THE LUCK OF LONG SHORTY.

Press, Volume LXII, Issue 12502, 25 May 1906, Page 10

THE LUCK OF LONG SHORTY.

4 By Will Levixgtov Comport. At Ariosa, which is somewhere between Laramie ami Cheyenne, tho tallest jiDid sadtk-st-facwl man I li;i'J over fiecn entered the chair car of the eastbound night train. He led a p;iir of tough-looking men, who were handcuffed together. The face up among the lamps depressed mc. Gloomy as a, winter scene in the foot-hills, pockpitted, powder-blown, the huge expanse of countenance as badly put together as a enow man's, I could mat qiiito throw off the weight of some vr.gue, vast sorrow as lie passed with tho prisoners. "Hullo, Shorty!" growled my sent companion, a equatty individual, with j blankets. j "Hullo. Flapjacks!" responded the j gloomy giant, who found a seat for ■ himself and his charges at the other j end of the coach. I After a moment, Flapjacks shook i himself fitfully and directed to mc the , following question: > "Stranger, did I over tell you how I Long Shorty, back yonder, come to be thought considerable of in these parts?" Not having seen the person before, I could safely reply that he had not re- > lated the story. | "Wall, then, don't you butt In till j I'm done, 'cos I am a ehy talker an' fractious. You just give mc my head an , I'll pick out the trail all right." I promised not to interrupt. "Y'see ho ain't handsome," Flapjacks i began. "Long Shorty don't wear the beauty show medals, not noticeable. If j you kmowed him a .day. you wouldn't j have to ask whar ho hailed frum, fur ' if over a man had to be showed it's the ! sheriff of this here Carbon county. I j vrna down to Ariosie with Old Pap i Shaw, who runs the Cirolo A Lazy V ' outfit, when Long Shorty struck the i town in the usual way, red-hot off tho J shoe of a brakesman. Pleaee tell mc why « hornfoot like him, who can bluff an outfit of dog-beatin , mutton drivers off tho map wifh a pair of wireplicrs and an ugly etare, will stand fur the business end of a boot? "You kin soothe dint in Ariofie yet j whar Shorty struck, an , ho got up hungry. He had worked every back door in town, ami was half around ognin when ho hits mc. C'ookin's my busi- j ness, but I waen't workin' that day. J Stranger, I don't know what line; of , talk lie give mc. but it must have been ripe an' warmin', fur I unbuckled to a Chino fur a loaf of bread, sundry por- j tione of biled shpp an' a half-gallon of i coffee. Tho way Shorty padded his

. system to fit his belt was clean s.iti fyin'. ''Old I'ap wanted a man. Tliat what he were down fur. Thar lin been an argymint out in the bun] ' liou.m! the night b<»fore. Some pok< i i|iie«tion aro.-e. soniethin' about drawi: ;in' ffllin". Red Mike (.'.'trmody—<t; they didn't grow at thet. time in C:i j bun county any better mail —explainc j the rules to Steve Coleman, who, < i course, was Ink! by fur repairs, leavh ' ! Old Pnp short-hnndod fur the fa I round-up. An' so Shorty rode bne i with us, talking his way right inter th ' old man's p.iyroll an' the inner circ] lof his family. ! "The way the new hand looked ove the corral an' roped a buck-skin sh< divil fur hLs own u.se, warmed tho ol man still more; an' Rod Mike f.at v i sin' began to take notice, speculatin' o i fihufflin' Shorty down some pegs, fu I the amusornent of the boys an' gen j eral principles, iiiclndin* himsell I Shorty wnn't an unchallenged champio ■nt stayin' in a box-car with a shac ■ who could punt spirals. Ariosie beir ! the goal, but. give him a puncher's out j fit an' he could ride anythin , that wor ; furr from a coyote's whelp to a bull elk. "I believo I told you that Short want no bounty, though you kin so this much for yourself by cra.nin' you I head aroun', fur he ain't changed non-r I Natural enough, the L-izy V outfi ' noticed tho eamc an' took on frazzlin the new hand alon.g these lines. Short; only smiled that delerful smilo of hii 'till one night when the round-up wa over an' no were hack in the bunk ■ house, Red Mike allowed that as otii of the men was goin' to quit-, an' fch.T ! Shorty was high-geared enough fu: j two, ho would just break Shorty in th> j middle, hammer down both ends, an i save Old Pap the trouble and expenei jof hirin' a new hand. Shorty &.1 lower 1 that Uie operation was a. bad thing ti ; put off, am' the boys jus' natchuratl; 1 loped inter a circle with tho two in tb centre. "Fur the next five minutes thing. was a trifle too adjacent to Iμ; on inter- ; estin'. All hands round scrambled t< the top-bunks an' you could hear 'en askin' each other emotional if it didn'l beat all, an , they shore was right, foi it did. Now an' then you would heai a sizzlin' .observation from Mike; an every little while you could catch i | glimpse of the mournful countenance jof Shorty, an' the blur of his arm: ! whizzin' round like nil the ropes in the outfit. "We had most of Mike's trimminV stuck back on, when he ccmo to, «n ' feeble-like also wanted to know if ii ' didn't beat all, an" wo all allowed thai it did.

