ON THE FRINGE 335 



prairie-dogs through the head at 20 paces from the 

 buggy. 



Why he carried the weapon both illustrates a 

 character and adorns a tale. When he first took the 

 management of the X.I.T. outfit, a certain amount 

 of cattle-stealing, to use plain language, prevailed. 

 The new manager, however, in cowboy parlance, ' was 

 as straight as they make 'em, and clear grit right 

 through.' So he proceeded to weed out the ' cattle- 

 rustlers,' whose characters he was not long in dis- 

 covering, from among the X.I.T. cowboy gang. He 

 was determined from the very start that the cattle 

 business he was responsible for should be run on 

 straight lines. 



The natural result was the pronounced hostility 

 of the hands who were dismissed. Two of these 

 men Jim and Jess Graham, known as the Graham 

 Boys were western desperadoes of a pronounced 

 type. One fine day they paid a visit to the ranch 

 headquarters in the small town of Channing with 

 the intention of cleaning out the X.I.T. office. 

 Fortunately, Boyce was away, but the book-keeper 

 barely escaped with his life, as a bullet-hole through 

 the desk at which he sat subsequently testified. The 

 Sheriff and his posse promptly turned out, and ran 

 the Graham boys to earth in an empty house just 

 outside Channing, where a shooting scrimmage took 

 place. The Sheriff was shot in the leg ; Jess Graham 

 was killed, and his brother Jim obtained free living 

 for two years in one of Uncle Sam's penitentiaries. 



All this happened about two years prior to my 

 visit in 1887, and rumour had it that the vengeful 

 Jim Graham, then about to be restored to freedom, 

 was shortly expected in Channing to ' shoot up ' the 



