Passaic City record., 1895-01-19
A MOUNTAIN HEROINE.
BY W. J. HAMPTON.


man, smoking bad cigar, gave
.light cough indicative of beginning a
yarn himself. The listeners gave him
their attention at once.
'.Let her CO." said the man from
Chicago encouragingly.
sHow did you know 1 had anything
to say?" asked the man.
.'You looked it, said Chicago.
"Well, I have" laughed the man,
''and I've got an affidavit to go with
mine. Have you got one for that you
told?"
4"Oh, yes,'' grinned Chicago, s'and
I'll show it to you when you've had
your say"
'tDon't forget that, gents" said the
man, turning to the listeners. "And
now for mine. Five years ago I was
deputy United States marshal in
southeastern Kentucky, and most of
my business was with moonshiners. I
had pretty fair success and bagged
lot of them, but there was one, the
chief of the gang and the worst of
them all, that we couldn't get our
hands on. One day, however, word
came to me that he was at his cabin in
the mountains, and if I could get
there with force of men we might
surround the place and capture him,
as he had just come in and expected to
get out again before we should hear
anything of him. In ten minutes |
was on my way to his cabin with ten
men, all armed with heavy revolvers,
and all moving out by different ways,
SO as not to excite suspicion and let
him get on to our movements. We
were to meet at a point about half
mile from his house and then swoop
down on it and take him in. The first
part of the programme went off all
right, and an hour after / had heard
he was at home had his house sur
rounded Then rode up to the door
and yelled hello, and woman came
out.
Where's your husband?" Iasked,
for I knew her quite we'll.
"EWhat do you want Nv him?' she
responded.
"'I want to see him.
"TWell You can't
But I'm going to, just the same.
I heard he was here not an hour ago,
and he's got to come this time.
"sI reckon not, she said, and
lodged in, shutting the door after her
with slam, and barring it on the in
side, as could very plainly hear.
tThen, before we had chance to
make rush, gun went off in the
house and bullet went 'spat' against
tree near me. I thought it was time
to get under cover, and did so with
promptness and dispatch, and at once
ordered my men to close up and fire
on the house. This they did with
pleasure, but we might as we'll have
fired at stockade, for the cabin was
built of heavy logs, and nothing short
of mountain howitzer could have
had any serious effect upon it. We
banged away, though, and every now
and then shot came from the inside
disagreeably near us. One time, when
one of my men showed up where he
could get shot at the only pane of
! glass visible, two shots came after him
SO closely that he stayed in hiding for
the rest of the time. This was about
nine o'clock in the morning, and we
at last concluded that, as there were
! children and woman in the house
with our mountaineer, we could not
very well burn it down, even if we
could get close enough to fire it; we
would simply camp on their trail and
T, starve them out. So we took our
places to command every point to pre-
vent escape and waited. At intervals
shot would come from the cabin,
but we would pay no attention to it,
thinking that our man might think we
had gone and come out. but he didn't,
and the long day wore on. 1t waf
raining, too, after noon, and we were