The Prairie Detective — page 23: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

14 THE PRAIRIE DETECTIVE. his old reckless laugh, and declared that he was literally afraid of nothing. He said he had been in many close places, and that many attempts had been made upon his life, but that he had been amply re- venged upon his pursuers. Upon the stock of one of his revolvers were thirty-four nicks, cut in the wood. Each of those, he declared, stood for a life he had taken. I had never liked the man very well, in spite of his many attentions, but when he told me this, my blood froze with liorror. If I had barely tolerated him before, I loathed him then. But in spite of that feeling there was a certain fascination about him which seemed to magnetize me. It was the same sensation you feel when looking at some hideous reptile. Resist the inclination as I might, I could not forbear to exclaim: ““Who are you, who thus acknowledge nearly two-score of murders?’ ‘‘He made a motion asif to answer at once. He said: “My name is—— Can you keep a secret, Esther?’ ‘I can, but I will not promise,’ was my response. “Again he was silent for a time, apparently trying to settle in his mind whether to make me his con- fidante or not. Finally he turned, and said: “*T cannot, then, tell you who I am, although I am convinced that you would not betray me. If I wish to live | must be unknown, and therefore you will not blame me for concealing my identity.’ ‘From the way in which he spoke, from his un- easy manner and extraordinary measures of self- protection, | began to more than suspect him. Soon he fell to talking of other subjects, and at length, as if actuated by one of those sudden impulses which seem to guide his whole life, he took both my hands comicboo cS: ‘ : A ) * 4 , , ‘iors | , ad fe Ghee, ties ds &