The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1891-10-16
HUNTING A DESPERATE.
Marine Leyba's Daring Life and Sudden
Death.

sentenced to seven years at hard labor
for stealing horse and attempting to
kill the officer who arrested him He
was Mexican, ~ giant in stature, and
tiger in disposition, and when in the
mood would fight anything. He would
kill man as quick as he would RABBIT.
He was notorious as a horse thief long
before the law gripped him. But back
of his artistic method of taking the
horses and cattle of the ranchers was
dark background Of more serious crimes.
Col. Potter, an eastern capitalist with
large investments in New Mexico, trav-
eled g lonely trail in the Sandia noun
tains once too often. His body was
found, or rather the charred remains
for an attempt had been made to Gre
mate it, with d bullet hole in the head
The murder was charged to a band of
robbers which at that time infested the
Sandals, and Leyba was known to be
one of their number-probably the
leader. This was within thirty miles of
Santa Fe and Albuquerque, where Col
Potter had many friends. People de-
termined to break up the gang, whose
operations were around the mining
camps of San Pedro Dolores, and Gold
en-, and organized posse for that pur-
pose. They cornered the gang in a
Nlittle Mexican town and swung every
ofe of them from the projecting vegas
by lariats-all except Leyba, who was
not there.
He organized another band of stock
thieves, who carried on their business
for two years, with certain pretended
ranchman to handle the goods. The
ranchman quarrcled with Leyba over
the price of Il stolen horse and was
shrewd en- ough to land him in the peni-
Tertiary for seven years. The murder
of Col. Potter had not been forgotten,
but time and the summary execution of
all but one of the gang had lcssened
public indignation; besides all who
might have been witnesses against
Leyba were dead, and seven years was
long sentence. During the trial the
desperate threatened to kill the prose
cutting attorney, William Breeder; but
once within the stone walls. covered by
shotguns during the day, and locked in
a strong seven by five cell at night,
Lcyba changed his tactics and became
a model of good behavior and industry.
He was the best brickmolder in the
yard, and whenever row occurred
among the convicts he always helped
the officers to quell it. One day Carlos
Jacome, a belligcrent young Mexican
convict, who wore ShackleS most of the
time for bad conduct, started a fight,
and with blow from his fist Leyba
knocked him into helpless heap At
an opportune time the ranchman who
had sent Leyba to the penitcntiary APP
peared before the governor seemingly
much cast down and conscience-trOu-
blcd. lie apolOgized for his hand in the
affair. His dreams We're haunted and
his Weakening thoughts We're bitterness
itself. Leyba was innocent and he
pleaded for pardon. The fact was
that the business of stealing horses and
cattle was languishing in the absence
of the alert and daring manager. In the
! course of time the governor was per-
suaded and the prisoner got his pardon.
Once more in the wilds of Sandals
Leyba lost no time in making himself a
GtiIOI w lIC IJCOlllC lie hucW
every trail, every rocky canon, the al
most impenetrable and silent forest
which shielded only the mountain lion
and the bear-Safe retreats after eXcur-
sions to the mining camps and ranches
There were murders and robberies by
somebody well posted on the comings
and goings along the mountain roads
AT first the desperate was seldom seen.
Afterwards he grew bolder and APP
peared in San Pedro, Golden and Ger
rillas, where he drank and caroused
with men who did not care to fight so
long as they were unmolested. lie was
| always well armed, fearless, an uner-
| ring shot. and his back never turned
towards anybody who might be likely
| to take it for mark. He had his
friends among eX-convicts and other
hard characters. And there were men,
too, who would have been willing to
put the finishing touch on his career,
only that there were so many pistols
about and skilled hands to manipulate
them that there would have been "a
wholesale killing.
But this could not last. 1t hurt these
fiourishing mining camps, kept investi-
gators out and capital away, and made
life too exciting and uncertain. A
strong protest went up to the sheriff of
Santa Fe county, and he at once com
! missioned two men as deputies, who
were well fitted to carry out their di-
rections, to take Leyba alive or dead.
These deputy sheriffs We're Joaquin
Montoya, an eX-guard at the peniten-
tiary, handy in the use of the knife and
pistol and Carlos ,Jacome, the victim of
Leyba' fist, who had finished his term
in the penitentiary.
They were well mounted and each
armed with brace of forty .fves The
middle of the afternoon of the second
| day they were up in the mountains on
very faint trail running in the direction
from which Leyba had been seen to en-
! ter Golden. 1t was twilight under the
dense spruce and pine trees, and the
bottom of the great canon above which
the trail wound was as black as night
They slowly turned the corner of big
lava bowlder and stopped-face to face
with the outlaw, who sat on his horse
not twenty yards away with cooked
pistol in each hand. Their pistols were
Al. L. ~