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“Boggs puts it up she merely gives it out she’s deef that a-way to cut off debate with the camp, an’ decline all confidences goin’ an’ comin’.

“Thar’s no reason to say the Deef Woman’s the Major’s wife, more’n she tumbles into camp as onlooked for as Old Monte sober, an’ it’s easy to note she s’prises an’ dismays the Major a lot, even drunk an’ soaked with nose paint as he shorely is.

“The Deef Woman has a brief pow-wow with him alone over at the O. K. House, followin’ of which the Major appears the whitiest an’ the shakiest I ever beholds him–the last bein’ some strong as a statement–an’ after beggin’ a drink at the Red Light, p’ints out afoot for Red Dog, an’ is seen no more.

“What the Deef Woman says to the Major, or him to her; or what makes him hit the trail for Red Dog that a-way no one learns. The Deef Woman ain’t seemin’ to regard the Major’s jumpin’ the outfit as no loss, however. Wherein she’s plenty accurate, for that Major shorely ain’t worth ropin’ to brand.

“After he’s gone–an’ the Major’s moccasin track ain’t never seen in Wolfville no more, he’s gone that good–the next we-alls hears of the deal, this yere Deef Woman’s playin’ the piano at the dance- hall.

“Doc Peets an’ Enright, likewise the rest, don’t like this none whatever, for she don’t show dance-hall y’ear marks, an’ ain’t the dance-hall brand; but it looks like they’s powerless to interfere.

“Peets tries to talk to her, but she blushes an’ can’t hear him; while Enright an’ Missis Rucker–which the last bein’ a female herse’f is rung in on the play–don’t win out nothin’ more. Looks like all the Deef Woman wants is to be let alone, while she makes a play the best she can for a home-stake.

“I pauses to mention, however, that durin’ the week the Deef Woman turns her game at the piano–for she don’t stay only a week as the play runs out–she comes mighty near killin’ the dance-hall business. The fact is this were Deef Woman plays that remarkable sweet no one dances at all; jest nacherally sets’round hungerin’ for them melodies, an’ cadences to that extent they actooally overlooks drinks.

“That’s right; an’ you can gamble your deepest chip when folks begins to overlook drinks, an’ a glass of whiskey lasts energetic people half an hour, they’s shorely some rapt.

“Even the coyotes cashes in an’ quits their howls whenever the Deef Woman drug her chair up to that piano an’ throws loose. An’ them coyotes afterward, when she turns up her box an’ stops dealin’, gets that bashful an’ taciturn they ain’t sayin’ a word; but jest withholds all yells entire the rest of the night.

“But thar’s no use talkin’ hours about the Deef Woman’s music. It only lasts a week; even if Wolfville does brag of it yet.

“It’s this a-way: It’s while Pinon Bill is romancin’ round the time I mentions, that we-alls rolls outen our blankets one mornin’ an’ picks up a party whose name’s Burke. This yere Burke is shot in the back; plumb dead, an’ is camped when we finds him all cold an’ stiff out back of the New York store.

“The day before, Burke, who’s a miner, diggin’ an’ projectin’ ’round over in the Floridas, is in camp layin’ in powder an’ fuse a whole lot, with which he means to keep on shootin’ up the he’pless bosoms of the hills like them locoed miner people does.

“At night he’s drunk; an’ while thar’s gents as sees Burke as late, mebby it’s two hours after the last walse at the dance-hall, thar’s nobody who ups an’ imparts how Burke gets plugged. All Wolfville knows is that at first-drink time in the mornin’, thar this Burke is plumb petered that a-way.

“An’ the worst feature shorely is that the bullet goes in his back, which makes it murder plain. Thar ain’t a moccasin track to he’p tell who drops this yere Burke. Nacrerally, everybody’s deeply taken to know who does it; for if thar’s a party in camp who’s out to shoot when your back’s turned, findin’ of him an’ hangin’ him can’t be too pop’lar an’ needful as a play. But, as I remarks, we’re baffled, an’ up ag’inst it absoloote. No one has the least notion who gets this yere Burke. It’s money as is the object of the murder, for Burke’s war-bags don’t disclose not a single centouse when the committee goes through ’em prior to the obsequies.