion where-with my old friend reeled off the
finding of Wolfville's vigilance committee, and the reasons, almost
imposed on me.
"Which you can bet the limit," he observed fiercely, as he prepared
to go into the hotel, "which you can go the limit open, son, Curly
ain't none too good."