Eatin Crow; and The Best Man In Garotte | Page 2

was felt that the stranger had bluffed for all he was worth,
and that Garotte had come out "at the little end of the horn."
A day or two later Charley Muirhead, walking about the camp, came
upon Dave Crocker's claim, and offered to buy half of it and work as a

partner, but the other would not sell; "the claim was worth nothin'; not
good enough for two, anyhow;" and there the matter would have ended,
had not the young man proposed to work for a spell just to keep his
hand in. By noon Crocker was won; nobody could resist Charley's hard
work and laughing high spirits. Shortly afterwards the older man
proposed to knock off; a day's work, he reckoned, had been done, and
evidently considering it impossible to accept a stranger's labour without
acknowledgment, he pressed Charley to come up to his shanty and eat
The simple meal was soon despatched, and Crocker, feeling the
obvious deficiencies of his larder, produced a bottle of Bourbon, and
the two began to drink. Glass succeeded glass, and at length Crocker's
reserve seemed to thaw; his manner became almost easy, and he spoke
half frankly.
"I guess you're strong," he remarked. "You threw Bent out of the saloon
the other night like as if he was nothin'; strength's good, but 'tain't
everythin'. I mean," he added, in answer to the other's questioning look,
"Samson wouldn't have a show with a man quick on the draw who
meant bizness. Bent didn't pan out worth a cent, and the boys didn't like
him, but--them things don't happen often." So in his own way he tried
to warn the man to whom he had taken a liking.
Charley felt that a warning was intended, for he replied decisively: "It
don't matter. I guess he wanted to jump me, and I won't be jumped, not
if Samson wanted to, and all the revolvers in Garotte were on me."
"Wall," Crocker went on quietly, but with a certain curiosity in his eyes,
"that's all right, but I reckon you were mistaken. Bent didn't want to
rush ye; 'twas only his cussed way, and he'd had mighty bad luck. You
might hev waited to see if he meant anythin', mightn't ye?" And he
looked his listener in the face as he spoke.
"That's it," Charley replied, after a long pause, "that's just it. I couldn't
wait, d'ye see!" and then continued hurriedly, as if driven to relieve
himself by a full confession: "Maybe you don't sabe. It's plain enough,
though I'd have to begin far back to make you understand. But I don't
mind if you want to hear. I was raised in the East, in Rhode Island, and
I guess I was liked by everybody. I never had trouble with any one, and

I was a sort of favourite.... I fell in love with a girl, and as I hadn't much
money, I came West to make some, as quick as I knew how. The first
place I struck was Laramie--you don't know it? 'Twas a hard place;
cowboys, liquor saloons, cursin' and swearin', poker and shootin' nearly
every night At the beginning I seemed to get along all right, and I liked
the boys, and thought they liked me. One night a little Irishman was
rough on me; first of all I didn't notice, thought he meant nothin', and
then, all at once, I saw he meant it--and more.
"Well, I got a kind of scare--I don't know why--and I took what he said
and did nothin'. Next day the boys sort of held off from me, didn't talk;
thought me no account, I guess, and that little Irishman just rode me
round the place with spurs on. I never kicked once. I thought I'd get the
money--I had done well with the stock I had bought--and go back East
and marry, and no one would be any the wiser. But the Irishman kept
right on, and first one and then another of the boys went for me, and I
took it all. I just," and here his voice rose, and his manner became
feverishly excited, "I just ate crow right along for months--and tried to
look as if 'twas quail.
"One day I got a letter from home. She wanted me to hurry up and
come back. She thought a lot of me, I could see; more than ever,
because I had got along--I had written and told her my best news. And
then, what had been hard grew impossible right off. I made up my mind
to sell the stock and strike for new diggings. I couldn't stand it any
longer--not after her letter. I sold out and cleared.... I ought to hev
stayed in Laramie, p'r'aps, and gone for the Irishman, but