Fred Fearnot's New Ranch Page 4

second man.

  "Well, that calls for ten thousand from me," replied Terry, and again hewaited for a good shot.

  Finally another gull came flying over, about twice as high as the firsttwo.

  Terry was going to wait for another chance, when the bettor angrilyexclaimed that he must want a bird to alight on the muzzle of hisrevolver.

  "Why, surely you don't expect to have me shoot at a bird that is reallyout of range, do you?"

  "No, but that wasn't out of range."

  "My friend, you don't know anything about distance on either land orwater. That gull is at least a hundred yards above us," and nearly everyman on the deck agreed with Terry, but the bettor became rathersarcastic and asked if he expected the bird to knock his hat off withone of its wings.

  "Here comes another one," sung out somebody, and, looking up, they sawanother gull about the same height from the deck. The bettor remarked:

  "Oh, he's too high."

  Everybody recognized the sneer in his tone. Terry, however, raised hisrevolver and fired, and the gull came fluttering, down with one of itswings actually cut off.

  The bettor's friends at once began sympathizing with him, but he lookedat Terry and asked if he considered that a good shot.

  "Yes, I consider that pretty good," said Terry. "I brought him down, andthe bet was that I couldn't hit him. I consider it a good shot becausehe was up so high that he could scarcely have been brought down evenwith a shotgun."

  Neither side had put up any money in that last bet, but the gamblerinsisted that it wasn't a fair shot, and that he thought Terry ought tomake another trial.

  "No, sir," said Terry, "not for ten thousand dollars. I never play witha man of your stripe."

  "Oh, you don't like my stripe, eh?"

  "No, I don't. All marksmen will agree that I brought the bird downfairly. I didn't agree to shoot his head off as I did the first one, butsimply to bring him down. Now, if you will take the vote of thepassengers and they don't agree with me ten to one it is no bet."

  The gambler tried to argue about it rather than take the vote, but Terrywalked away and refused to talk with him. He was a big six-footer,weighing pretty nearly two hundred pounds.

  When Terry turned his back on him and refused to talk with him he placedhis hand on Terry's shoulder and turned him square around so as to facehim telling him that if he meant to insult him he would throw himoverboard.

  Quick as a flash Terry said:

  "To be frank with you, sir, I do mean to insult you. I denounce you as adishonorable man, who won't play fair if it costs you a few hundreddollars."

  With that the man aimed a blow at Terry's face with his big fist, butTerry easily parried it and gave him three or four blows in rapidsuccession on his chest in return, causing him to stagger back againstanother man, who kindly held him up.

  "That's right," said Terry. "Hold him up," and in the next few secondsTerry put in three or four more blows on his solar plexus, and down hesank on the deck scarcely able to breathe.

  Some friends of the man took him up and carried him into the mainsaloon, where others assisted him to his cabin. The captain heard of thetrouble and came out on the deck to make inquiries as to whom was toblame.

  He soon got the straight story of it, and at once went to the fellow'scabin and told him that if he made any more trouble on board his ship hewould have him put in irons until they reached the end of the voyage.

  Quite a number of gentlemen then asked Fearnot if his friend was aprofessional fighter.

  "No," Fred replied. "He is a Wall Street broker, and is also my partnerin a ranch down in Texas."

  Both the Elon girls expressed their amazement at his fighting qualities.

  "Oh, that's nothing," said Evelyn. "He hasn't been whipped since he wasfifteen years old. I knew that that big fellow would be severelypunished if he struck brother. Now, if he had struck Mr. Fearnot, hewould have fared even worse; for Fred is probably one of the strongestmen of his size in the United States, so far as physical abilities areconcerned."

  Of course, there was no more shooting that day. The ship's surgeon saidthat the man who had tackled Olcott would not be able to appear on deckthat day.

  That evening, as Evelyn and the elder Elon girl were standing out on theforward deck, gazing at the stars, Terry came up and joined them.

