ou shot 'way off the mark.
Billy ain't here now, and further,
He won't be here, you can bet;
Anyhow, that's what he told me
Two weeks past, when we last met.

8

"'When your folks all skipped the country
I decided I'd move, too;
Thought perhaps you'd get in trouble
And I'd try to help you through;
So I got beyond the posse,
Rode like fire upon your track,
Found your dad, and _you_ not with him,
So I turned and came right back.
Riding home along the Solomon,--
For the truth I pledge my word--
I met Billy with his horses
Three miles east of Mingo's Ford.
Stopped and shook my hand and told me
He was so far on his way
To a ranch 'way up in Utah,
Where he'd made his plans to stay.

9

"'Said he wanted to be friendly,
So the things that he had left,
If I cherished no hard feelings,
I could look on as his gift.
"If you come across Miss Nancy
You can say to her for me,
That I've got another sweetheart,
And that she is wholly free."
Billy'd never do to tie to--
He's too fickle, gal, for you--
So I just propose to offer
You a man that will stay true.
I have worked it out, Miss Nancy--
It's the problem of my life;
I have planned that you shall stay here
As my own dear little wife.'

10

"'Look here, Johnson! You're a liar,
When you say he's set me free!
When you met him there at Mingo's
He had gone to hunt for me.
Don't you dare to touch me, scoundrel!
Don't you dare to slur his name!
You're a cur--a thief--Jim Johnson!
You have jumped my sweetheart's claim.
Don't you dare to venture near me!
Or you'll wish you'd not begun.
All your schemes and double dealings,
All your hatched-up plans are done.
You start now and pack your fixin's!
Don't you leave the smallest bit!
Every filthy thing you own here,
Pack it up--you dog, and _git!_'

11

"He was standing there uncertain,
And I felt to clinch his throat;
But, instead, I shot--to scare him--
All the buttons off his coat.
Then I pumped two in the corner,
Where he'd sunk down on his knees--
Slit his ear and cut his collar,
Never listening to his pleas.
Told him if he didn't mosey
I would plant his carcass whole,
In a grave I'd dig that evening
On the eighty he had stole.
Then he promised, but I chased him
'Way across the old Saline,
And so far as I have knowledge,
He has never since been seen.

12

"When I got back here 'fore morning,
Thought of having Kelly's