Show J RECORD OF A TEXAS DESPERADO The Graves of His Victims Were Scattered From Dodgo City to Santa ITe Tho man who told tho story between the puffs of his cigar was from Texas Clay Allisons life was a tragic romance ro-mance ho began Clay Allison was a desperado Ho lived in the Red river country in tho Panhandle His trigger finger was busiest in the early eighties His record was 21 He boasted of it Twentyone dead men whose graves wore scattered from Dodge City to Santa San-ta Fe I myself saw him kill Bill Chunk a bad man who shot people just I for the fun of seeing them fall Tho two men had no cause for quarrel They were the prize killers of the same section sec-tion of the country It was a spirit of rivalry which made them swear to shoot each other on sight Their friends bet oil the result of their first chance rencounter They met one night at a crossroad inn in Now Mexico and sat down at tables opposite each other with their drawn six shooters resting on their laps beneath their napkins A plate of oysters oa the shell had just been set before Chunk when he dropped his hand in careless fashion and sent a ball at Allision beneath the table Quick asa as-a leap ol lightning Allisons gun replied I re-plied A tiny red spot between Chunks eyes marked where the bullet entered The dead man rolled over on the table and was still with his face downward I in the dish of oysters Allision was a large cattle owner He went on a drive to Kansas City once and while there fell in love married mar-ried and took the woman to his home in the west to live A child was born to thema child whose face was as beautiful beau-tiful as the taco of a cherub but whoso poor little body was horribly deformed Allison loved the child with the great love of his passionate nature In the babes twisted and misshapen form his superstitious mind read a meaning 03 significant as that of the message which the divine hand wrote on the palace of the king of old in Babylon God he thought had visited a curse upon him for his sins He quit his wild ways He drank no more No man ever after i tho birth of hiss child fell before his I a jiypistouuLHG Wag completely changed In the new life which followed he devoted himself with absorbing energy to his business interests He became rich in time Ten thousand cattle on the Texas ranges bore his brand A few years ago he was driving from his ranch in a heavy road wagon to town The front wheels jolted down into a deep rut Allison was pitched head foremost fore-most to the ground His neck was broken bro-ken The team jogged on into the distance dis-tance and left him lying there dead and alone upon the prairie Kansas City Times |