The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1892-07-15
la LEoNA'S VENGEANCE.
How . Beautiful Mexican Girl
Avenged the Murder Of
Her Lover.
Led Into . Death Trap by q Wo-
man Who P~rofessed
Love.
Before He Had Met Her She II nd Loved
Anothor-A story OF Frontier
Life.

Life,
There il an i~ntoxicntion in the shedding OF
human blood that il fortunately given 70
but few mon to know. A hundred years
ago this blood drunkenpesa was recognized
BY the law prohibiting butchers from serv-
ing as jurymen. It ia still recognized on
bur frontiers, Whole tho restraints Of law
ate not so righteous AZ in %populous commu-
mites. A half cor years ago 1t was more
common than at present. There were but few
sections then but had their blood dipsomani-
acs. New Mexico had one, says the San Fran
cisco Argonaut, and his name was Billy An
trim. He was only a boy when he got his
frat taste Of blood. When death overlook
him he was but %. yet ho was known to
have killed more mon than there were years
In his age. All but his mother rejolced at
his death az il a pestilence has been stayed.
She grieved for hin rs only a mother
grieves, aud when his body was thrown on
the desert like a dog's-for no man would
shelter it beneath his roof-she watched 1t
In solitude to keep the vultures from de-
stroying II, until men grew intolerant OF
it's corruption of the air, and buried 1t out
Of sight as a thing too unclean to be seen.
There was another woman. though, that
rejoiced to see his body Tester and swell
and blacken. Still the dead man had loved
Der, and she had lived with him, as a wife
lives with a husband, yet it was not Tor
jealousy she killed him. Before she had
met him she had loved another man. His
name was Charley Clancy. He was fore
man of the H-B Cattle company. on the
Rio Grande, near l'ulerosn. He, too, was
= young man just from Tie
east, with no more business to be
in New Mexico at that time than
a preacher has in purgatory. When he had
first met the girl it was in Las Cruces-that
strange little town near the Mexican line
whose history runs back to the Spanish
conquest. He was young and green, and
perhaps homesick, and it was not long be.
foo be was in love with n girl Of alien race,
for she was O Mexican. After that he
found the ranch moe and more lonesome.
and Las G uces mora and moro pleasant.
Ono day while he was there there was a
prisoner brought into town whose presence
created moe excitement than if he had
been the governor of the territory, for" it
WAS this man. Billy Antrim, Every one
crowded to sec the desperate, and with
them went Clancy, for no man was ever
more feared or more noted for his f%erocity.
SO great was the terror inspired by his
deeds that when his trial came there were
few men who would serve az jurors. Among
those who did serve was Charley Clancy.
He was young and green, and they made
him foreman of the jury. When the girl
learned this she implored Clancy. in her
terror. to withdraw, hut he only smiled at
Lxt fears and answered her tears with
kisses. She was a native OF the county
and he a stranger, but, boylike, he thought
he knew it all. v~s~at- go. ss4.n~ .-,~
When the trial was ended and the death
sentence imposed, for that was the only YER
dict possible, Clancy returned to his ranch
and his cattle, promising the girl not to be
long absent. While he was gone the man
whose death he had voted for escaped from
prison. Thu Judge who had presided at the
trial. in his terror left the county and went
to Santa Fe to be safe. and the girl wrote to
CLANCY to be on his guard and come to her
at once. Womanlike, she thought that
while with her no danger could reach him.
He received the letter and. manlike. thought
1t would not do TO leave his ranch as 1t IN
fear.
While he waited and debated when it
would do to 90 to her. one morning there
rode up to his door two men, and ono of
them was Antrim. When he saw them it
was too late for Clancy to arm himself. All
he could do was to answer their questions
and submit to becoming their prisoner.
The men took their lariats and tied him in
front Of his door to a post, and then An.
trim told him that he intended to kill him.
CLANCY knew tho man too we'll to ask for
mercy. If he was to be killed he would
meet death like a man. It was hard:
though. to leave the girl without n word
When be was tied go that he could not
move hand or foot, Antrim walked off
twenty or thirty PAGES. and drawing his re-
volver, called Clancy's attention to his
right wrist and nted. CLANCY could no
longer feel that below that wrist he had =
hand. When he tried to move his fingers
the muscles seemed to have grown sud-
denly numb.
Antrim laughed and asked him what he
thought Of suoh Workmanship. The boy
did not answer. A new hope. though, had
come into his breast. They would not kill
the girl to help hin he would not mind that.
Anything but separation from her.
Then Antrim spoke to him again and
fred, and the same numb feeling came into
his loft hand below the wrist. where he had
felt tho second pistol bali oruzh through the
Surely this man who looked SO boyish and
innocent would be satisfied with This much
in revenge and now show him mercy.
II Charley CLANCY had not been fresh from
the east he would know that this was point
ing' a man to dsath-an old method Of tor
ture caught from tho Indians.
Shot after shot Antrim put into his arms
and legs until you could have twisted them
like a piece of rubber bose in any direction
you desired. Between the shots he and his
companion would smoke their cigarettes and
Test and divide the plumber they had taken
from the house. And CLANCY would faint
with pain and weakness AZ the hot sun beat
regain consciousness until Antrim had
fired Two or three shots in succession into
his body: He never showed tho white
feather. though. Whom he found that it
was too late to hope for life. even il the
best surgeons in Christendom stood ready
to care for his wounds, he simply thought
of the girl, and cursed in his scorn the
cowardice of the man who Was numbering
him. 7&=f
Everything must have an end, though.
70 it is with ''pointinR.' When the day
had nearly passed away and tho sun was
sinking in the west, leaving the lonely
house on the unbroken mesa in darkness,
Antrim grew tired OF tho sport, and told
Clancy so, and while telling 1t he emptied
his revolver into the stomach and bowels of
the man tied to the stake. Then he and
his comrade saddled their horses, aud
CLANCY, dying o. he was. wondered II they
were going to leave him to the night and
darkness. when the coyotes, attracted by
his blood, would come to continue the work
that day had seen begun. His mind WAS