Wolfville Nights

ssal of S

ances of the Southwest wherein haste is a feacher an' brev'ty the b

ts of a story. There was a pause; then he lifted the glass to his lips as one who being now evenly equipped

who's that sooperfluous as to express regrets. It's Dan Boggs who dismisses Sil

ate is, I stands ready to back Peets' deescription to win. Peets is, bar Colonel William Greene Sterett, the best eddicated sharp in Arizona; also the wariest as to expressin'

e he ain't no Greaser neither. An' with all this yere surface wickedness, Silver Phil has a quick, hyster'cal way like a woman or a bird; an' that's ever a grin on his fac

the Red Light. As he goes by the bar, Black Jack-who's rearrangin' the nose

t goes onto

s nerves, that a-way, Silver Phil leaps into the air like a cat; a

took!' says Silver

ier than before. But like a flash, he sees thar's nothin' to go in the air a

,' says Texas Thompson, who's thar present at the time, an' can't refr

se, but sort o' grins plenty ghas

gamble the limit they'll never put a six-shooter in play till it's shorely come their turn. But timid, feverish, locoed people, whose jedgment is bad an' who's prone to feel themse'fs in peril; they're the k

r, yet they're all different from sech folks as Silver Phil. Boggs, goin' to war, is full of good-humoured grandeur, gala and confident, ready to start or stop like a good hoss. Cherokee Hall is quiet an' wordless; he gets pale, but sharp an' deadly; an' his notion is to fight for a finish. Peets is haughty an' sooperior on the few o'casions

n I shoots,' says Enright to me

shootin' soon an' aimin' low, which latter habits makes Wolfv

ual, of anger or regrets. Tutt, partic'lar after he weds Tucson Jennie, an' more partic'lar still when he reaps new honours as the originator of that blessed infant Enright Peets Tutt, carries on what shootin' comes his way in a manner a lot dignified an' lofty

ents like them pards of mine an' degen'rates of the tribe of Silver Phil. It's the difference between right a

ty, yet shy, prideless, an' ready to fly. It seems he begins to be homicidal in a humble way by downin' a trooper over near Fort Cummings. That's four years before he visits

me-farobank she is; an' if all them national banks conducts themse'fs as squar' as that enterprise of Cherokee's, the fields of finance would be as safely honest as a church. Cherokee's turnin' his game one evenin'; Faro Nell on the lookout stool where she belongs. Silver Phil drifts up to the lay-ou

to it, an' he ties the other end of the hoss-ha'r to his belt in front. This ha'r is long enough as he's planted at the table that a-way, so it reaches nice to them four nearest kyards,-the king, queen, jack, ten. An' said ha'r is plumb invisible except to eyes as sharp as Faro Nell's. The deceitful Silver Phil will have a stack on one of 'em, coppered with this yere ha'r copper. He watches the box. As the

nkin' Cherokee has a nine-inch bowie in his hand an' with

in your chips.' Silver Phil obeys: an' he shows furtive, ugly, an' alarmed, an' all of 'em at once. He don't say a word. 'Now pull your freight,' concloods Cherokee. 'If you ever drifts withi

huc

of some party. That bowie pierces the picture-a shot in the cross it is-an' all with sech fervou

arks Cherokee to Silver Phil, an' Cherokee's as cold an

t to vamos, an fades into the street. Shore, Cherokee don't cash the felon's chips none; he confiscates 'em. Cherokee ain't quite so tenderly romantic as to make good to a detected robber. Moreover, he lets this Silver Phil go onharmed when by every roole his skelp is forfeit. I

eady to stand up a stage as snake a play at farobank. This idee settles down on the Wolfville intell'gence on the heels of a vicissitoode wherein Dan Boggs performs, an' which gets pulled off over in the Bird Cage Op'ry House. Jack Moore ai

might have been something graver than this yere minoote wound which Boggs confers. I'm confident Jack would

tif crime when every gent defends his own. Speakin' social, however, I reasserts that by every roole of guidance, I'm entitled to the first shot. Which a doo regyard for these plain rights of mine would go far to freein' Wolfville upper circles of the bullets which occurs from time to time, an' which even the most onconventional admits is shore a draw-back. Al

show an' the Valley Tan plenty impartial. Dan likes both an' is doin' 'em even jestice. Over opp'site to Dan is a drunken passel

' the lead tharfrom bores a hole in the wall clost to Dan's y'ear. Nacherally Dan don't like it. The show sort

ot is inadvertent; or is it a mark of innocent joobilatio

delegation, 'thar's no good fellowship with that gun-pl

e subject of motive,' says Dan;

ke-at the picnickers from Red Dog, an' a party who's plenty drun

' couldn't onder sech circumstances have stooped to toes. But it's different with Dan. He is present private an' only idlin' 'round; an' he ain't driven to take high ground. More partic'lar

ts seized with remorse an' allows he's out to confess his sins before he quits. As thar's no sky pilot to confide in, this drunkard figgers that Peets 'll do, an' with that he onloads on Peets how, bein' as he is a stage book-keep over in Red Dog, he's in cahoots with a out

an' hang him a lot themse'fs. They surrenders him to the marshal who rides over for him; an' they would have turned out Silver Phil, too, only that small black outcast don't w