  "Mr. Olcott," said the New Orleans beauty, "you are just the kind of aman that I have been looking for for three or four years. Please tell mehow I can induce you to come courting."

  "Too late," laughed Terry, "I'm already mortgaged."

  "Oh, my! Just my luck."

  "Don't despair," laughed Terry. "You have perhaps heard the old sayingthat there are just as many fish in the sea as were ever caught."

  "Oh, yes. There are plenty of good men; but no more like you. I don'tbelieve in fighting, but when I marry I want my husband to be able towhip any other man."

  "All right," he laughed, "if you want me to lick a man for your husbandjust to please you I will do it if you will send for me."

  "Oh, that wouldn't do. If my husband had to have another man to do hisfighting for him, I would soon get so disgusted that I would sue for adivorce."

  "Well, that shows that every man ought to learn how to defend himself.If you ever fall in love with a fellow and he wants you to marry him,insist upon his taking boxing lessons. But let me tell you the majorityof boxing men are generally rough fighters, who like to get into troublejust to show their skill as pugilists. Avoid all such."

  "Say, Olcott," a passenger asked Terry, "are you going to let Connollyeuchre you out of the hundred dollars you won?"

  "Oh, if he wants to keep it in the face of the passengers on board whoheard the bet, he is welcome to it as far as I am concerned. He is nogentleman, and as such I dismiss him from my thoughts altogether. I'vebeen up against such men before. It's a debt of honor, and can't becollected by law, and dishonorable men never pay such debts."

  The big fellow remained in his cabin to the end of the voyage, notcaring to come out where he would be likely to face Terry or some of hisfriends, who thought he was acting disgracefully. The fact is, he didn'thave the half of one hundred dollars with him.

  During the remainder of the voyage Fred, Terry and Evelyn, with the twoElon sisters, had splendid concerts every evening in the main saloon, tothe great enjoyment of the other passengers.

  The captain said that he had never heard such music, even when he hadhad an opera troupe on board and the New Orleans ladies requested allthree of them to visit them at their residence.

  They thanked them for their invitation, of course, but, stated that theywould not spend more than twenty-four hours in the city, as they wereanxious to reach Texas; and that they would be very busy all the rest ofthe season looking after their ranch.

  Some of the ladies did not believe it possible that such refined youngmen could be ranchmen, so when the ship entered the mouth of the riverall the passengers crowded out on the deck to view the scenery as theypassed up the great "Father of Waters."

  Fred and Terry had fished and hunted down in the country, and theyexplained to Evelyn all about the mode of life in the lagoon region.

  Evelyn had fallen in love with the two Elon sisters, and their fatherbecame such an admirer of Fred and Terry that he insisted that theyshould not go to any hotel, but during the twenty-four hours that theyspent in the city they should be his guests; so when the steamer landedat the wharf in New Orleans, he divided the party so that his wife andone of his daughters should drive home in the family carriage withEvelyn and Terry, while he and Fred and his other daughter should remainon board the steamer until the carriage returned for them.

  When they reached his residence they found that it was one of the finestand most beautiful homes in the city, and that everything about it toldof great wealth.

  The next day Fred and Terry accompanied Mr. Elon downtown to visitcertain friends, and the Creole gentleman soon learned that his guestshad many other friends there, too.


  But for the fact that they were in a hurry to reach Crabtree, they wouldhave remained in the city as their guests for at least a week.

  As it was, they spent another day there, and had a royal good time.

  Then they took leave of their newfound friends, boarded the train forTexas, and were soon whirling westward. It was a long ride from theCrescent City to Crabtree, for that place was way down on the westernside of the State, and it was late in the night when they reached there;in fact, long past midnight.

  Fred had wired to the clerk of the hotel for him to reserve comfortablequarters for them, and when he arrived he found that the best rooms inthe house had been assigned to them.

  When they appeared in the breakfast room the next morning at