160 Hunting the Grisly 



and there was a reward on him of three thou- 

 sand dollars 



"Put on him by the State?" 



"No, put on by his wife," said my friend; 

 "and there was this 



"Hold on," I interrupted; "put on by his 

 wife did you say?" 



"Yes, by his wife. Him and her had been 

 keepin' a faro bank, you see, and they quar- 

 reled about it, so she just put a reward on 

 him, and so " 



"Excuse me," I said, "but do you mean to 

 s^iy that this reward was put on publicly?" to 

 which my friend answered, with an air of gen- 

 tlemanly boredom at being interrupted to 

 gratify my thirst for irrelevant detail: 



"Oh, no, not publicly. She just mentioned 

 it to six or eight intimate personal friends." 



"Go on," I responded, somewhat overcome 

 by this instance of the primitive simplicity 

 with which New Mexican matrimonial dis- 

 putes were managed, and he continued : 



"Well, two men come ridin' in to see me to 

 borrow my guns. My guns was Colt's self- 

 cockers. It was a new thing then, and they 

 was the only ones in town. These come to 

 me, and 'Simpson,' says they, 'we want to bor- 

 row your guns ; we are goin' to kill Fowler.' 



