Hot Springs weekly star. (Hot Springs, S.D.) 1892-1917, 1893-12-29
oUTwrrTED THE BANDITS.
Adventure in a Mountain Pass Back o,
Acapulco.

III you are going to travel alone in
this country you must carry two rcvolv-
ers, but one Of them may be worthless;
in fact it may be better to have one of
them of somewhat old-fashioncd make"
said Mr.. j. V. Hawkins, of Pueblo,
Mexico. "Mexico has improved mar
vellously in the past ten years, but ban
dts arc still too numerous, and can
tell you how to protect yourself by relat-
ing the experience of q friend of mine.
His name was Mccoy Shepard, and he
was on his way alone from Acapulco to
the capital. It is an easily followed
trail; he had been over it once, and he
spoke the language very well. He had
little thought of danger, although hold
ups are common enough on that route.
but he went prepared for business. He
put in the holster of his saddle A
calibrc revolver loaded with cartridges
that barely had enough powder in them
to blow the bullets out of the muzzlc,
and then i'll the small of his back he
hung the handiast 3S-calibrc he
could find when in Frisco. He was
making trap, and it worked.
''It happened that us he was coming
down out of the main range three road
agents stepped from the rocks beside the
road and had him cornered before he
could whistle. They were armed with
shotguns as we'll as maohetcs, but for
some reason did not shoot before they
spoke, as not infrequcntly happens.
They invited Mac to get down, and lie
did perforcc. Then one of them took
the big revolver from the holster.
IL g., l>:z
"'Yes,' said Mac, but it's worth
less thing after all. Inever want to kill
any one. 1 only carry it because must
make people think am armed
"The bandits laughed at that. 1t was
incredible that such pistol should be
worthless, and they said so.
But. gentlemen, will put my hat
in the road and you may shoot at it with
the pistol. The bullet will not go
through the hat
''At that he took off his hat, gor-
geous Mexican affair that cost $50 in
Acapulco. and put it on rock, not ten
feet away, and stepped back toward but
about five feet at one side of the bandits.
They were interested at once. The idea
was novel to them. The man with the
pistol aimed deliberately and fred at the
hat. Then she three ran to look at the
effect of the shot. Macs turn to shoot
had come. Whipping out the unnoticed
revolver he.shot two of them down before
they could turn on him. The third did no
more than turn round before he caught
his dose 40 we'll.
''Leaving everything as tlay-bodies,
guns, hat, and all, Mac sat down in the
shade of rock and waited for some one
to come along. He did not even reload
his revolver. He had to make out a
good case before the Government Off
cials, and he knew just how to do it.
sAfter an hour or so u native planter
with his servant came riding along.
"'Have the goodness to inform the
Alcalde that an American gentleman has
had trouble here with bandits,' said he
to the native, and the native did as re-
quested, of course. Three or four hours
later came the Alcalde of the next place
with half dozen soldiers. Mac told his
story briefly, and the Alcalde noted each
point of it with the corroborating evil
dcnce on the ground.
"'You have done well,' he said. 4
know the rascals we'll. You have saved
CaItIAuSes AoI my eViuieES Oy klAluS
them
"Then ne stopped. He could not un.
derstand how the big revolver had failed
to shoot through the hat. He thought
there was some kind of necromancy
about It. So Mac cut bullet from q
cartridge and showed that the usual
powder space was for the most part
filed with cork. The Alcalde turned
the cork in his hand and then said:
"sThose wise Yankees! But they do
by subtlety what we would do by valori
"Thsn Mac gathered up his hat and
revolver, mounted his mule. aud rode on
with the Alcalde, leaving the soldiers ID
look after the dead bandits. Take my
word for II, and carry good gun ont ol
sight when travelling in Mexico, and
another whore ell can go it."-fNeV