The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-10-24

| means bad, yet this fellow would frequently
roll out of his bunk-by the way, he slept
on the floor while he lived with us; we only
| had one bed-before daylight, saddle his
| horse and be away all day. / have often
| since wondered If visonseo of house out on
| the open prairie a motherly old lady,
handsome young girl and good home cook
| ing had anything to do with those early ris-
ings. 1 never asked him. One morning
shortly after daylight while Granville and
I were debating as to whose turn it was
to get up and start the fire. Rogers opened
the door and dropped into a chair. We had
not seen him since the previous noon. He
usually had a buoyant, clipper air. and his
I clothes sat neatly on him On this occa-
sion he would not have passed for a cow
boy dude. He was covered with mud, half
| dried by dust and his ragged coat showed
1 an unmistakable acquaintance with BRAN
BILE bushes. His usually neatly arranged
belts and holsters were much awry. and
there had been quite a drain on his cart
ridge supply. He grinned in a comical way
at our looks of wonder, and remarked that
they nearly got him that time. He had been
| back to the town. He had got wind that
! some old friends of his were to be there
! on a certain night, and he had gone to meet
! them 1t is perhaps unnecessary to say that
| these friends were highwaymen of some
| sort. From the size of the rolls of money
some were seen to have, it was judged they
| Were train robbers. Rogers had loafed
| around on his horse in the neighborhood of
the town till dark, and then hitching his
| horse to the fence that surrounded the little
| graveyard, he had stolen into Chihuahua,
the Mexican quarter of the town, where he
! met his friends. On his return to his horse
it at once became evident that his visit had
| not been as secret as he could have wished.
AS he reached to unite the animal he was
| almost blinded by the fash from two shot
| guns whose contents were intended fov him.
| Those who knew Rogers explain the mis-
| carriage of those voleys easily enough
tuck fever Thees two men knew with
whom they had to deal They had waited
! in that lonely spot so long that their cour-
| age had had a chance to ooze In the glar-
| ing light of a saloon, surrounded by royster-
ing companions, they had been told by some
passer-by that a horse looking suspiciously
| like the one Rogers was last seen on was
hitched to the graveyard fence. Here was
a chance to gain notoriety similar to that
| gained by Bob Ford when he shot Jesse
| James. One of these men was the deputy
sheriff of the town and had carried until it
| had become "shop worn" q warrant for
Rogers's arrest. The other was an aspirant
| for bad man" honors. Poor fellows! The
] change from a glazing saloon to a lonely
| graveyard was great and their wait was a
prolonged one Every vestige of whisky
| courage had had chance to ooze out of
them before the crisis came, and it had
| taken the opportunity. The deputy sheriff,
when l next met him, poor and forlorn, and
| just back from an Eastern hospital, where
| he had had one leg removed at the hip joint,
told me that they never intended to assas-
| sinate Rogers; that they simply were to tell
him, when he came for his horse, to throw
up his hands, and then lead their captive
| into town. He also told me that their poor
| showing as short-range marksmen was due
| to their having been kept waiting so long
! in a crouched position that when the time
! came to arise and demand surrender they
were both stiff, and that one had stumbled
against the other. causing the gun of each
to be discharged at random. Rogers was
certain that command to throw up hands
was given. He carried one short revolver of
large caliber and without trigger Before
the flashes from the shotguns had fairly
died away this weapon was directed towards
them, while its hammer was rapidly beaten
backwards with the palm of the disengaged
hand. This novel way of emptying revol-
| Yer has a Calling -gun-lke effect, and the
two mon, who were not expecting such a
prompt response, dropped hurriedly back
into clump of scrub-oak bushes for shell
ter. Rogers gave the cowboy war cry,
| Hide outi'' as he emptied his other revolt
yer into the darkness, and then, realizing at
| what disadvantage he would soon be, with
the whole town aroused, retreated, leaving
his horse still tied to the fence The better
to cover his retreat he had sought arroyos
and creek bottoms and the distance he
had to travel to reach his temporary home
| was twenty-three miles, it is not surprising
that when he dropped in on Granville and
me his appearance somewhat dishev-
eled Rogers was not tender-hearted, and
if he was ever troubled with remorse he did
not show it, He told me that on one occa-
| son when he was boss of a branding outfit
in Texas several darkeys whom he had un-
der him became mutinous. He knocked one
of them down with branding iron and the
fellows head landed in the live Goals of the
fire. He was not in the Red Cross work at
that minute, and, instead of rescuing the
poor fellow from certain death, he planted
his foot on his neck while, with drawn re-
volvers, he ordered the other fellows to
clear out. 1t is no matter of remark that
the poor fellows eyes, whose head was in
the fire, popped like roasting chestnuts, but
it was Rogers's cold-blooded way of telling
it, he told it with glee. A day or two after
his little adventure at the graveyard I was
the first to learn and tell Rogers that one
of his snap shots had taken effect in the
deputy's leg. His eyes twinkled and look
of pleasure spread over his face as though
] had just announced to him that he had
drawn a capital prize. THAT fellow is a
hard drinker," he said. land the chances
are that he dies of blood poisoning" The
deputy did suffer from blood poisoning, and
his leg was amputated twice, and at last
entirely removed before he recovered.
Efforts to capture Rogers were redoubled
Armed squads of horsemen secured the
country, and particularly our neighborhood,
! but without getting sight of their man.
| When they called at our shanty and asked
about him it happened that we could truth
fully answer that we did not know where
he was. Ia fact. we seldom knew where he
kept himself in the daytime, and as the
| courage of those who sought him seemed
| to go down with the sun, we were never
| bothered at night. One morning after Rog-
ers had left us for the day, and Granville
and l were trying to coax our horses within
reach by shaking a few grains of corn in
nose bags, Granville suddenly threw down
! his bag and rushed into the house. He re-
| appeared in a minute with rifle, and in
less than another minute he had emptied it's
| magazine at a herd of deer thar WAS maxi