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The Luck of Hardrobe. "Which I tells this yere narrative first, back in one of them good old Red Light evenin's when it's my turn to talk." The Old Cattleman following this remark, considered me for a moment in silence. I had myself been holding the floor of discussion in a way both rambling and pointless for some time.

"It's at one of my camps one evenin' when I crosses up first with this yere Hardrobe. His boy, Bloojacket, is with him. Hardrobe himse'f is mebby goin' on fifty, while Bloojacket ain't more'n say twenty-one.

I can see that Bloojacket regyards old Hardrobe like he's the No'th Star; an' as for Hardrobe himse'f, he can't keep his eyes off that child of his. You'd have had his life long before he'd let you touch a braid of Bloojacket's long ha'r. Both of 'em's plenty handsome for Injuns; tall an' lean an' quick as coyotes, with hands an' feet as little as a woman's.

Moreover he gets used frequent to things that he's born with notions ag'inst; an' them aversions will simmer an' subside ontil he's friendly with folks he once honed to shoot on sight. It turns out that a-way about me an' this Hardrobe an' his boy Bloojacket.

Thar's nothin' like a dash of se'f-interest to make a gent urbane, an' so I invites Hardrobe an' Bloojacket to make my camp their headquarters like I'd been yearnin' for the chance. "As you-all must have long ago tracked up on the information, it's sooperfluous for me to su'gest that a gent gets used to things.

When a moment later his favourite decanter appeared in the hands of one of the bar-boys of the hostelry, who placed it on a little table at his elbow and withdrew, the necessity for "Tom" seemed to disappear, and recurring to Hardrobe, he went on. "Hardrobe is a Injun a Osage buck an' belongs to the war clan of his tribe.

This young Bloojacket, who's bubblin' over with sperits has a heap of interestin' stories about the 'Grey Fox. It's doo to Bloojacket to say he performs them dooties of his as a scout like a clean-strain sport, an' quits an' p'ints back for the paternal camp of Hardrobe in high repoote.

After a respectful pause, I ventured an inquiry. "And the Caldwell beauty?" I said. "It ain't a week when she's ag'in the star of that Caldwell hurdygurdy where she ropes up Hardrobe first.

"As I explains previous I'm averse to Injuns, but this Hardrobe is a onusual Injun; an' as he's settin' in ag'inst a stiff game the way things is mixed up, an' bein' only him an' his boy he's too weak to protect himse'f, I yields consent, I yields the more pleasant for fear, since I drives through the Osage country now an' then this Hardrobe an' his heir plays even by stampedin' my cattle some evenin' if I don't.

"'When I recalls the finish of Hardrobe, I remarks, sort o' cuttin' into the argyment, the same bein' free an' open to all, 'an' I might add by way of a gratootity in lines of proof, the finish of his boy, Bloojacket, I inclines to string my chips with Colonel Sterett. "'Give us the details concernin' this Hardrobe, says Doc Peets.