Evening capital. (Annapolis, Md.) 1884-1910, 1890-12-23
4 NAor wIrn lpAao RonnERs
joaquin Miller Relates an Experience Of
His Youth.


/ was lying ice b,uai at Lewiston.
Idaho. Men wanted TO se>sd money
below to their friends or families; mer-
chants. an icii ating the tremendous
rush. Il ut get letters through the snow
to Walla Walia- Would go9 Could
/ go?
The snow was deep The trails, over
open and monoton us mountains. were
drifted full Could any living man face
the drifting snow find his way to
Walla Walla? At first the merchants
had tried to hire Indians to undertake
tile trip and deliver their letters Not
one could be found TO go When the
storm abated a little. the men who kept
the ferry across the Shoshonee River
scraped off the SNOW. and cutting down
the upheaved blocks of ice made it pos-
sible to cross with horse.
AT first meant to carry only letters
But having finally consented to take a
| little gold for one merchant soon
found / shonld lose friends if | did not
take gold for others The result was
that had to take gold worth nearly ten
thousand dollar.
A few muffled up friends came down
to the river bank to see me Oft 1t was
n great event For two weeks we had
not had line from the outer world.
And meantime the civil war was raging
in all its terrible fury. As set out that
bleak and icy morning. after l had
mounted my plunging pony saw in the
crowd several faces that did not like.
There was Dave English. no was hung
OH the spot with several of his fellows.
not 40 days later; there was Boone
Helm. hung in Montana; Cherokee Bob,
killed in n Hers urg; and also Canada
Joe. This last iveu with some low
Indians little way lwn the river. So
when he rode ahead of me was rather
glad than otherw for felt that he
would not go far | kept watch of him,
however. And when / saw that he
skulked around under the hill, as if he
were going home and then got back into
the trail, / knew there was trouble
ahead.
But. the @Rubicon" was now behind.
My impetuous horse was plunging in
the snow and l was soon tearing
through the storm up the hill Once
fairly on my way / looked back below.
Dave English and Boone Helm were
bidding good by to two mounted cow
boys at the ferry house. Ten minutes
later as | looked back through the blind
| ing snow / saw that these two desperate
1 fellows were following me.
True. there was nothing criminal in
that. The two highwaymen had right
to ride behind me il they wished Aud
Canada Joe had just as good right to
ride ahead of me. But to be on horse
deep in the binding snow, and loaded
down with gold was bad enough. To
have desperate blocking the narrow
trail before you with his two friends
behind you was fearful
had two six shooters close at hand
under the bearslSin flap of my saddle
bag where the gold was. / kept my left
hand in my pocket where lay small
six shooter warm and ready. Once, as
the drifting aud binding snow broke
away up the mountain, l saw Canada
Joe with his head bentdown in the storm
still pushing on ahead of me at a safe
distance. A few moments after. as /
crossed and climbed the farther bank of
an ugly canyon, the two robbers came
close enough to hail me. One of them
held up a bottle. They evidently in-
tended to overtake me if they could, and
profess to be friendly. This must not
allow. urged my ambitious horse to
his best But, to my dismay, as l has
tened up a narrow pass / found that I
was not far behind Canada Joe. This
low browed black fellow was reported
to be the worst man in all that country.
And that was saying he was bad in
deed.
was in tight place now, and had to
think fast My first plan was to ride
forward and face this man before the
others came up But was really afraid
| Of him. It seemed a much easier task
to turn and kill the two rear men and
get back to town. But, mol Mol All
this was abandoned almost as soon as
thought of. In those days even the
most desperate had certain rights which
their surviving friends would enforce.
/ was now but few hundred yards
behind Canada Joe. So far as ] could
find out, the robbers we're closing in on
me. But we had ridden over the rough
est part of the road and were within .
few miles of the high plateau, so that
the wind was tearing past in a gale. and
the drifting snow almo st blinded me.
Suddenly had new thought Why
not take to the left. gain the plateau by
a new route, and let these bloodthirsty
robbers close their net without having
me inside? rose in my saddle with
excitement at the idea, and striking
spurs to my brave horse, was soon
climbing up the gradual slope at gall
Iop. Ali but / was gladl Gallopl gall
lopl gaIlop / seemed to hear many
horsesl Turning my head suddenly over
my shoulder, saw my two pursuers not
hundred yards behind me They
shoutedl WAS now on the high plateau
and the snow was not so deep Gailopl
gaIlopg galIopi Canada Joe-thank
heaxeni-was away to the right. andIfast
falling behind GaIIopI galIopi gallopl
was gaining on the robbers and they
knew it Fainter and fainter came their
curses and their shouts.
And then: Whizl Crack Thudl
looked back and saw that they both
had thrown themselves from their sad
dies and were taking deliberate aim
Bnt to no purpose. Not one shot
touched me on my horse, and / reached
GO .-s~k-~.-. 81 R~.TTw H. e~s&x.