Los Angeles daily herald., 1888-06-10
NEARLY IYNoHED.
How . man was nlfstnkcn FER q
what Came of II.

10 Colorado City from my rancho in Tom
Green county, Texas, as was my custom
at least once month for the purpose Of
getting my mail and ordering supplies for
the rancho. While was making pre-
parations for the long ride back of seventy
miles, the Sheriff Of the county came
over to the corral to inform me, that
seeing one of my cowponies in a
ssbunchv that had been driven into town
the day before for shipment, he had i'm
pounded it until my arrival.
This delayed my getting off until
about two hours before sundown, but, as
I had calculated that the moon would be
up about o'clock, determined to push,
OF, and according set out leading my re-
covered horse. AS i'll luck would have
e, had not gone more than nine or ten
miles before / discovered that in my
hurry Of departure / had forgotten a
bottle of medicine which had promised
to get for one OF the boys, and concluded
to 20 back for it. ! thereupon hitched
my lead horse to mesquite bush, and,
setting spurs to my trusty pony, "loped"
all the way back. On calling for my
bottle was told by the jovial
drugstore clerk that posse from
Ecurry county was out hunting horse
thieves, expressing hope that might
strike their camp, to all of which | paid
little or no attention. By this time Of
course it was almost pitch dark, and /
logged along unconsciously, leaving the
road entirely to the pony, who knew
would not lead me astray, and as
reached the place where my other horse
was tied would have passed it had
he not whinnied. Throwing the lines
over my pony's head dismounted, and,
having unhitched the other pony from
the bush, was just about to tie him to the
horn OF the saddle, when gruf voice
thundered out: ''Throw up your hands,
or by - you're dead manW l was
completely taken by surprise and sud-
den fear possessed me almost to paraliz
alton. The next moment the cold muz-
zle Of q Colts "44' was placed against
my temple with the unnecessary warn
ing that il l moved muscle would be
blown to Hades. Not very gently my
hands were tied behind my back and l
was ordered to mount my horse. This,
of course, was an utter impossi-
bility without help, and / got it
with a vengeance. l was collared
and kicked and then thrown across the
saddle like sack Of barley. The lariat
with which my hands were tied was then
attached to the horn of one of my captor's
saddle, and with the other in front we
rode in single file towards the town.
What their feelings were do not, and
probably never shall know, but for my
own, were to live to bea hundred years
old 1 steadfastly believe the horrors Of
that ride will be as vivid as they are to-
day. For the benefit Of those who are
not aware of the fact it may be stated
that the stealing of horses or cattle in the
wild southwest is deemed worthy of the
death penalty. No mercy is shown the
horse thief, and if not lynched he is often
s'ear-marked" by having the tips Of his
ears sliced off before imprisonment. On
nearing town my power Of speech to some
extent returned to me, and l began to
question them as to their authority for
arresting me. This was met with the
crushing reply that they would show me
their authority when they reached the
next cross-bar. The cross-bar is beam
over cattle gate, generally about ten
feet from the ground, used as safeguard
against the spreading outwards of the
gate posts, and was favorite place for
.lynching horsethieves. As knew that
There was no gate to be encountered un-
til we reached the town itself, l began to
feel little more confident, and endeav-
ored to explain matters; but to no pur-
pose. On reaching town my two captors
decided to keep me until the rest of the
gang should return from the chase, so
that they also might enjoy the felicity Of
seeing me ''strung up" and l was ac-
cordingly taken into q saloon in the
lower end of town, where / was unfor-
tunately unknown, and my friends"
proceeded to make merry over their
huge fortune in catching the '1ittle
horse-stealing puppy" or words to that
effect. / must here state that during all
this time neither of them had once
looked at the brands of my horses and
/ now asked them what brand the horses
that had been stolen were marked with.
The bigger of the two replied with num-
berless oaths that they "were onto that
racket. You can't fool us like that,
young feller; it doesn't take long to
change brand like ours" and
30 forth, until / began Ito fear
that after all / might be lynched
before anvo of my friends in town got
wind Of it.@ However, shortly after the
rest Of the posse came in, and among
them was one whom at once recognized
rs an Englishman by his wearing knee
breeches and cavalry spurs, and signal
ing him to step aside, l managed to
whisper that was countryman Of his
and that I was entirely innocent. On
his informing me that their lost horses
were branded with half circle over an
X. begged hipcs10 examine mine,
which were brasxled with q hat over the
letter A. and ne left the room to do 90.
He had been gone some time, and was
losing all hope of his getting back in
time to do me any good, for the boys
were dragging me out !. of the So
loon for the crowning act of the
drama, when my countryman rushed up
with the Sheriff, VINO convinced them,
with some little trouble, of their mistake.
II seems that l had been taken for
noted young horse-thief named ALI.
Harris, to whom, unfortunately, had a
slight resemblance. In the usual devil
mAy-care way peculiar to the southwest,
the self-made deputies in my case event
1t blind" At last was set at liberty
with some off-hand apologies from the
men who, five minutes before, were
glorying In the thought of seeing my
body dangling In mid-air at the
end Of a lariat. After making these
scaht apologies the gang insisted on my
ssetting up the drinks" because l looked
20 much like the "cussed little thief"
They took it as good joke, but felt
like the frog in the fable. repaired to
my stopping place in town a ID got to bed
somehow, but so overstrung we're my
nerves that it was three long weeks be-
fore was able to think of making that
homewsrd trip again; and for months
Afterwards never passed that identical
hitching spot, even in broad daylight,
without nervous trembling, like ague,
taking possession Of me. ] need hardly
add Il at never forgot any Of my COM
missions again.
E. LANGLEY JosHs.