Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1879-01-12
THE SHERIFF'o MISTAKE.

''Thar's strangers" said the sheriff,
Suddenly, setting down his tin cup
untouched and shuffling to the door.
The sheriff was safe man to believe,
though how he made out anything in
the binding glare of evening sunlight
that flooded the level prairie west of
Buffalo Station no one but professor of
optics could have told. The old man had
the eye Of an eagle.
"Two on 'em, with a pack pony" he
added; and just then sudden sunset
shadow swept across the lonely waste,
and we saw them too.
They were about quarter of q mile
away, heading for the station and its
single combination building Of store,
dining-room, tavern and treight-house.
They came on at an easy gait, driving
their pack pony before them. AS they
neared us we could note the signs Of hard
travel about them. From their dust
sown clothing and their loose seats in
the saddle, as we'll as the jaded canter Of
their ponies, everything in their appear
ance spoke OF a long ride, and weary
one.
They crossed the track and drew up in
the shade Of the station, one of them only
replying to the sheriff's CHEEKY hail With
a curt nod. He dismounted stiffly, adj
dressed few words to his companion,
who remained in the saddle with one leg
crossed over the bow, and moment later
his gaunt, buckskin- and -frieze CARRIED
figure vanishes in the cool shadow of the
store.
"a likely boy,' said the sheriff, who
had been eyeing his companion intently.
They mought be Texican drovers-an
then again they moughtent.''
He added the latter sentence reflective
ly, never relaxing his scrutiny of the
mounted stranger. That person was a
"likely 7soy," indeed. Afoot he might
have stood nearly six feet on his bare
soles. His swarthy face, handsome as
gypsy girls, and delicately shaped and set
as any lady's, was framed with shock
of tangled, wavy hair, of whose black,
glossy glory any court dame might have
oeen proud and his eyes, full, black and
lustrious as those Of race-horse, flashed
proudly under the finely penciied brows
The hand which rested lazily on his knee
was large, and in perfect keeping with
his well-knit figure, but in shape clean
cut and handsome as woman's.
[ was still scrutin1zing this somewhat
!; singular apparition with more than ordi-
nary curiosity, when the sheriff turned
suddenly on me.
"Whar's your pony, Tome" he asked.
, ''In the shed!'
'!Saddled?"
''With a loose girth-yes."
ssThe sogers is in the Hundred Horn
Gulch," he went on, speaking rapidly
, ''slide forrerd an bring 'em up May the
big wolf of the Devil's Run devour me il
t them amt two Of our men,
l knew the sheriff too we'll to hesitate
or question further. AS I girthed my
pony in the shed, shadow foated across
, the doorway and was gone. When 1 rode
out the two strangers we're cantering of
2 to the southwark, pointing for the Re
publican river, and as I gave my pony
l rein and galloped in the opposite direc.
ton, I saw the sheriff mounting his big
grey mare, which had been tied to the
F. corner post of the store.
The sheriff, and party Of soldiers
from Fort Hays, were on the watch fol
the train robbers who had stopped the
, West bound train at Big Springs eight
days before, and who were supposed to
be stricking for the Texan border with
their rich spoil. The soldiers as the sheriff
had said, were posted in ravine known
{ as Hundred Horn Gulch, a fe miles from
the station, and where the main trail from
r North Platte crossed the railroad track.
The sun was just dipping when I rode
up to the station ahead Of the troopers
The sheriff, who was studying the writ
ten description of the maurauders by the
e waning light, put himself at our head
: without a word, and we trailed off. long
line OF breaking, jingling, hoof-beatine
clamor through the windy silence and
f gloom OF the darkening prairie.
: The ride was long one, for our quarry
had an hours start of US, and the moon
g rose globe Of coppery fire and found
US still clanking on. I had joined the
!; sheriff and the leader of the soldiers.
/ We were silent trio until I ventured:
e "Are you certain, sheriff, of our men?'
"Sure as the moon," said the old man
$ tersely, drinking in the sweet air of the
, sublime night with sigh which seemed
/ to say, "Let me alone. I know what m
about, and won't be questioned"
, Silence again. The brisk breeze was
blowing rifted clouds across the face oil
the moon, nothing the dim plain with
2 fantastic shadows. Suddenly these
clouds swept away. A full, clear burst
oflight flooded the prairie, and not a
t half mile away we saw three moving
figures which, in the now marvelously
brilliant lunar ILLUMINATION, could be
f easily distinguished as those of two
: mounted men and pack animal
The wind was in our faces, blowing
the noise of our approach from the fugi-
, tives' ears and though we rode hard, and
with no attempt to stealthiness. it was
, not until we were close upon them that
they suddenly drew in and faced ABOUT,
both men sitting bolt upright in their
saddles, with their hands at their hips.
In gesture and bearing they meant fight,
and looked every inch desperate and
dangerous men.
We halted, too. For a moment dead
silence fell upon us. The sheriff's gray
mare neighed, and the charm was
broken.
/ "Who's there9" called one of the fugi-
tlves IN Spanish, emphasizing the chal-
lenge with the sharp click of his pistol
lock as he brought it to cock.
The rattle of dozen carbines falling
into position drowned the sheriff's reply.
Then the clear voice of the Younger
fugitive arose: "If we must die. we
might as we'll die like men," it said.
What followed was almost like the
flaming Of a flash of lightning. I heard
the sheriff call out; ''Throw up your