Page:On the border with Crook - Bourke - 1892.djvu/102

 Unfortunately, if one acquire the reputation of being "a bad man" on the frontier, it will stick to him for a generation after he has sown his wild oats, and is trying to bring about a rotation of crops.

Duffield was killed at Tombstone ten years since, not far from the Contention Mine, by a young man named Holmes, who had taken up a claim in which Duffield asserted an interest. The moment he saw Duffield approaching he levelled a shot-gun upon him, and warned him not to move a foot, and upon Duffield's still advancing a few paces he filled him full of buckshot, and the coroner's jury, without leaving their seats, returned a verdict of justifiable homicide, because the old, old Duffield, who was "on the shoot," was still remembered, and the new man, who had turned over a new leaf and was trying to lead a new life, was still a stranger in the land.

Peace to his ashes!

There were military as well as non-military men in Tucson, and although the following incident did not occur under my personal observation, and was one of those stories that "leak out," I tell it as filling in a gap in the description of life as it was in Arizona twenty and twenty-five years ago. All the persons concerned were boarders at the "Shoo Fly," and all are now dead, or out of service years and years ago.

The first was the old field officer whom, for want of a better name, every one called "Old Uncle Billy N." He had met with a grievous misfortune, and lost one of his eyes, but bore his trouble with stoicism and without complaint. During a brief visit to Boston, he had arranged with an oculist and optician to have made for him three glass eyes. "But I don't clearly understand what you want with so many," said the Boston man.

"Well, I'll tell you," replied the son of Mars. "You see, I want one for use when I'm sober, one when I'm drunk, and one when I'm p d drunk."

The glass eyes were soon ready to meet the varying conditions of the colonel's life, and gave the old man the liveliest satisfaction. Not long after his return to the bracing climate of Tucson he made the round of the gaming-tables at the Feast of Saint Augustine, which was then in full blast, and happened to "copper" the ace, when he should have bet "straight," and bet on the queen when that fickle lady was refusing the smile of her