Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1875-02-10

Guo WOlllau Will some purpose IN her
mind sang out to the men to come back
and get the last dipper full of liquor
which she had mixed, [ seized the only
alternative. I sprang lightly into the
|. wagon, lifted the coffin lid, and again
crawled into the long, narrow prison.
There was no choice The flood of
moonlight had swept so far toward my
hiding place that only part of nv
body was concealed by the barrel, and
[ knew that discovery was inevitable,
for the mans horse stood in such a DO
sition that in order to recover the reins
he must have trodden upon me; and
there was no earthly thing, as far as the
eye could reach over the plain, behind
which man could hide. All, but what
if he should re-adjust his freight. Can
you think how my heart Jumped away
at the thought =? You wonder what nv
plan could be? I had none, other than
the hope of having only one man to
deal with, if he went on his way as he
calculated. The three ruffians were
mounted and all were about to start,
when the woman ran out with some sort
OF a blanket and muttered something
about covering the coffin. The man
yelled out to her to mind her own bust.
ness ana let the thing alone. .t
! She retreated with the cloth, but she
had accomplished her purpose. In it's
folds she had concealed bowie knife;
under it's cover she had raised the lid
and dropped the weapon inside, risking
giving me a cut as it fell upon me; but
in the momentary noise and confusion
l had got the weapon in my hand, and
with its point raised the heavy lid of
the rough box the fraction of an inch so
that breathing was easy if my position
was crammed
The three horsemen spread out, re-
marking to each other: 'Beat up the
game now speedily before, by any mir
acle, he gets into the wooded belt by
Ruford's Springs
They continued to halloa at each other
! for some time; their liberal rotations
surrounding their discretion.
Dick" they called back as they
were driving off, ga cool twelve hun
dred apiece; throw out your old shell
and join the hunt. -.a.-..
The driver mumbled something, but
the whisky had thickened his speech 50
that it was unintelligible to me.
If he did attempt to move the coffin,
[ was lost.
They kept within hailing distance for
the length of some three or more miles,
Dick smashing the wagon along at
stunning gait; and 1 expected every
moment that my shell would be jostled
out.
| By and by there was shout off to
the right; "tally no" as if the hunts
men had sighted the quarry. Nothing
but an unwarrantable amount of liquor
could have Influenced them to conduct
themselves as they did, for no sooner
| had they called out from the right, than
| Dick came to sudden halt, leaped from
the seat and ran off toward those who
were hallooing. .''@
| For one instant my heart stopped
beating at the thought of the hazard
which l was about to run. The next
moment [ sprang from the coffin to the
ground. A few Hghtning-like strokes,
and had severed the traces and the
hold-backs of the harness.
| The whole scene is wildly pictured
in my mind The moon-ighted prairie,
the little ravine toward which the rene
gades were dashing, the wagon standing
in the trail-then the rafting of the
falling thills reached the ears of the
party, and with a wild shout they
turned toward me. [ was on the horses
back, but boldly defined by the moon
light. There was the sharp report of
two rifles. [ felt sting in my foot,
another in my shoulder, but the horse
was unharmed and the race for life began.
There was disheartening disadyan-
tage for me, for [ had no saddle, but [
was riding for my life, and I held my
steed between my knees, and took the
broad trail with the fury of tornado.
But the issue would rest mostly with
the horses. [ knew nothing of the one
which [ rode; [ knew nothing of those
that were pursuing me, except my own
white-faced mare. She could run like
an antelope and out-wind hurricane.
On and on my steed, desperately
spurred with the point of my knife,
bore ahead, actually causing me to
gasp for breath; and not two hundred
yards IN the rear rode my would-be
murderers ..Es ~ .
On the rolling prairie now, and my
animal took the declivities with a
plunge, and the elevations with a sure.
|
but, crack, came another rifle echo, and
again stream of fire seemed to strike
my shoulder. They were closing in
closing up. [ could now make out only
two horsemen following. One of these
had discharged his rifle at me, the
other, [ knew, was held in rest for
them to come just a few yards nearer.
a momentary dizziness Topped me
over upon my horses neck. The ruff
ans yelled triumphantly behind, but a
distant echo brought me up, and giving
my poor beast a stinging blow, I
emitted the wild, long, fierce yell of the
border rangers, and sped on again; but
my horse had that peculiar squirm now
and then in his gait that told me he was
faltering.
Again the echo reached me, swelling
out on the rising wind-it was the
shrill squeal of the fife and the rum
diddle-um, did-e-um dun dunn dunn of
infantry returning from some expedi-
tion to Fort Il. Again [ sent out
| la