Santa Fe daily New Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1885-1897, 1897-07-29

shock, that they wore all negroes, and the
| foremost no other than that yellow rascal,
| Gilead Mack
Then the whole matter became clear to
me. had, no doubt, been enticed on to
| this lonely beach by forged note, Gilead
was quite smart enough for that
You never know what you can do till
| you have to- And I venture to say few
| professionals would have been in it with
me at the speed acquired within the next
| two minutes. Had the beach been only
sound all the way, should have been all
right but unfortunately the tide was half
way in and the good ground narrowing.
Soft spots impeded me, and at the end of
another three miles my pursuers were still
within sight and hearing.
And then another thought occurred to
me = the remembrance of that mile or
more of soft, sandy road across the scrub,
where a bicycle would be useless, and my
hunters on their ponies would have me alb
solutely at their mercy. Could possibly
get sufficient start before reaching the
turnp
At the entrance to the scrub road was
but 700 or 800 yards in front of the fore
most of the negroes. My one chance now
was to continue straight away up the beach
and endeavor to wear their animals down.
On and on, mile after mile, on the whole
increasing my lead. Even though COM
PEELED once or twice to dismount, rarely
less than mile ahead.
had reached part of the beach totally
unknown to me, but the going was good,
and again slowly gained. Their beasts
were obviously tagging, and they no lon
ger kept together. If could but hold out
another few miles, l might hope to COM
pletely distance them.
The shore before me took wide curve,
the first bend for 80 miles or more
rounded it, and, at the pace / was going,
as nearly as possible drove machine and all
into a great inlet half mile wide through
which the rapidly rising tide was flowing
in toward the lagoon at between two and
three knots an hour
was trapped. Certainly could swim
little, but nowhere near enough to cross
this wide, rapid estuary. Should / take to
the scrub? 1t seemed the only possible al.
tentative
And then an inspiration came to me.
My pursuers were more than mile be-
hind, as far as I could judge l had there
fore six to seven minutes in hand. Throw.
ing the bicycle on the sand, in almost less
time than it takes to write it had DICTATED
and stripped off both the tires. In very
few moments I had pumped them full
arfesh. Then l kicked off my boots, and
having with my belt secured both the air
filled tubes under my arms, plunged bold
ly into the ripping, moonlit water.
A growl of disappointed rage from my
baffled pursuers rang through the night,
and then crack crack, couple of pistol
bullets flew high over my head and rico
cheted in the wavelets beyond But a
mans head, bobbing about hundred
yards away, is poor mark by moonlight,
and an instant later | was whirled safely
around the corner Of the bluff, and soon
out into midstream beyond
The water was quite warm and little
danger Of sharks inside the bar. But
was at the mercy of the tide and did not
know how long it might be before I
might be able to land. In half an hour I
was through the line and adrift on tho
wide bosom of the Indian river
Here the current bore me southwark,
and all night was carried on. Dawn and
the turn of the tide found me weak and
exhausted close to small islet which I
recognized as only a couple of miles north
of our camp. Here managed to struggle
ashore and stretched myself in the long,
coarse grass where the welcome sunlight
soon dried my saturated garments and
body.
In the course of the morning was tax
en- off by fishing boat and landed safe at
the camp, where my arrival caused, as I
had expected, surprise. Northcott declared
he had sent ME no message
What was more to the point, as far as l
was concerned, he gave me another weeks
leave, and you may believe didn't lose
much time IN getting down again to Port
Lea. But this time I stuck to the river,
getting passage on small schooner.
None of us ever set eyes on them again.
Only short time ago, though, my wife,
formerly Miss Lena Warburton, came to |
me in some excitement with paper |
which gave graphic account Of the cap |
ture and subsequent lynching of big
mulatto whose name was supposed to be |
Gilead Mack. He had been caught in the |
very act Of firing the barns of man who
had employed him.
My wife and l live in cottage near
Port Lea, and ours are now by no means
the only bicycles you may see spinning
down the beach by moonlight.