The Long Dim TrailHooker, Forrestine C. (Forrestine Cooper)
General
The Long Dim Trail
Hooker, Forrestine C. (Forrestine Cooper)
Arizona -- Fiction; Cowboys -- Fiction; Ranch life -- Fiction; Western stories
"He died that night in the dark, and she sat and helt his hand till
sun-up, then she scraped a shallow grave with her bare hands and put him
in an' covered him over the best she could. After that she started to
hunt the trail. She walked around all day and was beginning to get
desert-crazy when some men found her. It was too late. She died in a
couple of hours, but she tol' about Hasayampa and ast if they'd bury her
alongside of him, because it wouldn't seem so lonesome. An' they done
it. So thar's a big cross over them both, with their names on it. Of
course, we all knowed Hasayampa couldn't tell the truth if he tried,
Doc, but when folks heerd about the way he died, everyone took off his
hat to Hasayampa, you bet, for Hasayampa never done dirt to nobody."
"Did they catch the man?"
"Not that any one knowed of. That's one of the things that puzzles me.
Why people what plays a square game is sometimes so out of luck. Seems
as if they must of been put down with the grain of the table runnin'
against 'em when they was started at the game, or else the Dealer
stacked the cards. But, it 'tain't so mutch to a feller's credit holdin'
a Royal Flush as it is to keep on playin' a square game to a finish when
he ain't dealt nothin' but deuces and treys."
"You're right, Limber," said Powell, who was learning to find the gold
beneath the surface.
He moved to the door, followed by Limber, and for a second they stood
looking up into the deep blue of the sky where the countless stars, like
clear-cut diamonds, trembled and blinked as though held on threads of
silver by the mighty hand of the Creator.
"Come into my room," invited Powell, "I want to talk business with you,
Limber."
The cowboy nodded, and when they were seated and the smoke of their
cigars blended, Powell explained the plan of combining the work of the
two ranges, adding as he finished; "I told Mr. Traynor that it is
entirely up to you. I don't want you there unless you really would like
to go. It would double your pay and make you range foreman of all of the
ranches owned by Mr. Traynor and myself. I will have my hands full,
getting the Sanitarium built, and we would leave the management of my
cattle business absolutely to you. How does it strike you? Don't
hesitate to speak plainly."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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