He never looked down,as so many hard characters do,upon a person possessing a different code of ethics.His attitude was one of broad,genial tolerance.He saw nothing out of the way in the fact that he had himself been a road-agent,a professional gambler,and a desperado at different stages of his career.On the other hand,he did not in the least hold it against any one that he had always acted within the law.At the time that I knew him he had become a man of some substance,and naturally a staunch upholder of the existing order of things.But while he never boasted of his past deeds,he never apologized for them,and evidently would have been quite as incapable of understanding that they needed an apology as he would have been incapable of being guilty of mere vulgar boastfulness.He did not often allude to his past career at all.When he did,he recited its incidents perfectly naturally and simply,as events,without any reference to or regard for their ethical significance.It was this quality which made him at times a specially pleasant companion,and always an agreeable narrator.The point of his story,or what seemed to him the point,was rarely that which struck me.It was the incidental sidelights the story threw upon his own nature and the somewhat lurid surroundings amid which he had moved.
On one occasion when we were out together we killed a bear,and after skinning it,took a bath in a lake.I noticed he had a scar on the side of his foot and asked him how he got it,to which he responded with indifference:
"Oh,that?Why,a man shootin'at me to make me dance,that was all."I expressed some curiosity in that matter,and he went on:
"Well,the way of it was this:It was when I was keeping a saloon in New Mexico,and there was a man there by the name of Fowler,and there was a reward on him of three thousand dollars----""Put on him by the State?"
"No,put on by his wife,"said my friend;"and there was this--""Hold on,"I interrupted;"put on by his wife did you say?""Yes,by his wife.Him an her had been keepin'a faro bank,you see,and they quarreled about it,so she just put a reward on him,and so--""Excuse me,"I said,"but do you mean to say that this reward was put on publicly?"to which my friend answered,with an air of gentlemanly boredom at being interrupted to gratify my thirst for irrelevant detail:
"Oh,no,not publicly.She just mentioned it to six or eight intimate personal friends.""Go on,"I responded,somewhat overcome by this instance of the primitive simplicity with which New Mexico matrimonial disputes were managed,and he continued:
"Well,two men come ridin'in to see me to borrow my guns.My guns was Colt's self-cockers.It was a new thing then,an they was the only ones in town.These come to me,and 'Simpson,'says they,'we want to borrow your guns;we are goin'to kill Fowler.'
"'Hold on for a moment,'said I,'I am willin'to lend you them guns,but I ain't goin'to know what you 'r'goin'to do with them,no sir;but of course you can have the guns.'"Here my friend's face lightened pleasantly,and he continued:
"Well,you may easily believe I felt surprised next day when Fowler come ridin'in,and,says he,'Simpson,here's your guns!'He had shot them two men!'Well,Fowler,'says I,'if I had known them men was after you,I'd never have let them have them guns nohow,'says I.That wasn't true,for I did know it,but there was no cause to tell him that."I murmured my approval of such prudence,and Simpson continued,his eyes gradually brightening with the light of agreeable reminiscence:
"Well,they up and they took Fowler before the justice of the peace.
The justice of the peace was a Turk."
"Now,Simpson,what do you mean by that?"I interrupted:
"Well,he come from Turkey,"said Simpson,and I again sank back,wondering briefly what particular variety of Mediterranean outcast had drifted down to New Mexico to be made a justice of the peace.Simpson laughed and continued:
"That Fowler was a funny fellow.The Turk,he committed Fowler,and Fowler,he riz up and knocked him down and tromped all over him and made him let him go!""That was an appeal to a higher law,"I observed.Simpson assented cheerily,and continued:
"Well,that Turk,he got nervous for fear Fowler he was goin'to kill him,and so he comes to me and offers me twenty-five dollars a day to protect him from Fowler;and I went to Fowler,and 'Fowler,'says I,'that Turk's offered me twenty-five dollars a day to protect him from you.Now,I ain't goin'to get shot for no twenty-five dollars a day,and if you are goin'to kill the Turk,just say so and go and do it;but if you ain't goin'to kill the Turk,there's no reason why Ishouldn't earn that twenty-five dollars a day!'and Fowler,says he,'I ain't goin'to touch the Turk;you just go right ahead and protect him.'"So Simpson "protected"the Turk from the imaginary danger of Fowler,for about a week,at twenty-five dollars a day.Then one evening he happened to go out and met Fowler,"and,"said he,"the moment I saw him I knowed he felt mean,for he begun to shoot at my feet,"which certainly did seem to offer presumptive evidence of meanness.Simpson continued:
"I didn't have no gun,so I just had to stand there and take it util something distracted his attention,and I went off home to get my gun and kill him,but I wanted to do it perfectly lawful;so I went up to the mayor (he was playin'poker with one of the judges),and says I to him,'Mr.Mayor,'says I,'I am goin'to shoot Fowler.And the mayor he riz out of his chair and he took me by the hand,and says he,'Mr.
Simpson,if you do I will stand by you;'and the judge,he says,'I'll go on your bond.'"Fortified by this cordial approval of the executive and judicial branches of the government,Mr.Simpson started on his quest.
