St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1886-07-10
FOUGHT TO THE DEATH.

Terrible Encounter at Short Range BE-
tween Two Officers and Brace of Mexi-
can Horse Thieves II Sunset Route
Train The Latter Both Killed, While
the Officers Suffer Little More Than Tat
tered Clothing.
UyAIDE, Tex, June 30.-The west
hound passenger train over the Sunset
route reached here on time this morning,
long before day, and after short wait,
Numbered on in the darkness. The train
was fast one. The road was rough,
and the noddng passengers chung
to their seats with both hands.
Many seats were occupied by men
and women, and UP toward the forward
enc of the coach sat pair of quiet, blan-
keted figures, Mexicans. They had moth
| ing to say, and beyond getting up few
times to light cigarettes, did not move.
Just before daylight the train pulled up
at the little wayside station OF Cline,
twenty miles west of here. The train
stopped Just minute, but long enough
to allow Deputy Sheriffs Baylor and
Nimmo to spring aboard. AS their feet
touched the top steps they threw
open the door and throwing down
a couple of revOlvers on
their prey, ordered them to
throw up their hands. There was only
single lamp swinging in the car. The
sleepy passengers heard the curt demand.
and looking forward in the dim light saw
the shrouded forms spring hastily up, the
blankets fall from their shoulders and
the ball began.
! There was an incessant explosion that
in the cTamped and confined space OF the
coach sounded terrific. The officers
stood with their backs to the door and
/ worked their revolvers for life.
| The OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES standing full
in the middle of the aisle, the
other with one hand resting carelessly
on the back of a seat and swearing shrilly
I in Spanish-were enveloped in the smoke
of their own revolvers. Amid the rip
ping of plush and tinkle of shivering glass
the screaming and covering men saw the
tall form in the aisle plunge backward
! to the floor dead man. The other des-
perado wounded, one hand pressing his
side, the other holding his empty re-
volver over his head; with a yell
| burst by the officers through the
! door and leaped to the ground.
! Day lad broken. ana the slowing
/ train came TO stop. One of the officers
sprano after the aucing, staggering figure
! and called on il TO halt. 1t turned and
snapped the empty weapon its pursuer
/ Then it went down with a bullet IN the
; breast.
The officers took an inventory of them
selves. Though bleeding slightly in sew
eral places, they were unhurt, but their
clothing hung in tatters. Baylor, who
stood nearest the Mexicans, had his
clothes literally ribbcned; his hands
and the side of his neck were powder
! burned. Nimmo had not suffered
so severely. The names of the MeSi-
cans, though known to the officers, at
! this hour can not be learned. They were
horse-thieves, for whom the officers had
warrants. They were believed to
be members of the band of ban
dts who, from over the Rio
! Grande, have lately been raid
/ ing this section, and who some days ago
murdered a banker in the heart of Uvalde.
! Cline, the place at which the killing oc-
/ Cured, is in the heart Of the infested
! country. The dead Mexicans were both
| young men and we'll dressed.