Part 4
One night, being away from a ranch some one went into my bedroom and took the cash box (only $225 and $50 was mine and $15 A. C. J's). There were two men playing chess in the next room who never went to see what was going on though all the dogs were wild the men say, and the men's quarters are some distance away. We found the broken box on the tennis court, house table, all the money, but $19 church money in an envelope, gone of course. Never knew who did it. Another time, at a little ranch I had five miles from town, I used to walk out sometimes at night. Some one broke in one night as I found the door open but nothing gone. So next Sunday I left everything just the same and came out after dark but earlier and lay down with my gun just opposite the door, at twelve whoever it was came (there was no house near) and I lay trying to hear what they said but could not. They came to the door and then that little fiend Pincher (my fox terrier) turned up from some where and "raised Cain"; they left and I followed a little way; it was a black night; struck one that searching for gentlemen one had not been introduced to, able to see nothing ahead and with the light from the open door in one's rear, was not correct; so I went to bed. Next morning found where they had tied their horses in the willows down by the creek. Mexicans from the mountains probably. Have not had many robbery games. Father went down once long ago with a sawed off shotgun and I went to open the door. I asked him after "what he thought about?" and he said that he thought he should spoil a new carpet.
Another time still further back, when so small that I was sleeping in his room, I woke him to see the shadow of a ladder on the blind in London. There were burglars, but in the next house. He caught one and let him go and the grateful ruffian sent him a paper of written rules as to how to make his house safe.
BRIEF AUTHORITY.
Once upon a time a man, call him P.o1, was Marshal at a big picnic and cavorted around in a gorgeous scarf, riding an ancient but fiery untamed Mexican bronco, blanco I mean, which had lots of action, particularly forward. This man had been yarning with another, call him P.o2, who had also been in the golden South Americas and who, being in that frivolous state of mind, often found in travelers, insisted on climbing up behind P.o1 whenever he got a chance, and inciting the blanco till the action became worse than ever, and the three nearly got seasick. They did not though, but feasted sumptiously on part of a whole bullock barbecued, which was so good that they wished they had known him when alive; might have been better men. Picnic was a success but P.o2 was not satisfied with one day, and carried on till a couple of weeks later P.o1 got a message to come to the St. C. hotel. P.o2 had got D.T.'s and was amusing himself trying to get out of a three-story window. The St. C. people sent for P.o1 who took the maniac away and kept him in his bedroom for four abandoned nights. P.o2 was big and wiry and strong withal, and in the lengua del pais it was "no circus". P.o2 got better and two years after P.o1 had a telegram from him saying their ship went down in the Atlantic and took his twenty thousand draft with her, and he was busted. Now he is in England with a title and estate and P.o1 has neither, and this is the reward of virtue--but P.o1 was a Marshal once--and
"The world goes up, and the world goes down, And the sunshine follows the rain; And yesterday's sneer and yesterday's frown never come over again."
"La vie est vaine: Un peu d'amour, Un peu de haine ... Et puis--bon-jour!
La vie est brève: Un peu d'espoir, Un peu de rève ... Et puis--bonsoir." ...
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Transcriber's Notes
Repositioned illustrations and silently corrected minor punctuation errors. Retained original spelling except for the following changes:
Page 21: Tencriffe may be a typo for Teneriffe (now Tenerife). (Orig: Eleven days in the Bay of Biscay off Tencriffe.)
Page 27: Changed "quanaco" to "guanaco." (Orig: everything is mixed up with the quanaco in the dark)
Page 61: Changed "villians" to "villains." (Orig: They were very free and easy villians)
Page 90: Changed "prettyly" to "prettily." (Orig: very prettyly built to harmonize with the scenery.)
Page 93: Changed "shruberry" to "shrubbery." (Orig: all garden and shruberry to a creek)
Page 105: Changed "mim" to "him." (Orig: yarning with another, call mim P.o2,)
Page 106: English Translation: "Life is in vain: A little love, A little bit of hatred ... And then--good-day!
Life is short: A little hope, A little dream ... And then goodnight." ...