"At last I'm made posted of impendin' events. Across the wide
Caliente comes a faint but f'rocious war song. I glance over that a-
way, an' thar through the oak bresh comes Prince Hal. An' although
he's a mile off, he's p'intin' straight for this yere invader,
Hotspur. At first I thinks Prince Hal's alone, an' I'm marvellin'
whatever he reckons he's goin' to a'complish by this return. But
jest then I gets a glimmer, far to Prince Hal's r'ar, of that
reedic'lous Pistol, the milk-white steer.
"I beholds it all; Falstaff is comin'; only bein' a dark brown I
can't yet pick him out o' the bresh. Prince Hal has travelled over
to Long's Canyon an' told the giant Falstaff how Hotspur jumps into
the Caliente an' puts it all over him that a-way. Falstaff is
lumberin' over--it's a journey of miles--to put this redundant
Hotspur back on his reservation. Prince Hal, bein' warm, lively an'
plumb zealous to recover his valley, is nacherally a quarter of a
mile ahead of Falstaff.
"It's allers a question with me why this yere foolhardy Hotspur
don't stampede out for safety. But he don't; he stands thar lookin'
onusual limp, an' awaits his fate. Prince Hal don't rush up an'
mingle with Hotspur; he's playin' a system an' he don't deviate
tharfrom. lie stands off about fifty yards, callin' Hotspur names,
an' waitin' for Falstaff to arrive.
"An' thar's a by-play gets pulled off. This ranikaboo Pistol, who
couldn't fight a little bit, an' who's caperin' along ten rods in
the lead of Falstaff, gets the sudden crazy-boss notion that he'll
mete out punishment to Hotspur himse'f, an' make a reputation as a
war-eagle with his pard an' patron, Falstaff. With that, Pistol
curves his tail like a letter S, and, lowerin' his knittin'-needle
horns, comes dancin' up to Hotspur. The bluff of this yere ignoble
Pistol is too much. Hotspur r'ars loose an' charges him. This
egreegious Pistol gets crumpled up, an' Hotspur goes over him like a
baggage wagon. The shock is sech that Pistol falls over a wash-bank;
an' after swappin' end for end, lands twenty feet below with a groan
an' a splash in the Caliente. Pistol is shorely used up, an' crawls
out on the flat ground below, as disconsolate a head o' cattle as
ever tempts the echoes with his wails.
"But Hotspur has no space wherein to sing his vict'ry. Falstaff
decends upon him like a fallin' tree. With one rushin' charge, an' a
note like thunder, he simply distributes that Hotspur all over the
range. Thar's only one blow; as soon as Hotspur can round up his
fragments an' net to his hoofs, he goes sailin' down the valley, his
eyes stickin' out so's he can see his sins. As he starts, Prince
Hal, who's been hoppin' about the rim of the riot, claps his horns
to Hotspur's flyin' hocks an' keeps him goin'. But it ain't needed
none; that Falstaff actooally ruins Hotspur with the first charge.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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