The herald., 1894-12-18

after relieving him OF the mail ana
Wells-Fargo's box, Black Bard asked
him for a chew of tobacco. His nom de
| plume arose from the fact that, after ri
fling tine mail, he would jot down a
doggerel verse upon the back of some
| specially lucrative envelope-an extern
poraneous address of sympathy to the
owner 6f the package-and sign "The
Black Bard. ~, His final capture, after
many liberal rewards, was unique. Be-
ing interrupted in his self enforced in
spectorship of a mail, he departed, in
his haste leaving one Of his cuffs. This
was traced by the laundry mark TO San
Francisco and led to his capture. Stos
ries as to his prowess and the speed and
beauty of his horses are too numerous
to mention. His great virtue, SO the
people said,' was his liberality to the
poor, and the fact that he never robbed
from any one but the express company
and the mail. As we threaded the tor
tuous road we could easily imagine
bighwayman stepping from behind one
of the enormous trees and calling on
us to "hold up our hands.
d libbit We HdlU-
ed.awhile to.refresh both ourselves and
our horses. Here we calculated that we
were distant but eight miles from L.
L. and still had 90 more to go before
Id was reached. It being but little
past noon, our ride through LII
before dark and reaching Id in
good-time seemed foregone conclusion.
Nature, however. often upsets the best
of calculations, for scarcely were we
remounted when a heavy shower came
on, softening the road so as to makea
slow walk good speed. Our hopes fell
with the rain, which was dismal enough
in the big woods, rendering still darker
a gloomy way. To return was as far
out of our plan as to continue, the
woods at night being as dark AZ pock-
et L. L. must be our abiding place
perforoe. We consulted, therefore, as to
the best means to avoid trouble should
the inhabitants feel in a sportive mood.
1t being the middle of the week was
point in our favor, as there would in
all probability be few outsiders in town.
Our first care was Wilson, whose ver-
danoy was too apparent to conceal and
would no doubt render him more or less
butt of frontier wit. Bob advised him
to 60 to bed ct once on his arrival and
said by way Of induoement that he could
then watch our property, which we
would of course be obliged to leave in
our rooms Wilson was perfectly will
ing to do this, especially after Bob's
graphic description Of "the dancing
act, firing revolver under mans feet
to see if they are tender. Our most en-
phatic advice was not to show any mon
ey over that absolutely essential for his
expenses. The rain and mud had suffi
ciently taken the newness from our out
fit, and we thought we could represent
ourselves as going north to work on
some of the big ranches.
It was near dark when we reached
the town and slowly rode through the
one street on which it was built, look
ing for the best appearing hotel On
both sides were rows Of hotels, gam
bling houses, barrooms and stores,
sometimes separate, but oftener all COM
bined in one building. With the desire
! of getting as far as possible through the
town, we selected the last house on the
road and applied for shelter. The rain
had ceased, and the sky was beginning
| to clear. We almost regretted that we
had not decided to keep on, but the
horses were too tired to make the idea
feasible. AS we rode through the vii
lage the "stoop population" were in
terested enough to comment on the gen.
eral appearance of us and our horses,
but in no way other than common to
all western towns. One remark l re-
member, applying to Wilson: "That
yellow haired one on the mule is ten
derfoot' look at his chaps. " Will
son had leggings instead of boots
We went to stable between the no.
tel and woods, unsaddled our horses,
and taking our rifles. etc., went up to
our rooms. Bob and soon went down
to our supper, which was fairly good
for tho country. We told the people.
who seemed rough, but pleasant, that
our friend was too tired to come down
and secured supper for him. Taking
down his dishes, we sauntered into the
barroom and were agreeably disappoint-
| ed to find things fitted up as we'll as
elsewhere along the road. The building
was of class common in the west, an
oblong two story structure, with piazza
facing the street. Down stairs were the
barroom, kitchen, dining room and
owners living rooms, while the entire
second story was for guests This was
subdivided by narrow hall running
| lengthwise, leaving numerous small
| boxes called bedrooms on either side,
one row fronting the piazza and the
| street, and the other commanding an
! extensive rear view. AS we were about
the only guests, we had rooms in the
front row. The house was upholstered,
and only the lower floor rooms were
| ceiled.
Bob and I seated ourselves in the bar
room and answered the various ques-
tions commonly asked Of travellers and
! began to laugh at our fears, although
there were some pretty tough faces
among the auditors.
Our attention was attracted to a cow
boy who appeared stranger, like our
selves, and who volunteered the infor-
nation that he, too, was going to Id
in the morning Although we had al
ways made rule to be chary in talking
to strangers, there was something in
his face and manner attractive, and
found myself holding quite an animated
conversation with him. His name was
| Dick. This involved an invitation to