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Options-Part5_O.Henry(1862-1910)_English Literature(文学名著)-第2页

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are all very well to dot the landscape and furnish eight-dollar cotton

suitings for man, but for table-talk and fireside companions they rank



along with five-o'clock teazers. If you've got a deck of cards, or a

parcheesi outfit, or a game of authors, get 'em out, and let's get on



a mental basis. I've got to do something in an intellectual line, if

it's only to knock somebody's brains out.'



"This Henry Ogden was a peculiar kind of ranchman. He wore finger-

rings and a big gold watch and careful neckties. And his face was



calm, and his nose-spectacles was kept very shiny. I saw once, in

Muscogee, an outlaw hung for murdering six men, who was a dead ringer



for him. But I knew a preacher in Arkansas that you would have taken

to be his brother. I didn't care much for him either way; what I



wanted was some fellowship and communion with holy saints or lost

sinners--anything sheepless would do.



"'Well, Saint Clair,' says he, laying down the book he was reading, 'I

guess it must be pretty lonesome for you at first. And I don't deny



that it's monotonous for me. Are you sure you corralled your sheep so

they won't stray out ?



"'They're shut up as tight as the jury of a millionaire murderer,'

says I. 'And I'll be back with them long before they'll need their



trained nurse.'

"So Ogden digs up a deck of cards, and we play casino. After five



days and nights of my sheep-camp it was like a toot on Broadway. When

I caught big casino I felt as excited as if I had made a million in



Trinity. And when H. O. loosened up a little and told the story

about the lady in the Pullman car I laughed for five minutes.



"That showed what a comparative thing life is. A man may see so much

that he'd be bored to turn his head to look at a $3,000,000 fire or



Joe Weber or the Adriatic Sea. But let him herd sheep for a spell,

and you'll see him splitting his ribs laughing at 'Curfew Shall Not



Ring To-night,' or really enjoying himself playing cards with ladies.

"By-and-by Ogden gets out a decanter of Bourbon, and then there is a



total eclipse of sheep.

"'Do you remember reading in the papers, about a month ago,' says he,



'about a train hold-up on the M. K. & T.? The express agent was

shot through the shoulder, and about $15,000 in currency taken. And



it's said that only one man did the job.'

"'Seems to me I do,' says I. 'But such things happen so often they



don't linger long in the human Texas mind. Did they overtake,

overhaul, seize, or lay hands upon the despoiler?'



"'He escaped,' says Ogden. 'And I was just reading in a paper to-day

that the officers have tracked him down into this part of the country.



It seems the bills the robber got were all the first issue of currency

to the Second National Bank of Espinosa City. And so they've followed



the trail where they've been spent, and it leads this way.'

"Ogden pours out some more Bourbon, and shoves me the bottle.



"'I imagine,' says I, after ingurgitating another modicum of the royal

boose, 'that it wouldn't be at all a disingenuous idea for a train



robber to run down into this part of the country to hide for a spell.

A sheep-ranch, now,' says I, would be the finest kind of a place.



Who'd ever expect to find such a desperatecharacter among these song-

birds and muttons and wild flowers? And, by the way,' says I, kind of



looking H. Ogden over, 'was there any description mentioned of this

single-handed terror? Was his lineaments or height and thickness or



teeth fillings or style of habiliments set forth in print ?'

"'Why, no,' says Ogden; 'they say nobody got a good sight of him



because he wore a mask. But they know it was a train-robber called

Black Bill, because he always works alone and because he dropped a



handkerchief in the express-car that had his name on it.'

"'All right,' says I. 'I approve of Black Bill's retreat to the



sheep-ranges. I guess they won't find him.'

"'There's one thousand dollars reward for his capture,' says Ogden.



"'I don't need that kind of money,' says I, looking Mr. Sheepman

straight in the eye. 'The twelve dollars a month you pay me is



enough. I need a rest, and I can save up until I get enough to pay my

fare to Texarkana, where my widowed mother lives. If Black Bill,' I



goes on, looking significantly at Ogden, was to have come down this

way--say, a month ago--and bought a little sheep-ranch and--'



"'Stop,' says Ogden, getting out of his chair and looking pretty

vicious. 'Do you mean to insinuate--'



"'Nothing,' says I; 'no insinuations. I'm stating a hypodermical

case. I say, if Black Bill had come down here and bought a sheep-



ranch and hired me to Little-Boy-Blue 'em and treated me square and

friendly, as you've done, he'd never have anything to fear from me. A



man is a man, regardless of any complications he may have with sheep

or railroad trains. Now you know where I stand.'






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