I BEEN ACCUSED OF prejudice agen the town of Red Cougar, on
account of my habit of avoiding it if I have to ride fifty miles outen
my way to keep from going through there. I denies the slander. It
ain't no more prejudiced for me to ride around Red Cougar than it is
for a lobo to keep his paw out of a jump-trap. My experiences in that
there lair of iniquity is painful to recall. I was a stranger and took
in. I was a sheep for the fleecing, and if some of the fleecers got
their fingers catched in the shears, it was their own fault. If I
shuns Red Cougar like a plague, that makes it mutual, because the
inhabitants of Red Cougar shuns me with equal enthusiasm, even to the
p'int of deserting their wagons and taking to the bresh if they happen
to meet me on the road.
I warn't intending to go there in the first place. I been punching
cows over in Utah and was heading for Bear Creek, with the fifty bucks
a draw poker game had left me outa my wages. When I seen a trail
branching offa the main road I knowed it turnt off to Red Cougar, but
it didn't make no impression on me.
But I hadn't gone far past it when I heard a hoss running, and the
next thing it busted around a bend in the road with foam flying from
the bit rings. They was a gal on it, looking back over her shoulder
down the road. Jest as she rounded the turn her hoss stumbled and went
to its knees, throwing her over its head.
I was offa Cap'n Kidd in a instant and catched her hoss before it
could run off. I helped her up, and she grabbed holt of me and
hollered: "Don't let 'em get me!"
"Who?" I said, taking off my hat with one hand and drawing a .45
with the other'n.
"A gang of desperadoes!" she panted. "They've chased me for five
miles! Oh, please don't let 'em get me!"
"They'll tech you only over my dead carcass," I assured her.
She gimme a look which made my heart turn somersets. She had black
curly hair and big innercent gray eyes, and she was the purtiest gal
I'd saw in a coon's age.
"Oh, thank you!" she panted. "I knowed you was a gent the minute I
seen you. Will you help me up onto my hoss?"
