The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1894-02-15
CHAPTER. VI

CHAPTER vi.
Harvey could not long have lain I'M
conscious. No bones were broken, no
severe conclusion sustained in the rapid
drag over the sandy surface, and the
awful sense of the calamity that had
befallen HIM and the dread and doubt
as to the fate of his beloved ones seemed
to rally his stunned and bewildered fac
ulties and bring him face to face with
the horror of the situation. Barely able
to breathe, he found himself rudely
gagged. Striving to raise his hand
to tear the hateful bandage away, he
found that he was pinioned by the ell
bows and bound hand and foot by the
very RATA probably that had dragged
him thither. No doubt as to the ma
ionality of his unseen captors here.
The skill with which he had been
looped, tripped, whisked away and
bound-the sharp, biting edges, even the
odor of dirty rawhide rope-all told
him that, though Americans were not
lacking in the gang, his immediate an
tagonists hailed from across the Sonora
line. Who and what they were mat
tered little, however. The fact that
after hours of repulse in open attack
the foe had all on a sudden carried their
castle by a damnable ruse was only too
forcibly apparent. Writing, struggling
in miserable effort to free himself from
his bonds, poor Harvey's burning eyes
were maddened by the picture before
him only couple of hundred yards
away.
There in the fierce light of the flames
now bursting from every window and
roaring and shooting high in air from
the brush heaped roof of Moreno's
ranch-there stood the Concord wagon.
stalwart men clinging to the heads of
the plunging and excited mules, big
ruffian already in the drivers seat,
whip and reins in hand; there beside
it was the paymaster's ambulance, into
which three of the gang were just SHOW
ing the green painted iron safe-the
Pandora's box that had caused all their
sorrows-there Moreno's California
blackboard, pressed into service and be-
ing used to carry the wounded, drawn
by the extra mules, and then-God of
heaven! what sight for brothers. eyes
to see and make no sign!-then one big
brute lifted from the ground and hand
ed up to fellow already ensconced
within the covered wagon the senseless,
perhaps ifeless, form of pretty little
Ruth, his fathers idol. The poor child
lay unresisting in the ruffian's arms,
but not so Paquita. It took two men,
strong and burly, to lift and force her
into the dark interior, and one of these,
to the uttermost detail of his equip
ment, was to all appearance trooper
Of the United States cavalry.
There stood his painting horse with
hanging head and jaded withers. the
very steed whose rush they had well
coined with such exceeding joy, sad
died, bridled, blanketed, saddlebagged,
lariated, side lined, every item complete
and exactly as issued by the ordnance
department.. The trooper himself wore
the field uniform of the cavalry-the
dark blue blouse, crossed by the black
carbine sling, whose big brass buckle
Ned could even now see cleaning be-
tween the broad shoulders and gath
cred at the waist by the old fashioned
"thimble belt' the troop saddlers used
to make for field service before the
woven girdle was devised. Even
more. Harvey in his misery remem-
bered the thrill Of joy with which he
had noted, as the splendid rider refined
in and threw himself from the saddle,
the crossed sabers, the troop letter sc"
and the regimental number cleaning
at the front of his campaign hat.
Who-who could this be, wearing the
honorable garb of a soldier of the United
States, yet figuring as ringleader in a
band of robbers and assassins now add
ing rapine to- their calendar of crime
Edward Harvey's heart almost burst
with helpless rage and wretchedness
when he saw his precious sisters
dragged within the canvas shelter-saw
the tall, uniformed brigand leap lightly
after them and heard him shout to the
ready driver, "Now, off with you'll
Crack! went the whip as the men
sprang from the heads Of the frantic
mules, and with a bound that nearly
wrenched the trace hooks from the stout
whippletree the Concord went spin
ming over the sands to the south, whirl-
ing 80 near him that over the thud Of
hoofs and whirl Of wheels a-,1 c-c:'- cf