We called him Colonel because he was so
straight in the back, and walked as if he were on parade. When this
young English tenderfoot came out, he and the Colonel got to be as
thick as thieves, and the Colonel won a good deal of money from him at
cards, but that didn't make any difference in their friendship. The
Colonel most always won when he played cards, and perhaps that's what
started the talk about why he left the British army. He was the
luckiest beggar I ever knew in that line of business. We all met in
the rush to the new goldfields, which didn't pan out worth a cent, and
one after another of the fellows quit and went somewhere else. But
Wyoming Ed, he held on, even after Colonel Jim wanted to quit. As long
as there were plenty of fellows there, Colonel Jim never lacked money,
although he didn't dig it out of the ground, but when the population
thinned down to only a few of us, then we all struck hard times. Now,
I knew Colonel Jim was going to hold up a train. He asked me if I
would join him, and I said I would if there wasn't too many in the
gang. I'd been into that business afore, and I knew there was no
greater danger than to have a whole mob of fellows. Three men can hold
up a train better than three dozen.
Pages:
303
304
305
306
307
308
309
310
311
312
313
314
315
316
317
318
319
320
321
322
323
324
325
326
327