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Show The Hiding of Black Bill By O. Henry Copyrlpht. l;. by lKuhledny. Tare A o.: published by special arrangement with the Wheeler Hyndieate, inc. A lank, strong faced man with a Wellington beak and small, fiery eyes tempered by flaxen lashes, sat n the station platform at Los 1'inos swinging hta Icks to and. fro. At his tide sat another roan, fat, melancholy, and seedy, who seemed tn )e hta friend. They had the appearance of men to whom life had appeared an a reversible coal iieumy on wtli sides. "Ain't seen you in about four yenrs. Ham," said the seedy man. "Which way you lieen traveling?" 'Texas.' said tjie red faced man. "It was too cold in Alaska for rtie. And I found it warm in Texas. I'll tell you about one hot spU 1 went through there. - ' "Ore mnrnlnc I steps off the International Inter-national at a water tank and lets it Ko on without me. Tim a ranch country, and fuller of spitehouses than New York t'lty. Only out there they build em twenty miles away so you can't smell what they've Ifot for din-ner. din-ner. itisiwd of running Uo up lY inches from their neighbor's windows. "There wasn't any roads in sight, so I footed It 'cross country. The (crass wai shoetnp deep, and the menquite timber lMked just like a peach orchard. or-chard. It was so much like a gentleman' gentle-man' private estate that every minute min-ute you expected a kennelful of bull-docs bull-docs to run out and bite you. Hut I must have walked twenty miles before I came in siyht of a ranchhnu.se. It was a little one, about as big as an elevate railroad station. "There was a little man in a white shirt and brown overalls and a pink handkerchief around his neck rolling cigarettes under a tree in front of the door. " 'Greetings. says I. 'Any refreshment, refresh-ment, welcome, emoluments or even work for a comparative siranger?' 'Oh, come in,' says he. in a refined tone. 'Hit down on that stool, please. I didn't hear your horse cr.mlnK.' " 'He Isn't near enough yet, nays I. '! walked. I don't want to be a burden, but I wo ruler If you Imve three or four Rations of walr -handy. muttons from the corral to about two miles out aial let 'em graze on a HtUe hillside on the prairie. He gives me a lot of instructions about hot letting bunches of 'them stray off from the herd, and driving 'em down to a water ' hole to drink at noon. " 'I'll bring out your tent and camp- : lng outfit and rations in the buckboard before ntght,' says he. "Fine aays I. 'And don't forget the rations. Nor (he camping j)utiit1 And br sure to bring the tent. Your name's Zolllcoffer, ain't ItV " 'My name,' says he, 'is Henry Og-den. Og-den. "A1 right. Mr. Ogden. aays I. 'Mine la Mr. I'erciVMl Saint Clair.' "I herded sheep for five days; on the Kancho hiquito; and ihea 4h wool entered my soul. That getting net to nature certainly got next to me. 1 was lonesomT than Crusoe's gnaV I've seen a lot of persona more entertain-ing entertain-ing as companion than those sheep were. I'd drive m to the corral and pen' em every evening, and then cook my corn hreadanjtimt ton and coffee. "arm ite-down in a tent the size of a tahleoloth, and listen to the coyotes and whip-poor-wills singing around the camp. "The fifth evening, after I had corralled cor-ralled my costly but uncongenial muttons, mut-tons, I walked over to the ranch-house ranch-house and stepped In the door. " 'Mr. Ogden,' says I, 'you and me have got to pet sociable. Sheep are all very well to dot the landscape land-scape and furnish eight-dollar cotton suitings for man, but for table talk nd fireside companions compan-ions they rank along with 5 o'clock teasers. If you've got a deck of cards or a p.ircheesi outfit, or a game of authors, au-thors, get 'em out, and let's get on a mental basis. I've got to do something (n an Intellectual line, if it's only to knock somebody's brains out. "This Henry Ogden v.as a peculiar kind of ranchman. He wore finger rinus and a big gold watch and careful neckties. And his face was calm and hta nose spectacles was kept yery whtny. I saw once. In Muscogee, an outlaw hung for murdering six men. "He escaped,' says Ogden. 'And I was Just reading in a paper today 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 Ksplnosa City. And1 so they've followed the trail where they've been spent, and It leads this irsy "Ogden pours out some mora Bourbon Bour-bon and ahoves me the bottle. ! Imagine,' says I, after Ingurgitating Ingurgi-tating another modicum of the royal booze, 'that it wouldn't be at all a disingenuous dis-ingenuous Idea for train robber to run down into this part of the country to hide or a spell. A sheep ranch now,' says I, 'would be the finest kind plee. W ho'd ever expect to find such t desperate character among these songbirds and muttons and wild flowers? And, by the way saye I, kind of looking H. Ogden over, was there any description mention of this singlehanded terror? Was his lineaments linea-ments or height and thickness or teeth IfijHnps or style nf hahilimen'a set fnrth I in print?' "'Why, no,' says dn; they say 'nobody got a good sight of him because be-cause he wore a mask. But they know it was a train robber called Black Hill, because he always works alone and because he dropped a handkerchief In the express car that had his name on it. "AI right, aavs I. 'I approve of HIack Bill's retreat to the sheep ranges. I guess they won't find him.' " 'There's one thousand dollars re- ward 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 la enough. I need i a rest, and I can save up until I get! enough to pay my fare to Texarkana, where my widowed mother Uvea If HIack Bin,' I goes on, looking significantly sig-nificantly at Ogden, was to have come down this way say. a month aco and bought a little sheep ranch, and ' "'Stop,' says Ogrien, getting out of his chair and looking pretty vicious. 'Do von mean to insinuate -' |