stealin' each, other's cattle, an', final, goes to war. Each side retains bands of murderers an' proceeds buoyantly to lay for one another. Which Silver Phil enlists with the 'Three-D' an' sneaks an' prowls an' bushwhacks an' shoots h

t a law sharp to plead an' call for a show-down before a jedge an' jury. It takes days to try Silver Phil, an' marshals an' sheriff gents is two weeks squanderin' about gettin' witnesses; an' all to as much trouble an' loss of time an' dinero as would suffice to

e presidin' alcade to be hanged; the time bein' set in a crazy-hoss fashion for a month away. As Silver Phil-which he's that

t marshal gent,-'bein' I'm thinkin' of something else, but do I onderstand

bloo stack that hangin' you is a bet we ain't none likely to overlo

d. I reckons, speakin' free an' free as between fellow sports, that in order

your absence would shorely dash an' damp the gen'ral joy. As you sa

much depends on me. The more so, since the longer I considers this racket, the less likely it

twice his age-Silver Phil not bein' more'n twenty-it's safe as a play to say that both of 'em oughter have been hanged a heap before ever Silver Phil is born. These two hold-ups, however, turns dep'ty marshals in their old age, an' is put in t

e little felon most likely would have remained to be hanged. But they don't: they abooses Silver Phil; cussin' him out an' herd

t entertain no reg'lar scheme to work free when he waxes sardonic with the marshal; that's only a bluff. Later, when them gyards takes t

t ain't no time when he discovers that by cuttin' himse'f a bit on the irons, he can shuck the handcuffs whe

lver Phil is upsta'rs on the top floor of the 'doby with his gyards. Which he's hotter than a wildcat; the gyards an' him has been havin' a cussin' match, an' as S

outhful of buckshot in each shell. He's grinnin' at Silver

t weepon for you,' says

Phil de

lies Silver Phil, his

out a whole lot; you-al

e in a locker along with two or three Winchesters. Then he tu

' out a window. Mebby he's considerin' of his sins. It would

, but Silver Phil don't care. The gyard's back is to him as that gent sits gazin' out an' off along the dusty trail where it winds gray an' hot toward

per centouse knockin' together. It's enough, however; it strikes on the y'ear of that thoughtful gyard like t

e. Silver Phil makes a spring like a mountain lion, laig-locks an' all, an' grabs the gun. As the gyard goes clatterin' down sta'rs. Silve

0-gauge Greener. He ain't forgot none; an' he's fair locoed to get that partic'lar weepon for the other gy

g Sanders!' ye

two buckshot; an' that gyard's so clost he stops 'em all! As he lays dead, Silver Phi

t happens when folks loads a

l, no one stretches forth to capture Silver Phil on this yere voylent o'casion. An' these is the reasons. Thar's no reg'lar offishul present whose dooty it is to rope up this Silver Phil. If sech had chanced to be thar, you can put down a stack he'd come a-runnin', an' him or Silver Phil would have caught up with the two gyards on their journey into the beyond. But when it gets down to private people volunteerin' for dooty as marshals, folks in the Southwest goes some slothful to work. Thar's the friends of

mericans onder the constitootion to esca

s his pard; 'an' moreover th

eir dooty to the state while pausin' to look on, in a s

n. Silver Phil allows he'll plug this dignitary if they don't send up a sport with a file to cut loose the laig-locks. Tharupon the pop'lace, full of a warm interest

f ten minutes Silver Phil allows he'll introdooce about a pound of lead into where that village father does his cogitating. The bronco appears with six minutes to spar'. As it arrives, the vivacious Silver Ph

hoopee! for Silve

'round the corner of the hill it's the last t

of scotch, "you-all is waitin' an' tryin' to guess wherever does Dan Boggs get in

in camp has got Silver Phil on his mind at all; at least if he has he deems him safe an' shore in hock, a-waitin' to be stretched. Considerin' what follows, I never

loco. His mind as well as his moral nacher is onbalanced congenital. Any triflin' jolt, much

ail. An' so with vengeance eatin' at his crim'nal heart he p'ints that bronco's muzzle straight as a bird flies for Wolfville. Whoever do you-all reckon now he wants? Cherokee Hall? Son, you'v

ver in the west. Thar's no game goin'; but bein' it's as convenient thar as elsewhere an' some cooler, Cherokee's settin' back of his layout with Faro Nell as usual on her l

th sweat an' alkali dust, Silver Phil shows in the portals of the Red Light. Thar's

rom her stool with one motion of his arm an' the bullet that's searchin' fo

as planned. He don't shoot twice, an' he don't tarry none, bu

when Dan Boggs is in the saddle an' ridin' hard. Dan's bronco runs three foot for every one of the pony

addle an' shoots. The lead goes 'way off yonder-wild. D

later the pheenomenon of him not shootin' none, 'which I wouldn't di

nises for a second sho

m the saddle an' strike

owers on him like the s

o snatch a handkerch

Dan straightens up in the stirrups, he heaves this Silver Phil on high to the length of his long arm; an' then he dashes him ag'inst the flint-hard earth; which the manoover-we-all witnesses it from mebby a quart

to Dave Tutt who asks the question.

an' wide of wing-comes floatin' down. A coyote yells-first with the short, sharp yelp, an' then with that multiplied patter of laughter like forty wolves at once. That d

l him, Dan?'

nstrung, bein' only a little girl when all is said. 'Why, no, Nellie; I don't kill him speecific as Wolfvil