OCR Text |
Show 174 TALES OF THE COLORADO PIONEERS. you at last.' The miner looked up from his work, recognized the individual at the top, and responded, 'yes, you have, but you will give me fair play, won't you?' To which the other replied,' yes, meet me at sunrise to-morrow, at a certain point,' designating the place. The man in the shaft said, ' I will.' Whereupon the one on the surface swung his rifle over his shoulder and walked off. " The next morning dawned bright and beautiful, and at sunrise the two met, without friends, surgeons or the usual parade of meetings ' of honor,' and with their rifles, took positions fifty paces apart, and commenced the combat. At the first fire the miner fell mortally wounded. The stranger deliberately shouldered his rifle and walked away, no one knew whither. The miners buried thedead man at the spot where be fell. "The explanation of this tragedy was subsequently learned to be this: The two men had formerly resided in Texas, and had been comrades since boyhood; had played, studied, traveled, planned, enjoyed and suffered together until their attachment had strengthened into the love and trust of brothers. One of them had a sister, who seemed to him an angel of truth and innocence. He was proud of her beauty, and introduced his friend, hoping that these two, the dearest upon earth to him, might love and be united as husband and wife. " She fell a victim to his wiles, and her betrayer fled the country. When the brother learned of the perfidy of his friend, he took a solemn vow to devote his life to avenging the wrongs of his sister. Arming himself he started in pursuit of the fugitive, and for three years tracked him from place to place, without success, until he came upon him as above narrated." |