94 



RANCH LIFE AND THE HUNTING-TRAIL 



kansas and Missouri, went out to the plains, often drifting northward. 

 They took naturally to horse-stealing and kindred pursuits. Since I have 

 been in the northern cattle country I have known of half a dozen former 

 members of Quantrell's gang being hung or shot. 



The professional man-killers, or "bad men," may be horse-thieves or 

 highwaymen, but more often are neither one nor the other. Some of 

 them, like some of the Texan cowboys, become very expert in the use of 

 the revolver, their invariable standby ; but in the open a cool man with a 

 rifle is always an overmatch for one of them, unless at very close quarters, 

 on account of the superiority of his weapon. Some of the " bad men " are 

 quiet, good fellows, who have been driven into their career by accident. 

 One of them has perhaps at some time killed a man in self-defense ; he 

 acquires some reputation, and the neighboring bullies get to look on him 

 as a rival whom it would be an honor to slay ; so that from that time on 

 he must be ever on the watch, must learn to draw quick and shoot straight, 

 the former being even more important than the latter, and probably 

 has to take life after life in order to save his own. 



Some of these men are brave only because of their confidence in their 

 own skill and strength ; once convince them that they are overmatched 

 and they turn into abject cowards. Others have nerves of steel and will 

 face any odds, or certain death itself, without flinching a hand's breadth. 

 I was once staying in a town where a desperately plucky fight took place. 

 A noted desperado, an Arkansas man, had become involved in a quarrel 

 with two others of the same ilk, both Irishmen and partners. For several 

 days all three lurked about the saloon-infested streets of the roaring 

 little board-and-canvas " city," each trying to get " the drop," that is, 

 the first shot, the other inhabitants looking forward to the fight with 

 pleased curiosity, no one dreaming of interfering. At last one of the 

 partners got a chance at his opponent as the latter was walking into a 

 gambling hell, and broke his back near the hips ; yet the crippled, 

 mortally wounded man twisted around as he fell and shot his slayer dead. 

 Then, knowing that he had but a few moments to live, and expecting that 

 his other foe would run up on hearing the shooting, he dragged himself by 

 his arms out into the street ; immediately afterwards, as he anticipated, the 

 second partner appeared, and was killed on the spot. The victor did not 

 live twenty minutes. As in most of these encounters, all of the men who 

 were killed deserved their fate. In my own not very extensive experience 

 I can recall but one man killed in these fights whose death was regretted, 

 and he was slain by a European. Generally every one is heartily glad to 

 hear of the death of either of the contestants, and the only regret is that 

 the other survives. 



