Miss Dividends: A NovelGunter, Archibald Clavering
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Miss Dividends: A Novel
Gunter, Archibald Clavering
Latter Day Saints -- Fiction
Declining attendance, she walks back to her car, and, seated by an open
window, looks out upon the beautiful scene, gazing toward the north,
where the Black Hills fade away in the distance, and wonders, as the
setting sun shines upon her face, how this land, which seems to her so
peaceful and which might be so happy, is the home of men who regard
human life so lightly.
But even as she does so, as luck will have it, additional evidence on
the subject that is racking her brain and making her head ache, though
she will not admit it, comes to her.
Two men beside the track are in conversation. The breeze wafts their
words into the car.
One remarks: "Cap Lawrence came in from the East to-night, and I reckon
every gambler in town is hunting his hole."
"Why, are they afraid of him yet?"
"You bet! He put his mark on 'em so heavy they don't forget him. Why, I
remember one morning, three years ago, seeing Little Jimmie, the
bartender, hanging up as graceful as life to that telegraph pole, with
his natty white handkerchief tucked in his hip-pocket, and his white
sleeves, with rubber bands on 'em which held them up while he was mixing
drinks. He looked so all-fired natural that I called out: 'Give me a
whiskey cocktail, Jim.' You see, they took James from behind his bar so
quick he had no time to let down his sleeves and prepare himself for the
future."
But the girl hears no more; she has hurried to the other end of the
empty car.
Had she remained to listen, she would have also heard that Little
Jimmie, the barkeeper, was as bad a man as had lived or died in the
West, and the night before his sudden demise he had murdered and robbed
two railroad men who had just been paid off.
But not knowing this, Erma has a very stern look on her face a few
minutes after, when she sees Harry enter the car. He makes a movement as
if to approach and address her, but the young lady turns her head away
with a sudden shudder.
Noting this, the Westerner leaves the car and commences to walk about
the platform, chewing nervously the end of a cigar he has forgotten to
light. Then, curiously enough, the girl peeps after him, and stands
aghast, for there is indignation in his look as he strides about, his
athletic figure well displayed by a loose shooting coat, and he tosses
his brown locks back from his forehead, as if he were facing an enemy,
and his dark eyes are gleaming so potently that Erma gasps, "Why, he
looks like a Vigilante _now_!"
Soon the train is crowded once more, and they begin to run over the
Laramie Plains, where Ferdie excites them all by seeing a buffalo, and
would get his gun to shoot at it, did not Mr. Kruger remark: "The
critter is nigh onto three miles off, and you will throw away your lead,
sonny."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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