I "Next mornin' Red Mike reached fur _. Shorty's paw nn' ventured to request if, when the weather settled an' things not good an' quiet, if Shorty wouldn't £0 over it all again, only slower, so .Mike could get on as to* how it was done. "Xfxt spring U<vry came back from boaidin' school. S'ht' was Old Pap's :rirl, {in , a craekin' good looker, but little an turrible young. She had the dipper hump about what men were :z< n' what they ought to lie. Stranger, ', if you know as much as I size you- up { fur. you've pot all through thiiikin' you know anythin' about girls. If a man showed ht; was soart at anythin', livin or dead, he were, a worm to Rosy. The boardin' school idea appears to* be, if you meet fifteen mount'in lions, an' j don't ketch 'em by the tails an' beat (their brains out, without mi-:sin' a puff of your pipe, you ain't no man at all. jus' male sex. "An' what does Shorty do but get mu-hy meliincliL'ller over Rosy, who ain't as long as his arm. Did you ever see I ami p. or AVinnin" "a Bride in a Dice Game. , stranger? Wall, thar p , was a feller in thet show thet took on like Shorty—ni-cojiin" an' pinin', only i Shorty got to mis-in' his meals. He want npprtizin' to look at. •I tiii".! to boost his came, but it wan"r no u-e, until the big stampede, und Shorty did more than any three j met !o p t the btock millin' ng.-iin. Roy j lot on that he was alive then, but as I've said before, his looks was against him. Abcut thi, time the old. nvnn "shipped a trainload of the slickest Hcrei'ords thet ever hump; d up an ; tried to freeze to dtvith in a blizzard. 'lie got his p:iv in coin, an' was aiiin' at the time, so he sent Ro>y to Cheyenne to b.ink the -wan. an' Rosy took Shorty for an e-K'ort—Shorty an' a pair of PtudCo!ts an' a >.aw«_-d-off shotgun. They got the train kick at Aricsie, v.-h.ar the . -ho;:ff gt,t on, an' 'long about here Shorty proposed. Stranger, I'<l give a : lot to know wiiat )iv s:iid. I'll gamble , hi« did it had. Them that kin shred Rod Mike's complexion allut- does it bad. I m think [ kin see how that cemptcry-in-Mhi'-rain face of his'n pained her as it ~" U'.'tu c-10-e. ;s- "I'll be blowed away for a tumbleweed 11' r-he didn't say %he'd be a close :'« j coni'din' I'riend to him allus. They do id IMy e'irh ridikillus thing.-.—them girls! k- J "No, Shorty,' she tells him, 'you're a r>r J dear -ill light. :m' I'ap likes you, hut iv , ! I don't frcl sit" I rouid be right down n " j happy with you. I like you. too, but r . I'm sorry to have to say." Shorty, that you don't make good quite to tho limit n f with me.' ' n > "Sirancor, juvt you look around once 11 more an' «-t your ey.s again on the 'k j sheriff of Carbon county; thoii tell mo , o if you find it in you to blame Rc«y. Ho took it hard—blame hard—but I guess he allowed who was right; an' they rode ;r 'long these very miles sorrowful an' a_ say in' nut bin". t ] 'I'urty soon tho train'll slack up to p cross the bridge over Buck Fever crick. n It did thet night, an' the door blows |r open an' in marches a pair of stiffs w wcarin' face veils an' an arsenal. Shorty r an' tho girl were siltin' on the right, ' an' Shorty reaches to draw a gun when k ' <dl the people in the car jumps up , I between—childern an' wimmen an' ~ dudes. "' " 'It ain't no use—it won't do, Rosy, , . Shortly whispered; 'if I take c crack at 'em from here half the people in the car*ll l>o killed between us. We got to y ' fiton' fur it, but you take this fur luck, c Rosy. Put it away -whar I can't see r it. , '• ''He handed her one. of them etudt I Colts. She took it, but an apple that »' j Ikmt-s out all winter ain't so shrivelled ■ y' as Shorty was after the look she gave ■ c , him. I ain't prepared, bein , a cook j s . an' no ways curious—l ain't prepared j - J to state what Rosy did with that gun. j c I All this time 'Old Revival Meetin' Joe t J an' his son, fur them were the agents r j an' they knowed their business, were o ; goin' through thot dny-coach like a . i , J rtv>ervation-soldier turned loose with a c month's pay. \ ', "An' presently they come to Shorty : t> ! nn , the girl, ran on to Old Pap's sack of ; y ' coin, took Shorty's Colt an' tho sawed--0 . off shotgun, remarkin' how queer it Iwe a that. so long a stranger as Shorty ' s ' could I>£» so soft. All this time little : _ ; Rosy was liandin' it to Shorty, too, ' a ! interruptin' her discourse every ljttle ' a while to inquire what Papa would say. | t ' It'ts too painful to linger on what she t r likcnM Sliorty. unto till tho agents got * r ; by. Then lie squeezed her hand, an' ' ' ; she nrodiict'd the gun with a gulp. ' x J "What did Long Shorty do then. 9 : stranger? Wall, first of all, he just i s : look Rosy by the waist and chucked ] =, . her under tlio seat and then he let go ■ J through the back of the chair and drop- : ; s I ped the old man. The son swung i ' around an' opened tip promiscuous just ( t' as Shorty got him. ' \ t "Next ho was standin' over en' had ; 'em covered. They're covered yet, down , in Cheyenne calaboose. It was dread- - ful for him to bear, the way the passengers piled on Shorty—weepin' an' hiffin' over him, an' callin' him brave. Then thar was a racket, stranger, I'm tfllin' you. Some-thin* was buckin' inter thet crowd—raiumin' through, fightin' : j a way to the hero. Thet thar was Rosy ! —little Riisy with her brown hair falliii' ] j down, nn' her hat squnsJicd, an' a sera- ■ ])hic smile cnttin' plumb in two the ' htieak of grime down her purty face, an' ' she s-ays, half-crvin', half-laffin , : ' " 'Take mc, Shorty! Take mc quick or I'll cry!' ! f "An , of course." Flapjacks conclud- i ed, "when Braesj* I/ehr was killed on ] the trail of the grenser rnsselers, they ] made him sheriff. An', stranger, back \ yonder is him." I <