”Bring Me His Ears”
By Clarence E. Mulford
The tall, lanky Missourian leaning against the corner of a dilapidated saloon on Locust Street, St. Louis, Missouri—the St. Louis of the early forties—turned his whiskey-marked face toward his companion, a short and slender Mexican trader, sullenly listening to the latter’s torrent of words, which was accompanied by many and excitable gesticulations. The Missourian shook his head in reply to the accusations of his companion.
“But he was on the boat with us!” exclaimed the other. “An’ you lose him—lak these!” the sharp snap of his fingers denoted magic. “Thar ain’t no use o’ gittin’ riled,” replied Schoolcraft. “How in tarnation kin a man keep th’ trail o’ a slippery critter like him in these crowds? I’ll get sight o’ him right here.” “That is what you say,” rejoined the Mexican, shrugging his shoulders. “But w’at weel I say to le Gobernador? Theese hombre Tomaz Boyd—he know vera many t’eengs—too vera many t’eengs—an’ he ensult le Gobernador. Madre de Dios—sooch ensult!” He shivered at the thought.
“When I get the message, I tr-remble! It says, ‘Br-ring him to me—or bring me his ears!’ I am told to go to Señor Schoolcr-raft at Independence—he ees thee man. I go, and then you lose him! Bah! You do not know these, Manuel Armijo, le Gobernador de Santa Fe, my friend—I tr-remble!” “You need a good swig. That’s what you need,” growled Schoolcraft. “And if ye weren’t a chuckle-head,” he said with a flash of anger, “we wouldn’t ‘a’ come yere at all; I told ye he’s got th’ prairie fever an’ shore would come back to Independence, what I got friends; but no—we had ter foller him!” He spat emphatically. “Thar wasn’t no sense to it, nohow!”
Genre: Fiction And Literature | Western
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Clarence E. Mulford
Clarence Edward Mulford (3 February 1883 – 10 May 1956) was an American writer best known for creating the character Hopalong Cassidy.
Biography.
Mulford was born in Streator, Illinois. He created Hopalong Cassidy in 1904 while living in Fryeburg, Maine. His many short stories and 28 novels were adapted to radio, feature film, television, and comic books, often deviating significantly from the original stories, especially in the characters’ traits. While many of his stories depicted Cassidy and other men of the Bar-20 ranch, he also wrote novels (and short stories) of other Westerners, starting with Johnny Nelson in 1920.
He also wrote nonfiction, mainly about the American West, the outdoors, and motoring. More than just writing a top-rated series of Westerns, Mulford recreated an entire detailed and authentic world with characters drawn from his extensive library research. His biographer, Francis Nevins, characterized Mulford’s writing as “rooted in Victorian convention.” Nevins also states that he originated the Western series with continuous characters and that, unlike most later Western series writers, his characters aged.
He died of complications from surgery in Portland, Maine. He set aside much of his money from his books for local charities.
Clarence E. Mulford
