"DUE NOTICE."

Star (Christchurch), Issue 4715, 5 August 1893, Page 3

"DUE NOTICE."

DEALING WITH A HARD CASE*

(Detroit Free Press). • A man, whose height is scarcely five feet six, and whose weight is not an ounce over 140 pounds. He has a mild blue eye, a frank face and his voioe is pleasant to the ear. You'd piok him out in a crowd as a mild-mannered, tender-hearted man, and yet he is "Dakota Jack," and has killed nine or ten men;' Hehas been slashed and cut, and shot and clubbed, but he-f&eems to bear a oharmedJife. :•.'•■•.•- ' ■ ■*■ •-' Itis high noon, and the long, straggling street of the frontier town is almost deserted by human life. Not because the sun beats down fiercely, nor that the half-civil-ized population is asleep, but because the town marshal said to Dakota Jaok last night at 10 o'olook : "If you are in thia town at hoon tomorrow I will hunt you down and kill you like a dog !" Well, twelve, o'clock has come. The threat came from rn^n whose bravery is unquestioned, and whose skill . with thei' gun is marvellous. He had uttered similar Warnings' before. Some of the desperadoes had left for other fields; others had remained in defiance aad fallen by his bullets. That he meant what he said in thiß case no man doubted, and yet Dakota Jaok remained. He did not bluster or threaten in return. He was taciturn and uncommunicative when hia friends asked what he intended to do. At ten o'olock in the morning he was abroad as usual. At eleven o'clock he entered the shanty in whioh a gunsmith was doing business and had his revolvers oleaned and reloaded. At a quarter to twelve he took his position in the centre of the publio square and waited. Then men fled from the etreet and said'to each other : " Now yon will see some of the prettiest shooting ever done in this town ! Dakota Jaok is bound to see it out 1" : The town marshal sat in his. office a block away. Word had come to him that Dakota Jaok refused to leave. At eleven o'clook he also cleaned and reloaded his gnus. Af a quarter to twelve he was all ready, but he sat with. Mb watch in his hand. He had said high twelve, and he would not move sooner. - He would even give Dakota Jaok five minutes' grace. "Time'Bup!" The marshal knew where to find hia man. They caught sight of eaoh other when afar off— too far tc* risk a shot. Dakota Jaok baoked aoroßß the square to a broken-down waggon. The marshal crossed the street tb have . the shelter of the awning-posts and telegraph poles.. Five hundred faces appeared at doors and windows, and spectators spoke to each other in whispers. | The marshal advanced to within thirty {yards and then halted- The weapons of [ both men were still in their holsters. They glared at each other for a long minute without moving a hand or uttering a word. The spectators held their breath. The one was defiant, the other determined. Would Dakota Jack take water P. Would the marshal crawfish P If not, there would bea killing. ■.'... "Jack, are you going ?" " I'll see you d— d first !" Men within ten feet of the marshal could not follow the movement as he pulled his guns. It was the same in the case of Dakota Jaok. Both left cover for the open street, and began firing.., Pop! pop! pop! Both find right and left-handed. Both advanced as they fired. „'.''_■' wjaok'shit!" "Toitfshit!" ' "That's elegant shootin' !" "That's Boniethin* to be remembered)" The firing did not last over three minutes, but fche, time 'seemed to be a quarter of an hour to the spectators. They saw .the marshal stagger to and fro, and they cheered Dakota Jack. They saw. the Bad Man lurch to the right and left, and they cheered the marshal. '..*':. "Jack's down!" "Tom's down!" "Hold on— wait!" Two last shots rang out as one. Both men were down, but they had made a dying effort, only .twenty feet apart, as 'they lay on their backs gasping, out their lives. Of the twenty-four bullets, twentytwo, had been fixed. . The hot . lead . had bored its way through shoulders, arms, bodies and legs. Blood ; had mixed with tiie dust of the street and made a hideous coloured mud. Bones had been splintered, muscles severed, arteries out. They lay there with pallied, blood-stained faces upturned to the noonday sun, eaoh hand Btill firmly clutohing a pistol, and the crowd gathered and looked down upon j them, and someone Baid; "Boyß, it was -a game fight, and agood show— let's liquor !" |