Wolfville | Page 9

an' Jack
Moore, sorter talks it over quiet, an' allows it's all right.
"'This Stingin' Lizard gent,' says Enright, has been projectin' 'round
lustin' for trouble now, mebby it's six weeks. It's amazin' to me he lasts

as long as he does, an' it speaks volumes for the forbearin', law-abiding
temper of the Wolfville public. This Lizard's a mighty oppressive
person, an' a heap obnoxious; an' while I don't like a knife none myse'f
as a trail out, an' inclines to distrust a gent who does, I s'pose it's after
all a heap a matter of taste an' the way your folks brings you up. I leans
to the view, gents, that this yere corpse is constructed on the squar'.
What do you-all think, Peets?'
"'I entertains ideas sim'lar,' says Doc Peets. 'Of course I takes it this
kyard-sharp, Cherokee, aims to bury his dead. He nacherally ain't look.
in' for the camp to go 'round cleanin' up after him none.' "That's about
how it stands. Nobody finds fault with Cherokee, an' as he ups an'
plants the Stingin' Lizard's remainder the next day, makin' the deal with
a stained box, crape, an' the full regalia, it all leaves the camp with a
mighty decent impression. By first-drink time in the evenin' of the
second day, we ain't thinkin' no more about it.
"Now you-all begins to marvel where do we get to the hangin' of
Cherokee Hall? We're workin' in towards it now.
"You sees, followin' the Stingin' Lizard's jump into the misty
beyond--which it's that sudden I offers two to one them angels notes a
look of s'prise on the Stingin' Lizard's face as to how he comes to make
the trip-Cherokee goes on dealin' faro same as usual. As I says before,
he ain't no talker, nohow; now he says less than ever.
"But what strikes us as onusual is, he saddles up a pinto pony he's got
over to the corral, an' jumps off every now an' then for two an' three
days at a clatter. No one knows where he p'ints to, more'n he says he's
due over in Tucson. These yere vacations of Cherokee's is all in the
month after the Stingin' Lizard gets downed. "It's about this time, too,
the stage gets held up sech a scand'lous number of times it gives people
a tired feelin'. All by one party, too. He merely prances out in
onexpected places with a Winchester; stands up the stage in an
onconcerned way, an' then goes through everythin' an' everybody, from
mail-bags to passengers, like the grace of heaven through a
camp-meetin'. Nacheral, it all creates a heap of disgust. "'If this yere
industrious hold-up keeps up his lick,' says Texas Thompson about the

third time the stage gets rustled, `an' heads off a few more letters of
mine, all I has to say is my wife back in Laredo ain't goin' to
onderstand it none. She ain't lottin' much on me nohow, an' if the
correspondence between us gets much more fitful, she's goin' p'intin'
out for a divorce. This deal's liable to turn a split for me in my domestic
affairs.' An' that's the way we-alls feels. This stage agent is shorely in
disrepoot some in Wolfville. If he'd been shakin' up Red Dog's
letter-bags, we wouldn't have minded so much.
"I never does know who's the first to think of Cherokee Hall, but all at
once it's all over camp Talkin' it over, it's noticed mighty soon that,
come right to cases, no one knows his record, where he's been or why
he's yere. Then his stampedin' out of camp like he's been doin' for a
month is too many for us.
"'I puts no trust in them Tucson lies he tells, neither,' says Doc Peets.
'Whatever would he be shakin' up over in Tucson? His game's yere, an'
this theery that he's got to go scatterin' over thar once a week is some
gauzy.'
"'That's whatever,' says Dan Boggs, who allers trails in after Doc Peets,
an' plays the same system emphatic. An' I says myse'f, not findin' no
fault with Boggs tharfor, that this yere Peets is the finest-eddicated an'
levelest-headed sharp in Arizona.
"'Well,' says Jack Moore, who as I says before does the rope work for
the Stranglers, 'if you-alls gets it settled that this faro gent's turnin' them
tricks with the stage an' mail-bags, the sooner he's swingin' to the
windmill, the sooner we hears from our loved ones at home. What do
you say, Enright?'
"'Why,' says Enright, all thoughtful, 'I reckons it's a case. S'pose you
caper over where he feeds at the O.K. House an' bring him to us. The
signs an' signal-smokes shorely p'ints to this yere Cherokee as our meat;
but these things has to be