The Mountain DivideSpearman, Frank H. (Frank Hamilton)
General
The Mountain Divide
Spearman, Frank H. (Frank Hamilton)
Western stories
"Don't say 'indentify,' Bob, say 'identify,'" returned Hawk testily.
Bob Scott usually turned away a sharp word with silence, and although
he felt confident Hawk was wrong, he argued no further with him, but
stuck just the same to his own construction of the troublesome word.
"You've got the right idea, Bob, if you have got the wrong word,"
muttered Hawk. "Why didn't you think of that sooner?"
They broke camp and started promptly. About noon they overtook the
trading outfit and after some threatening forced the tricky teamster
to rig the two gamblers out in their own apparel. Having done this,
they started on a long ride for Casement's camp, reaching it again
with their prisoners, and all very dusty and fatigued, long after
dark.
The hard work voluntarily undertaken by the scout to aid the boy, as
he termed Bucks, in identifying his graceless assailants was
vindicated when, the next morning, the party with their prisoners
arrived on a special train at Point of Rocks, and Bucks immediately
pointed to Seagrue as the man who had first fired at him.
There were a few pretty hot moments on the platform when Bucks, among
a group of five camp malefactors on their way to Medicine Bend,
confronted the two men who had tried to kill him, and unhesitatingly
pointed them out. Seagrue, tall and surly, denied vehemently ever
having been at Point of Rocks and ever having seen Bucks. He declared
the whole affair was "framed up" to send him to the penitentiary. He
threatened if he were "sent up" to come back and kill Bucks if it was
twenty years later--and did, in that respect, try to keep his word.
But his threats availed him nothing, and John Rebstock who, though
still young, was a sly fox in crooked ways, contented himself with a
philosophical denial of everything alleged against him, adding only in
an injured tone that nobody would believe a fat man anyway.
It was he, however, rather than the less clever Seagrue, who had begun
to excite sympathy for what he called his luckless plight and that of
his companion, before they had left the railroad camp. Among the five
evil-doers who had been rounded-up and deported for the jail at
Medicine Bend, and now accompanied the two gamblers, Rebstock spread
every story he could think of to arouse his friends at Medicine Bend
to a demonstration in his behalf.
The very first efforts at putting civil law and order into effect
were just then being tried in the new and lawless frontier railroad
town and the contest between the two elements of decency and of
license had reached an acute pass when Rebstock and Seagrue were
thrown into jail at Medicine Bend. A case of sympathy for them was not
hard to work up among men of their own kind and threats were heard up
and down Front Street that if the railroading of two innocent men to
the penitentiary were attempted something would happen.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account