This had served to turn the Old Cattleman's
train of thought upon the weird.
"Thar's signs, of course, to which I'd shorely bow, not to say pay
absorbin' heed. If some gent with whom I chooses to differ touchin'
some matter that's a heap relevant at the time, ups an' reaches for
his gun abrupt, it fills me full of preemonitions that the near
future is mighty liable to become loaded with lead an' interest for
me. Now thar's an omen I don't discount. But after all I ain't
consentin' to call them apprehensions of mine the froot of no
sooperstition, neither. I'm merely chary; that's all.
"It's Cherokee Hall who is what I onhesitatin'ly describes as
sooperstitious. Cherokee is afflicted by more signs an' omens in
carryin' on his business than an almanac. It's a way kyardsharps
gets into, I reckons; sorter grows outen their trade. Leastwise I
never creeps up on one yet who ain't bein' guided by all sorts of
miracles an' warnin's that a-way. An' sometimes it does look like
they acquires a p'inter that comes to 'em on straight lines. As
'llustratin' this yere last, it returns to me some vivid how
Cherokee an' Boggs gets to prophesyin' one day, an' how they calls
off the play between 'em so plumb c'rrect that a-way, it's more than
amazin'; it's sinister.
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