Some guys got it out for me ‘cause I got all this stuff. At one time er another, some of it was theirs, an’ they sold it ta me. They get on the wine an’ come over ta my camp an’ say hey, gimme a few dollars for this fishin’ pole; I gotta get me a jug. That pole might be worth forty dollars, but a guy needin’ a drink’ll take the goin’ price a wine for it. These guys dry out an’ run inta me sometime later, an’ they say here’s three dollars, gimme my pole back, er my axe er whatever it was they sold me. An’ I tell ‘em no, a deal’s a deal. An’ they got it out for me, tellin’ me they’re gonna get their stuff back if they gotta knock me on the head ta do it. I tell ‘em stay off the wine an’ next time they’ll hang onta their stuff. I keep my stuff once I get it.

Yeah, there’s guys got grudges ‘gainst me. I watch my step, an’ don’t turn my back to nobody.  There’s a guys’d like ta get their hands on me anyway they could.  Might kill me while I’m sleepin’ if they had the chance. I wire up my camp, just in case. Got this coil a bailin’ wire, ‘n I stretch it out ‘bout knee high off the ground; stretch it out so it goes all the way ‘round the camp.  I rig it so no one can get ta me ‘thout runnin’ inta it. Take it down durin’ the day so a guy walkin’ by the jungle can’t see the set up an’ maybe figger out how he can step over it. Ev’ry night b’fore turnin’ in I rig up the wire, stake it er wind it ‘round some trees er rocks.  Can’t see it at night, ‘specially if yer not expectin’ it. If it’s a perm’nent camp, if I’m there for a good while so’s ev’rybody’s getting’ ta know where I’m jungled, I”ll stretch out two er three wires at diff’rent heights, like a fence. The knee high one’ll usually do the job. Couple times guys been tripped up by it. One night I heard this thud, an’ I looked up from where I’d been sleepin’, an’ here’s this guy laid out flat in the dirt with his water jug ‘n bedroll throwed out in front a him. I sez, “What the hell ya doin’?” Thought maybe he was after me. He sez, “Lookin’ for a place ta sleep.” Tol’ him he couldn’t stay there. It was my camp. An’ he asks me if I put that wire up. I sez, “Sure did, let’s me know if someone’s comin’.” Well, he started cussin’ me out, callin’ me a dirty son of a bitch, an’ he picked up a two by four an’ beat the hell outta the wire till it busted.  He was none too happy ‘bout bein’ tripped up by that thing. He picked up his b’longin’s an’ tromped off an’ yelled back, “Next time I’ll wrap it ‘round yer neck.” I stayed up the rest a the night, case he had the idea a comin’ back an’ tryin’ it sooner ‘n he promised.

Got me a cabin on land the gover’ment staked out. B.L.M. land. Didn’t know it was even called that when I built it. Been there fifteen years, ‘n it’s still standin’. ‘Course I gotta make repairs ev’ry year. Las’year I got up to it, ‘n the roof was caved in on the north side. Got her fixed b’fore the snows started gettin’ heavy. Middle a November I hike up there, along the river. Spend the winter, three, four months; about all I c’n take. I get feelin’ cooped up, ‘n by the end a February er so, I’m clawin’ like an animal ta get outta there. Soon as winter starts to break, I git my gear t’gether, ‘n me ‘n the dogs head out. Catch a train. Tracks run along the river. Follow ‘em to a sidin’ ‘n wait fer somethin’ to stop.

Been married once, b’fore comin’ out West. The perfect woman fer me would a been Sacajawea, a woman who could put up with a little hardship now ‘n then. Ain’t had a perm’nent woman since my wife. Never found one akin to my way a thinkin’. There’s always the cat houses in Nevada if that’s what yer after. There’s one I use’ to go where the girls give my dogs a bath ev’ry time. Can’t say I didn’t enjoy myself, but if them dogs could talk, they’d be of a different opinion. They’d roll in the dirt soon’s we’d leave the place.

Seen lots a places, done lots a things. Been a gandy hobo. It’s fellas like me built these railroads. I worked on tracks from the Rockies to the Pacific. Ain’t been east a the Rockies in near thirty years. And I don’t care to go, judgin’ by what they been sendin’ out here lately. Yessir, I’ll die on this railroad, ‘n I won’t mind goin’. Ain’t complainin’, don’t get me wrong. I lived a good life, better ‘n most. I’m jus’ outta place in this moderin civilization.

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