West Virginia argus. [volume] (Kingwood, W. Va.) 1877-1946, 1889-10-03

on to the larger hut to find Thomas with.
In half an hour of breathing his last. lie
could speak in whispers, and he told us
tnat seven bushrangers had appeared the
evening before and committed the afro.
cities visible on every hand. Although
ne had made them welcome and prepared
| supper, they had come for different pur-
| pose. The blacks, one by one. had been
tortured in the most horrible manner. and
when the last one was Lead they had
turned on Thomas, They had slised Oh
his ears, h-vken his anea.s. cut off the
lend I,rhis nase, hacked off his toes. and
( sor'oesd him in other ways and had not
'oit the place until about an hour before
our arrival. Everything of value which
could be carried oil was gone, and n
bloody knife was left sticking in the door
sill MS a sort Of def 10 Shaw and the of
ficers Of the law.
There was no Government patrol i'm
hat district at that time, and the only
move we could make was 70 alarm the
two nearest ranchmen and organize n
pursuit on our own account, Bv noon
| next day we had ton white men and
about twenty faithful blacks IN haad Gar
a start, and the trail was taken up Mt
the cabin, No one had any great hopes
that We should oyertale the ranoers
tout 1t was argued that pursuit must be
made or they would soon terrurize tho
whole district. II we did happen "a nm
cover them there would be a hot faht,
Every ranger had price set on his head
and would fight 70 the death, and the
ranchmen were men who had faced
death almost daily for years. The white
men were mounted, while the blacks
were On foot, but they had no trouble in
'-1Seeping mp with Ms. After running
across Tho grazing lands for about mile
the trail entered the broken ground
covered with thickets, and at the end of
another mile we had to leave our horses
and follow the trail on foot. II was
quite evident that the fellows did not
fear pursuit, for they had gono at a
leisurely pace, and the men best nc.
quainted with the country predicted that
the gang had headed for rocky ravine
In the midst Of a heavy growth, about
six miles from the cabin The predic-
ton was soon verified, and we went
forward with greater caution, hoping the
fellows would be sound asleep after
their nights carnival They had taken
two gallons of whisky from the cabin.
and the chances were that they would be
stupidity drunk.
When within about two miles of the
ravine we suddenly ran into an ambush
and received a volley. One white man
was killed and another wounded, and
one black man was stretched dead
Shaw was acting as Captain of our troops,
and he ordered us to deploy and advance
tin open order. The rangers were in "A
thicket, and we soon drove them out and
killed one. In pressing on after the
others we became more and more sepa-
rated, and after a bit / found myself
alone to the right of the Others. kept
advancing toward the ravine, supposinp
the others to be doing the same, and /
had advanced mile or more beyond the
point where we had been ambushed when
1t suddenly occurred to me that was
acting very rashly in separating myself
by such a distance. ] at once bore to
the left to join forces, but, unknown to
me, all the others had halted half mile
in the rear, held brief council and then
decided to retreat / was still bearing
to the left, and wondering why I did not
discover any of the troop, when the
whole gang of rangers suddenly rose up
from the earth around me, and / was a
prisoner. There were six of the wicked
est-looking villains an honest man ever
clapped eyes on. They were roughly
dressed, their hair and whiskers long
and unkempt, and their clothing was
mostly Of sheep skins. ] have seen some
hard looking mon in my time, but never
anything TO compare with this half dozen
who were under the leadership of the
notorious Joe Trimble. This man had
been transported for murder, and during
the two years he was in the colony he
killed two guards and led a revolt. He
escaped from Tasmania by floating out of
the harbor on plank, being loaded down
with forty pounds of chain at the time,
but whether he was picked up at sea or
driven TO Australian coast was not known
to the authorities. He got there some
how, and for two years previous 70 my
story had been a veritable terror in dis
trict 100 miles square.
For minute after the rangers rose a.,
about me not n word was said. Each
man was heavily armed, and, though I
/ had a rife In my hands, It would have
: been folly TO move.
"Well, who are yOuf' asked the leader
after we had all taken a good look at
each other
gave him all the information asked
for, and was honest in stating the num-
ber Of the party in pursuit. They did
not know that the ranger whom 4
had seen lying dead had fallen by our
Fbullets, but supposed he had become
Fseparated from them as they retreated
When ! admitted his death their rage
Fknew no bounds Had been an I'M
harmed traveller they would doubtless
have taken my life just the same, for this
bQang had never been known 70 spare any
kOne. But when they knew that was one
POT the party, and was more or less respon.
tsible for the death Of their comrade. they
Pwould have cut me 20 pieces then and
htherc had It not occurred to them that
tsuch q death was too morciful for me.
hAnd, too, they were not aware Of the
fact that Shaw's party had retreated
After an outburst, lasting three or four
minutes, ] was disarmed, my pockets