Dodge City times. [volume] (Dodge City, Kan.) 1876-1892, 1889-10-03

@What you fellows hunting?" yelled
. farmer as they Numbered along.
~Horse-thieves," replied Tom Rose.
Seen any?"
mo, two men Just come to my barn
and changed their animals for fresh
ones. They said they were hunting
hoss-thieves, too" said the farmer.
who else is chasing them?" asked
the common men of each other.
where's your barn?" asked Tom
Rose.
over here" and the leader sprang
to the ground and inspected the stable.
Here's the other two horses from nv
neighborhood," said he. You have
given fresh horses to the horse-thievea
Got any more?"
The honest farmer was dumfounded.
%I've got race horse" said he.
SHES worth 800. You can have her,
and I'm with You. I want my colts
back again" And the pursuing party
was recruited Tom Rose bestrode the
race horse, and leaped to the lead again.
Two miles farther in the night, and
they lost the scent. One of the two
roads had been taken. The party
divided and swept on.
Ten miles more, and the spirited
racer was Just settling to steady work.
when the lond neigh of horse in the
forest that frowns ON Pretty Lake called
halt.
They're there said Rose, and the
rail fence was thrown down to admit
the passage of the pursuers. In the
depth Of the timber they saw the two
| missing horses darby outlined against
background of giant oaks, through
| which the rising moon was shining.
Only for moment they saw them, and
then binding flash, a crashing report
OF firearms halted the farmers and
called strange echoes from the distant
hillsides.
Who was hurt was not the question
now. The horse-thieves stood before
him, and Tom Rose, who had never
faced a greater danger, dismounted and
ran unarmed except for his coil of rope,
into the thicket. The Williams were at
bay, and they fired again and again.
! Why they did not hit him he never
knew, but his long. powerful limbs
crashed through the bushes and brought
him face to face with his first real Grim
inal. A great sweep of the cooled rope,
whirling, vengeful, angry blow. and
the fellow dropped among the wood
violets and golden seal as though the
strands of that tether were steel tibers.
The second man, himself an athlete,
lodged past the farmer, reached his
horse, mounted and, lying fiat on the
saddle, dashed for the gap in the rail
fence where the avengers had entered.
One thing at a time had made Tom
Rose rich man, and he stopped over
his captive and bound him hand and
foot. Two men were wounded Leav-
ing two more to care for these and keep
the prisoner, the chief, his spirit tower
ing now above the clouds in physical
triumph, bent to his saddle bow and
again led the pursuit.
He is nearly to the Kankakee flats.
If he gets in there he's SAFE reasoned
Rose. And lie gave rein. to the racer
and left his comrades far behind. No
hand-to-hand combat daunted him.
Had he not beaten down one man I'M
aided? Was he to fear any human
horse-thief or hero? A mile farther
and the sound of hoofs ahead, the re-
treating herald of the outlaw, warned
him to care. As he drew rein to listen,
rifle shot pierced the night silence and
and skurry of hoofs told of newer es,
cape.
And Dame Fortune had tired of help
ing the gaunt farmer. The left foot
slipped from the stirrup and refused to
obey the muscles which tried to put it
back. Then the warm flow of blood in
his boot woke Rose to the fact that he
was wounded; to the fact that chasing
outlaws involved shattered members
sometimes. But he leaned forward and
urged the colt none the less. Across
the open, through muddy creek, up
the wooded bank beyond, and then an
other shot cut his hat brim. A lesser
man would have turned back, but the
spirit of retribution which threatens dis
order would not down. Through the
sinuous woodland path these two dashed
their horses, but at the farther side the
horse thief dropped from sight as
utterly as if some genii of the night had
covered him with q mantle beyond
which human eyes could not pierce.
Tom Rose watched through the
weary hours of a long night, not daring
to dismount with that wounded foot,
and when daylight came he found the
footprints of horse, through the rust
ling forest of tassled corn, out to the
highway. Hours had been lost. Fresh
pursuers took up the trail, and at noon
day the farmer came upon q group
standing around captive who lay on
the grass, his hands bound, and his
eyes sheltered from the sun by an army
hat.
As Tom Rose pushed his horse
YEARLY through the circle, the fugitive
rose with a bound, snapped the cords
which held him, vaulted over the fence
beyond which not a man was stationed
to stay him. He was in the garden,
which on Indiana farms furnishes both
va-e and table flower and food. The
rustics stared, amazed at the suddenness
and daring of the feat. A dozen
weapons were raised, but none were
fired. Tom Rose leaned down with q
slow motion which, while deliberate,
had no loss of time, took gun from the
farmer nearest him, and carefully bent
his eye along the barrel Just as the out
law placed his hands upon the farther
garden fence. As the agile body lifted
In a graceful bound to clear that last OBJ
struction, the rifle commanded Haiti"
Over the heads of the rural enforcers
of the law the bullet sped, singing
across the beds of bloom, and carried to
to the horse-thief Tom Roses receipt in
full for his bleeding ankle, that tattered
hat brim.
The horse-thief dropped without
CRY into a fragrant couch of mint.
When they reached him his lawless
course was run. He had been swept
unshriven into the presence of a recti-
tude outraged, and closed with his
wasted life the last chapter in States
unpunished lawlessness.
Tom Rose want hop,o will, b;S ,,a;ol,