An Afternoon Miracle Page: 82
[18], 104, [46] p., 4 leaves of plates : ill., some col. ; 24 cm.View a full description of this prose (fiction).
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EVIldlB)I)Y'S MAGAZINE
hefted his sixes in their holsters as a bell)'
gives th finishing touclihes to her toilette,
caught up his \Winchstr, and dived for
the door. There he paused long enough to
caution his comrades to maintain their watch
upon tlh bridge, and then plunged into the
Ibroiling highway.
The' three relalised into resigned inertia
and plaintive comment.
" I've heard of fellows," grumbled rhon-
c(ho I lelthers, " what was wedded to dan-
ger, but if Ioh Bi ucklye ain't committed
bigamy With trouble, I'mi a ,son of a gun."
" 'eculiar)ness o(f I'oh is," inserted the
Nucces Kid, " he ain't had proper training .
IIe never learned how to git skeered. Now,
a man ought to be skeered enough when h
tackles a fuss t o hanker after reading' his
name on the list of survivors, anyway. '
" lnikley," commented ranger No. :.,
wvho was a misguided Eastern malln, ur-
d(ened with an reduction, '" scraps iin such
a solemn manner, that I have he'n led to
doubt its spontaneity. I'm not qite onilto
his system, but he lights, like Tybalt, hy
the hook of arithmetic."
" I never heard," mentioned ,ronicliho,
" about any of Dibhle's ways of mixin'
scrappin' and cipherin'."
" Triggernometry '? " suggested the
Nueces inifanlt.
" That's rather better than I hoped from
you, nodded the E~asterner, approvingly.
" The other meaning is that lIhkley never
goes into a ight without giving away weight.
lle seems to; dread taking the slightest ad-
vantage. That's luite close to foolhardi-
ness when you are dealing with horse-thievesl
anlld fence-cutters 1who would ambush you
any night, and shot vou in the back if they
could. lncklev's too full of sand. He'll
play Illratius and hold thell bridge 11'once to,
ofteni sl dll a :y.
" I'm on there," drawled the Kid; " I
mind that bridge gang in the reader. Ale,
1 go instructed for the other chap-S]uri-
ous Somellody the oi e that fought andl
other date."
" Anyway." sunned up lroncho, " Ioh's
about the g ultesllt man I ever see along the
Rio lh'avo. treat Sam Hlouston! If she
gets :any hotter she'll sizzle,! " ' ' cliho
whacked at a scorpion with his four-p',ound
Stetson felt, and the three watchers ri-
lapsed into comlfortless silence.
low well olb 1huckley had kept his secret,since these men, for two years his side cnm-n
rades in countless Iholrder raids and danger,
thus spake oA him, not knowing that he was
the most arrant physical coward in all that
Ilio BIravo country! Neither his friends nor
his enemies had suspected him of aught else
than the finest courage. It was purely a
physical cowardice, and only by an extreme,
grim effort of will had he forced his craven
Iody to do the bravest dleeds. Scourging
himself always, as a monk whips his beset-
ting sin, lu ckley threw himself with aplpar-
ent recklessn's into every danger, with the
hope of some day riddlling himself of the de-
splised alli'tion. Ihlt each successive test
brought no relief, and the ranger's face,
by nature adapted to eCheerfulness and good
huinor, Ibecame set to the guise of gloonly
inelancholy. 'Thus, while the frontier ad-
mired his deeds, and his prowess was cele-
brated in print and by word of mouth in
many camp-ilres in the valley of the Bravo,
his heart was sick within him. )nly himn-
sellf knew of the Ihorrible tightening of the
chest, the dry mouth, the weakening of the
spine, the agony of the strung nerves
the never-failing symptoms of his shameful
malady.
(le mele boy iin his comlpanlly wias wonti
to enter a fray with a leg perched iliplpantly
about the horn of his saddle, a cigarette
hanging from his lips, which emitted sklle
and original slogans of clever invention.
lIunkley would have given a year's pay t have
attained that devil-may-care method. (nc,
the debonair youth said to him: " Ituck.
you go into a scrap like it w as a funeral.
Not," hle added, with a complimentary wave
of his tin cup, " but what it generally is."
Iu ckhle's conscience was of the New
Enlgland order w ith Western adjustmei ts
and he continued to get his rebellions body
into as many difficulties as possible; where-
fore, n that sultry afternoon he chose to
hdive his own protesti ng limnls to invstiga-
tion of that sudden alarm that had startled
the peace and dignity of the State.
Two sqluare''s down the street stood the
Top Notch saloon. Ilerc Iluckl1y came
upon signs oi' recent upheaval. A few
curious spectators pressed about its front
entrance, irindliig beneathh their heels the
fragments of a ipliate-glass window w. In-
sid, Iluckh Xound Iu l)ais n uttDarl ig-
noring a bullet wound in his shoulder, hill
lie feeliniily Xwept at having to explain wih
he failed to drop the " blamed masqlue-C I-I
eP~Elk~9la9ss~i~sz~ I I--lsPli~
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Henry, O., 1862-1910. An Afternoon Miracle, prose (fiction), July 1902; New York. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth139426/m1/3/: accessed May 1, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Austin History Center, Austin Public Library.