He Had No Better Seat To
Offer Me Than A Log, But Offered It With A Graceful
Unconsciousness That It Was Anything Less Luxurious Than An Easy
Chair.
Two valuable rifles and a Sharp's revolver hung on the
wall, and the sash and badge of a scout.
I could not help
looking at "Jim" as he stood talking to me. He goes mad with
drink at times, swears fearfully, has an ungovernable temper. He
has formerly led a desperate life, and is at times even now
undoubtedly a ruffian. There is hardly a fireside in Colorado
where fearful stories of him as an Indian fighter are not told;
mothers frighten their naughty children by telling them that
"Mountain Jim" will get them, and doubtless his faults are
glaring, but he is undoubtedly fascinating, and enjoys a
popularity or notoriety which no other person has. He offered to
be my guide to the Plains when I go away. Lyman asked me if I
should not be afraid of being murdered, but one could not be
safer than with him I have often been told.
The cold was truly awful. I had caught a chill in the morning
from putting on my clothes before they were dry, and the warmth
of the smoky den was most agreeable; but we had a fearful ride
back in the dusk, a gale nearly blowing us off our horses,
drifting snow nearly blinding us, and the mercury below zero. I
felt as if I were going to be laid up with a severe cold, but the
men suggested a trapper's remedy - a tumbler of hot water, with a
pinch of cayenne pepper in it - which proved a very rapid cure.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 249 of 274
Words from 67889 to 68172
of 74789
