The Westerners   By: Stewart Edward White (1873-1946)

THE WESTERNERS

By

Stewart Edward White

NEW YORK

GROSSET & DUNLAP

Copyright, 1900 and 1901, by

STEWART EDWARD WHITE

THE COUNTRY LIFE PRESS, GARDEN CITY, NEW YORK

CONTENTS

I. THE HALF BREED II. THE WOMAN III. THE MAN WHO STOOD "99" IV. ALFRED USES HIS SIX SHOOTER V. LAFOND DESERTS VI. THE WOMAN AND THE MAN VII. THE REINS OF POWER VIII. THE MAKING OF A HOSTILE IX. THE BROTHER OF GODS X. THE PRICE OF A CLAIM XI. THE BEGINNING OF LAFOND'S REVENGE XII. THE LEOPARD AND HIS SPOTS XIII. THE DISSOLVING VIEW XIV. INTO THE SHADOW OF THE HILLS XV. IN WHICH CHEYENNE HARRY LOSES HIS PISTOL XVI. AND GETS IT BACK AGAIN XVII. BLACK MIKE MEETS AN OLD ACQUAINTANCE AND STARTS A COLLECTION XVIII. TIRED WINGS XIX. THE BROAD WHITE ROAD XX. THE EATING OF THE APPLE XXI. LAFOND MAKES A FRIEND XXII. IN WHICH THE TENDERFEET CONDUCT A SHOOTING MATCH AND GLORIFY PETER XXIII. A FOOL FOR LUCK XXIV. BILLY STARTS IN ON HIS FIFTY THOUSAND XXV. JACK GRAHAM SPEAKS OUT XXVI. AND HAS TO GO TO WORK XXVII. PROSPERITY XXVIII. LAFOND GOES EAST XXIX. BISMARCK ANNE ARRIVES XXX. ANCESTRAL VOICES XXXI. LAFOND'S FIRST CARD XXXII. IN WHICH THERE IS SOME SHOOTING XXXIII. FUTILITY XXXIV. LOVE'S EYES UNBANDAGED XXXV. OUT OF THE PAST XXXVI. UNDER THE ETERNAL STARS XXXVII. ASHES

ILLUSTRATIONS

"SHE'S MY GIRL!" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Frontispiece

A SIOUX COUNCIL

THAT BABY CRY, "MAMA!"

"COME ACROSS, OR I'LL..."

"WATCH ME HIT THAT SQUIRREL!"

JIM PUT UP A GOOD FIGHT.

"ARE YOU STILL MAD?"

"MY LITTLE MOLLY," HE CHOKED.

I

THE HALF BREED

A tourist of to day, peering from the window of his vestibule train at the electric lit vision of Three Rivers, as it stars the banks of the Missouri like a constellation against the blackness of the night, would never recognize, in the trim little modern town, the old Three Rivers of the early seventies.

To restore the latter, he should first of all sweep the ground bare of the buildings which now adorn it, leaving, perhaps, here and there an isolated old shanty of boards far advanced toward dissolution. He would be called upon to substitute, in place of the brick stores and dwellings of to day, a motley collection of lean tos, dug outs, tents, and shacks, scattered broadcast over the virgin prairie without the slightest semblance of order. Where the Oriole furniture factory now stands, he must be prepared to see and hear a great drove of horses and oxen feeding on bottom land grass. And for the latter day citizens, whose police record is so discouraging to the ambitious chief, and so creditable to themselves, he must imagine a multitude more heterogeneous, perhaps, than could be gathered anywhere else in the world tenderfeet from the East; mountaineers from Tennessee and Kentucky, bearing their historic long pea rifles; soft voiced Virginians; keen, alert woodsmen from the North; wiry, silent trappers and scouts from the West; and here and there a straight Indian, stalking solemnly toward some one of the numerous "whiskey joints." The court house site he would find crowded with canvas wagons, noisy with the shrill calling of women and children. Where Judge Oglethorpe has recently erected his stone mansion, Frank Byers would be running a well patronized saloon. Were he to complete the picture by placing himself mentally at the exact period of our story's opening, he would find the whole town, if such it might be called, seething, turbulent, eager, and it must be confessed ready for trouble.