Jasper County Democrat, Volume 7, Number 14, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 July 1904 — Tom Bowens' Love [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Tom Bowens' Love

...By... JAMES NORFLEET

Copyrioht, 190 U, by K. M. Whitehead

The girl of the “I. X. L.” ranch was Nora Davis, niece of the proprietor, who was passing a year In the far west by the advice of her doctor. The presence of a woman at the ranch house was no strange thing, as Mrs. Davis was there and had two or three women helpers, but the sight of a good looking girl of twenty riding and walking about kept tbe cowboys In a state of excitement. 'Soon after the arrival of Miss Nora the jokers began to level their shafts at Tom Bowens. Tom was no cowboy, and was, therefore, looked down upon with good natured contempt. He was a poor rider, and he owned to a lack of nerve, and he had, therefore, been employed as a general “chore man.” It was announced by the Jokers that Tom had fallen head over heels in love with the young lady and would soon propose marriage. Tom was too bewildered to deny or affirm. He had only caught sight of the girl once or twice and had then gazed upon her as something new in the menagerie line. The chaff set him to thinking, however. He began to wonder If he was not In love tdth the girl, and within three or four days he had convinced himself that he was. He was unlettered, uncouth and without a dollar to his name, but It did not occur to him that those things barred him out of the race. He acknowledged his passion to the men about him, but had opportunity been offered him a hundred times over he would not have broached the matter to the girl by word or look. Some time In the future, he reasoned to himself —some time after he had loved a long, long time and got to be a rich cattle owner, and the squint had been taken out of his eyes and the crook out of his legs—he might declare Ciis love, but not till then. The boys on the ranch had other things to think of besides guying Tom Bowens, but they let up on him for

only a few days at a time, and, therefore, there was little chance for his love to wane. It happened, too, that when Miss Nora went to ride by herself Tom was sent along to gallop about fifty feet In the rear and act as groom. She was somewhat haughty, and she was something of an aristocrat, but she was no snob. She spoke to her groom with a smile, and on many occasions drew him out regarding ranch life and its work and adventures. He was always respectful to a degree, and the thought never entered her head that he aspired. After her first three months a.t the ranch there came an Indian scare. A band had broken away from the reservation and taken to the foothills and killed stock %nd a two. The dally gallops were not interrupted, but shortened, and Tom Bowens, who was a good shot, if no cowboy, buckled on a pair of revolvers every time he was sent to act as guard and groom. Soldiers were ordered out to drive the breakaways back, and after a few days the scare subsided. Some of the red men surrendered and returned to accept the beef and blankets of the Great Father, but half a dozen stood out for the warpath and dodged the soldiers and remained in the hills. They were cute enough to remain quiescent until forgotten, and then they one day emerged from their hiding place in search of scalps. It happened to be a day on which Miss Nora was taking a longer ride than usual, and it was fated that they should be brought together. After riding a straight twelve miles out from the ranch the girl halted her horse at the mouth of Wolf pass. It was a ravine or’ gulch 300 feet long cutting through the hills. Tom Bowens was with her*-, as usual, and he held her horse as she dismounted and wandered about among the bowlders to cull a flower here and there. As he watched her he fell to musing. His love was growing day by day, but he was successfully concealing It. When would the time come to reveal It? When revealed would It be reciprocated? All of a sudden the thought came to him for the first time:

“Can a man like me ever hope to win a girl like her?” Tom was scared at the thought, and be began to size himself up. He had often befen called “Bow Legs” and "Squint Eye.” He knew that he was “off” In looks; be was uneducated; he was without means. He was only a ."chore man” at S2O a month on a ranch, without tbe slightest prospect of rising higher. For tbe first time he realized the gulf between them. He had been an Idiot, he admitted to himself, but be would be an Idiot no longer. He would cease to love—go away—fall In love with the cook as u counterbalance. He was thinking harder than he had ever thought before when a slight noise In the pass startled him, and he thought he made out a human figure skulking about. If it was a human figure it could only be that of one of the renegade Indians, and If he was skulking he meant murder. Tom Bowens had been charged with a lack of nerve and had always been ready to admit It He had never been tried out and, therefore, did not know himself. Within a minute after catching sight of the skulking figure he had turned the horses and was walking them slowly back toward the girl, whistling as he went. She looked up in surprise as he drew near, and he carelessly dismounted and calmly said: “Miss Nora, don’t be startled at what I say. There are Indians in the pass. I have seen one of them, and there is probably half a dozen. I want you to get on your horse and ride off slowly for a ways and then ride like fire for the ranch.” “Do you mean it?” asked Nora In a puzzled way. “But you—yon”— she asked aa he lifted her into the saddle. “I’m going to stay here a bit. The Indians must have their ponies in there with ’em, and they’d overhaul me before I got a mile away. Don’t stop now, but ride on. You’ll get away all right, and you’ll tell ’em at the house.” She would have said more, but he gave her horse a slap, and the animal moved forward. His own would have followed, but he made it fast to a bush and then went whistling back to the mouth of the pass and dropped behind a bowlder and drew one of his revolvers. Five, seven, ten minutes passed. Then came a yell from the Indiutis, who had been tricked, and a band of six rushed out. Pop, pop, pop, went Tom’s revolver, and then they closed in on him, and all was over. Two hours later when a dozen cowboys rode up they found two dead Indians and the trail of a wounded one, and Tom Bowens lay there stiff and cold, with a smile on his face. He couldn’t win the girl be loved, but he had died for her.

“YOU'LL GUT AWAY ALL RIGHT, AND YOU'LL TELL ’EM AT THE HOUSE."