San Marcos free press. [volume] (San Marcos, Tex.) 1877-1892, 1882-11-02

will kill Crockett jenkins OF he dAres
10 betay me-" she had said to more
than one. At length the storm burst
One night about a month ago, Mary
accused Crockett of his intidelity. de
laughed at her. She was too excited
TO get her pistol, but sprang AZ his
throat. A struggle followed, and Mary
would have strangled him then and
there but for interference. Crockett
left the house. Some time before
this the band moved up from Trade
water Bottom, and had hired a little
grocery some four miles away on a
public road leading to Princeton. a
dav or so after the fuss between Mary
and Crockett, crowd of men from
Princeton were riding by the little gro
cery, all drinking very freely, when
one of the men in moment OF reek'
lessness fired off his pistol. The
Campbells, thinking the mob was on
them again, rushed out of the grocery
and began firing. The men returned
the shots and then galloped on to
town.
This created another tempest of ex-
element, and the next day mob was
cot together to exterminate the Camp
bells. The robbing had continued
without intermission, and did much
to infame the people. The next night
forty men, armed to the teeth, with
masks ON their faces and hatred IN
their hearts, swept down the road to-
ward the little log cabin where the
Campbells kept their grocery. The
leaders were picked men, and they
we're followed by some of the most
desperate men in the county. 1t was
resolved to do no half work this time,
but to make a sure job of it. At a
dead gallop they rushed up the house
and in an instant it was surrounded.
The forty men sat on their horses like
statues, and each man with shotgun
in his hand, the hammer raised, finger
OH trigger, ready for work. In the
house was family named McMurtry,
an old man and some small children.
The only other inmates were Rely
Campbell and his brother Bud. The
leaders of the mob called out to the
McMurtrys to leave the house, which
they instantly did, standing out in the
woods shivering and waiting for what
horror they hardly knew. Prepare
tons were instantly made by the two
men in the house for a fight to the
death. Quarter was neither asked
nor given. The mob opened fire, and
the Campbells answered them. Then
the firing came fierce and fast. Balls
ratified against the walls of the old log
cabin like hail. The two men opened
little port holes and answered as best
they could. A groan and muttered
curse came from the outside, and a
little group hurried man off in their
arms. 1t was Hice Johnson, we'll
TODD, respectable farmer. He had a
ball through his breast, and bled to
death out on the road with pistol
balls flying over his head, singing
his. requiem. Then groan came
from within, and Rely Campbell fell
in a pool of blood at his brothers
feet-a corpse. But Bud stood to his
guns. doggedly firing away into the
night whenever he saw the flash of
an enemys gun. How long this wild
warfare might have lasted no man
knows. But Buds ammunition gave
out, and his shots became less frequent.
The mob closed in on him. Thirty
nine to one-surely it was madness
to resist longer. Bud did resist, how
ever, and, barricading doors and win
dows, he stood ready with a dubbed
gun in his hand to defend his life to
the last. Suddenly he began to smell
smoke about him. There was smoke
all around him, and it seemed to be
issuing from everywhere. There was
an ominous crackle in the air, the
sound of fire eating away at dried
wood. Then he knew the horror of
his fate. The mob had fired the
cabin. Thirty-nine men stood ranged
around, iustoutside, with leveled guns,
waiting for him. Death by fire within,
death by the bullets without, which
would he choose? The smoke became
denser; he could hardly grope around
the room. The blaze was leaplng up
around him like a mad wolf. The
roof was a mass of fire. Then the
door was burst open, and out OF the
fire and the binding smoke that man
could not breathe and live, out OF
this very mouth. of hell staggered a
man with singed clothes and grimy
face and bleared eyes, clinging to the
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