In Cowboy Land. 421 



there by the name of Fowler, and there was a reward on 

 him of three thousand 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 quarrelled about it, so she 

 just put a reward on him, and so 



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

 this reward was put on publicly ? " to which my friend 

 answered, with an air of gentlemanly 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 disputes 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 

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



" ' Hold on for a moment,' said I, * I am willin' to lend 

 you them guns, but I ain't goin' to know what you Y goin' 

 to do with them, no sir ; but of course you can have the 

 guns. ' ' Here my friend's face lightened pleasantly, and 

 he continued : 



