Birmingham age-herald., 1895-01-10
BILL CODY ON BEARS.
EXCITING STORY OF THE DAYS OF
 THE PONY EXPRESS.

'I have not yet exhausted the subject of tho pony express, began Colonel Will liam F. Cody "Lot me tell you of one of my bear stories. Captain Slade of the express had taken a great fancy to mo and had mado mo kind of supernumerary rider who only went when it was nccessa- ". So had good deal of time on my hands. To put in my time 1 would fre- qucntly go hunting for bears.
 'One cool autumn day l took an express nony, good rifle and n pair of revolvers and started for the foothills of Laramie peak I rode along until 2 o'clock in the afternoon. Although I knew from the tracks in tho snow that bears were in the iieighborhood, had not succeeded in find in,; any. Feeling hungry, l shot sage hen, tied my horso to tree and built q fire, on which I proceeded to broil my chicken. After good dinner and short rest starred out again. As my friends nll knew that had gone out for bears, thought that I would rather spend all night in tho place than go back empty handed.
 Night caino on, and still no bears. decided to camp out Shooting couple m 1rc sago hens, I hunted up m empty place in tho timber near little mountain stream. Here dismountcd. I made all preparations to build fire when was startled by hearing not far off tho neigh of a horse. Where there is horse thero undoubtedly must be a man. But what sort of q man was he! Was he whto or Indian, an honest man or q crookf That . was tho question l determined to solve before let him know l was in the neigh borhood. So I tied my horse to tree, and taking my rife with mo l crept eau tiously up the stream.
 "I had not gone more than 400 yards when, turning the bend in the stream. came in sight of a dozen horses grazing. On tho opposite side of tho stream light was shining high up on tho mountain bank. l waded across, and cautiously ap preaching tho light l soon found that it came from dugout, or cave, in the bank. Soon 1 heard voices. Then l could dis tinguish words and found that they came from white men who spoke my own Ian guaSc. I concluded that they must be a party of trappers, so boldly walked up and knocked at the door. Instantly the voices were hushcd to whisper. Then one of them called out;
 "'Who's there"
 "A friend, white man, replied.
 "An uncouth looking man opened the door and invited mo to come in. The light then revealed dozen other occu. pants of the room of an equally repulsive appearance. Among them I recognized two men who had once been teamsters in tho train of Lew Simpson, had been dis charged few months before and had then disappeared. It was said that they had robbed and murdered ranchman and gono off with his horses.
 II acknowledge that my heart failed me for the moment, but I gave no outward sign of tho fact I determined to chat with the men for a few moments, to tell them as littlo as conld about myself and take the earliest opportunity of leaving.
 Well, young man. said the fellow who appeared to be tho leader, who are you. and what arc you doing herea"
 '''I came from Horseshoe station this morning, I replied. I am searching for bear, and as did not find any decided to camp out aud stay here all night, but hearing your horses noigh came up here.
 "'Are you alonep
 "'Quite alone
 "'Where is your horsep' "'I left him down the stream
 We'll, said the captain, VIC will go down for it.
 That was exactly what I wished to
 
 they would cut mo off from all possibility of escape. had shrewd suspicion that they were party of horse thieves, and that would find them ugly customers.
 No, captain, said as chcerily as l could I will leave my gun here, and l will go back for my horse and stay with you all night if you will give inc the ac- commodations.
 ''I thought that if left my gun behind mo they would be sure l would come back for it. My real intention, however, was to sacrifice 1t and get away from that spot as quickly as possible. Tho ruff1ans evi- dently saw through my plan, for two of them spoke up and said, We will go down with you to get your horse, and you will leave your gun behind you
 "There was nothing to do but to con sent. After all thought to myself, will be better off with two of the scoun- drels than with the whole party, and de- cided in my own mind to look out for the first opportunity of giving them the go by. When we came up to the horse, one of tho men unhitched it and said, I will lead it.
 "'All right, said l, with assumed care lessness I have a couple of sage hens here that killed for my supper and break
 
 "I picked up tho hens and followed the man who was leading the horse. It bad now become quito dark. l put my hands in my pocket and drew out my re- volver. Tho gang had omitted to search me. Thon, as if by accident, l dropped one of the sage hens.
 "'Will you kindly pick it up?' said to the man who was following mo.
 He stopped down. Instantly knock ed him over the head with the butt end of the revolver. He fell scnseless. The crash startled the man in front of me, and he wheeled round quick us a flash, with his hand upon tho revolver. But was quick. or than he. One shot, and he fell to tho ground in his death agony. I jumped upon my horse and urged him to race for his life From the noiso behind me could dimly make out that the shot had been heard by tho men in the dugout; that they had rushed out in body and had learned the story from the man l had knocked down and had started in pursuit of me. They were on foot, but in that rough and wooded country man could make his way quicker on foot than he could on horseback. found that they were gain ing on me- At last had to abandon my horse. 1 leaped off his back, gave him