Tales from the X-bar Horse Camp: The Blue-Roan "Outlaw" and Other StoriesBarnes, Will C. (Will Croft)
General
Tales from the X-bar Horse Camp: The Blue-Roan "Outlaw" and Other Stories
Barnes, Will C. (Will Croft)
Horses -- Fiction; Western stories
"The last time the outfit shipped steers over at the railroad," he said
slowly, "the kid he tanked up pretty consid'able till he's a feeling his
oats, an' imaginin' hisself a reg'lar wild man from Borneo, and
everything leading up to his gittin' into trouble before he was many
hours older. Comes trotting down the sidewalk old man Kates, the Justice
of the Peace who, on account of his gittin' the fees in all cases
brought up before him, was allers on the lookout for biz. Also he done
set into a poker game the night before and lose his whole pile, which
didn't tend to make him view this here world through no very rosy specs.
The kid comes swaggering along and the two meets up jist in front of the
'Bucket of Blood' saloon. You know Kates he allers wears a plug hat, one
of them there old timers of the vintage of '73 or thereabouts, an' the
kid he bein' a comparative stranger in these parts, and not knowin' who
the judge was nor havin' seen any such headgear for some time, he ses to
hisself, 'Right here's where I gits action on that _sombrero grande_,'
and he manages to bump into the judge in such a way as to knock off the
tile, and before it hits the ground the kid was filling it so full of
holes that it looked like some black colander.
"Every one came pouring out of the saloon and nearby stores to see what
was up, and the judge he takes advantage of the kid's having to stop and
reload his six pistol, to relieve hisself of some of the most expressive
and profane language ever heard in the burg before or since, windin' up
by informin' the gent from ole Missou that he was goin' straight to his
office and swear out a warrant for him and send him down to Yuma by the
next train.
"When the boys tells the kid who he's been tamperin' with he gits onto
his hoss and tears outa town like hell a-beatin' tanbark, he havin' no
particular likin' for court proceedin's, owing to several little
happenin's in that line down on the Pecos in Texas. About a week later
the sheriff he gits a tip that the kid's probably hangin' out at Deafy
Morris's sheep camp up on Wild Cat, so he saunters up that a-way and
nabs the young gent as he's a helpin' Deafy fix up his shearin' pens.
Sheriff he sort of throws a skeer into the kid, tellin' him Kates is
liable to send him up for ten years for assaultin' the honor and dignity
of a J. P., but the kid's mighty foxy and also plumb sober by that time,
and he tells the sheriff he's willing to go back to town and take his
medicine.
"Next morning Deafy he ses as how he's a-goin' down to town, and the
sheriff, havin' got track of somebody else he's a wantin' up on the
mountain, and believin' the kid's story about bein' willing to go to
town, he deputizes Deafy to take him in and deliver him at the
'Hoosgow.'[D]
[D] Jusgado--The prisoner's dock in a Spanish criminal court.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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