Wild Bills Last Trail | Page 3

politeness, tendered a cigarette
to the other.
The man with auburn hair looked surprised, and his fierce, wild face
softened a little, as he said:
"Thank you, no. I drink sometimes, like a fish, but I don't smoke.
Tobacco shakes the nerves, they say, and I want my nerves steady.
"Strong drink will shake them more, I've heard," said the traveler, in his
low, musical voice. "But you seem to have a steady hand though you
take brandy as if used to it."
"My hand is steady, stranger." was the reply. "There is not a man on the
Rio Grande border, where I came from, that can strike a center at
twenty paces with a revolver as often as I. And with a rifle at one
hundred yards I can most generally drop a deer with a ball between his
eyes, if he is looking at me, or take a wild turkey's head without hurting
his body."
"Then, you are from Texas?"
"Yes, sir. And you?"

"From the East, sir. I have traveled in the South--all over, in fact--but
my home is in the old Empire State.
"If it isn't impudent, which way are you bound now?"
"I haven't quite decided. I may go to the Black Hills--may remain
around here awhile--it seems to be rather a pleasant place."
"Yes, for them that like it. I'm off for the Black Hills, myself."
"Ah! with a company?"
"Not much! But there's a company going. I'm one of them that don't
care much for company, and can take better care of myself alone than
with a crowd about me."
"So! Well, it is a good thing to be independent. Do you know the party
that is going?"
"Some of 'em, by sight. The captain is Sam Chichester, and he has
California Joe, Cap'n Jack, and about twenty more in his party. And
Wild Bill has just come on the train, and I heard him say he was going
with the crowd."
"Wild Bill!" cried the stranger, flushing up. "Did you say he was
going?"
"Yes."
"Then I'd like to go, too--but I'd like to go with another party, either
just before or behind that party. Do you know Wild Bill?"
"Know him! Who does not? Hasn't he killed more men than any other
white man in the States and Territories--I'll not say how, but is he not a
hyena, sopped in blood?"
"You do not like him?"
"Who says I don't?"

"You do! Your eyes flash hate while you speak of him."
"Do they? Well, maybe I don't like him as well as I do a glass of
brandy--maybe I have lost some one I loved by his hand. It isn't at all
unlikely."
The traveler sighed, and with an anxious look, said:
"You don't bear him any grudge, do you? You wouldn't harm him?"
A strange look passes like a flash over the face of the other: he seemed
to read the thoughts or wishes of the traveler in a glance.
"Oh, no," he said, with assumed carelessness. "Accidents will happen
in the best families. It's not in me to bear a grudge, because Bill may
have wiped out fifteen or twenty Texans, while they were foolin'
around in his way. As to harm--he's too ready with his six-shooter, old
Truth-Teller, he calls it, to stand in much danger. I'm quick, but he is
quicker. You take a good deal of interest in him? Do you know him?"
"Yes; that is, I know him by sight. He is thought a great deal of by an
intimate friend of mine, and that is why I feel an interest in him."
"And that friend is a woman?"
"Why do you think so?"
"It is a fancy of mine."
"Well, I will not contradict you. For her sake I would hate to see any
evil befall him."
There was a cynical smile on the face of the young man with auburn
hair.
"If a woman loved him, she ought, not to leave him, for his life is
mighty uncertain," said the latter. "I heard him say to Captain
Chichester, not half an hour ago, that he didn't believe he would live
long, and such a man as he is sure to die with his boots on!"

"Did he say that?" asked the traveler.
"Yes; and he seemed to feel it, too. He had to do as I do, fire up with
something strong to get life into his veins."
"Poor fellow! He had better have staid East when he was there, away
from this wild and lawless section."
"Stranger, there mayn't be much law out this way, but justice isn't
always blind out here. If you stay long enough, you may learn that."
"Very likely; but you spoke of going to those Black Hills."
"Yes, I'm going."