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Show 100 TALES OF THE COLORADO PIONEERS. seemed to be the only fluid that would satisfy him and heal his wounded honor. " Taking in the situation, West thought best to humor him in his sanguinary desires, and after much talk said: ' Why, Dick, don't you know that this is not the way to get at the business? I'll fight you, of course; but you ought to send a friend with the challenge, then I will refer him to my friend, and let them fix it up for us.' '"Well Cap.,' said he, 'I'll be dog-goned if that ain't so. I didn't think about the ' forms.' "They joined in a little ' O-be-joyful,' to bind the bargain, when Dick departed in search of a second. " He selected Jim Dawson, who was a particular friend of West's, and who soon presented him with a challenge, properly made out. West chose George Jackson as his second, and between them they fixed up a scheme to sober Dick, a difficult matter at all times; but they concluded if he could be brought to that condition he would not care to fight any more than West did. His second found him shortly afterward fuller than the legendary goat we read about; informed him that his challenge had been accepted, and endeavored to impress upon his mind the necessity of sobering up in order to do justice to himself in the approaching combat. He succeeded in shutting him up in his room, denying him any more liquor, and spent the day preparing him for the approaching combat. " As the effects of the liquor gradually wore off, he was informed that the challenged party had the choice of weapons, time and place of meeting, and he had chosen bowie-knives. "This spited him exactly; he said bowie-knives were his favorite instrument of death. |