Santa Fe new Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1898-1951, 1898-12-13
OVER THE TRAIL.

~ took a ride in one of them palace cars
while I was gone" said Hank as he
took a scat on a box in the shade of the
big mesquite tree in front of the c%ookhouse
where the boys of the day shift generally
congregate after supper to smoke and talk
over the incidents of the day.
"The first mornin we was clippin
along through a country that 1 knowed
every foot of; used to drive u stage over it
year ago. I knowed every valley, crick,
foothill and mountain butte. l knowed
we was comm to the head of Devils guloh,
where Jumpup Johnny used to live before
the 'Rapahoes got him, and l begin to
wonder if they would go down the trail at
the gait we was knockin off then. l sort
of grabbed the seat and held on, but, sir,
they dropped over the hill so easy that If
I'd a. shet my eyes l would not have
knowed it." He ''grabbed the seat, and
yet day after day down that same gulch
on a worse ~"trail' he had sent six thor
%oughbreds on a dead run, dragging after
them a swaying s~tagecoach, where the
fall of a horse or the slip of a wheel would
have hurled all to destruction.
"The last time I pulled Uncle Ben Hal
liday over that trail we was jumped by
'Rapahoes. We didn't happen to have any
outbound passengers that mornin, only
me and Uncle Ben and his niggers, and
the express and mail. We was a-sailin
along when I noticed some pony tracks in
the trail, and says to Uncle Ben, Get the
gun ready, for VIC are apt to be jumped by
%Injins.' Just then we topped a little rise,
and there was a band of 'Rapahoes about
400 yards away. Take a shot at EN- I
says. / had a good Henry rifle, and Uncle
Ben blazed away, but for some reason
missed, and they come for lis. Uncle Ben
got sorter white about the mouth, but set
tied down in the seat and says quiet like:
"'I guess we'd better move along,
Hank
Gan right I says. Hold tight.
There was nothin but thoroughbreds on
Uncle Ben's lines through the Injin coun-
tries. He wouldn't have a boss that could
not do his mile in less than two minutes
on them runs, and I'll bet he thanked his
God for it that day. Maybe we didn't go.
You bet l kept my foot off the brake and
made that 20 foot lash whistle and snap
over them thoroughbred backs. This,
with the Injins yellin and shootin behind,
sent us into the Willows ahead of time. !
begun to blow my horn long before we got
to the station, and the stock tenders and
guards knowed there was somethin wrong
and come out to meet us. When the Injins
saw them, they went the other way.
"Well, sir, the 'Rapahoes used to u
me into the stations time and again. I've
had the coach riddled with bullets and ar
rows, and once 1 went into n station with
an arrow in the flank of the nigh wheeler.
One time I remember J. had all army colo
mel and his wife and children, a captain
and his wife and their servants, all bound
for Fort Laramie. We was jumped by In
inns and piled the mail and cushions about
the women and children in the bottom of
the stage and started in to make a runnin
flght. Them officers was dead game, you
bet, and for miles and miles we put up the
prettiest runnin fight that a man would
want to see. 1t was touch and go through
lots of time, but as we got close to a sta
ton they heard us a-shootin II come
out. At first the Injins thought they
would come on, but the stock tenders had
long range rifles and knowed how to Use
'em, and them Injins was soon a-huntin
for a thick hill a long ways off. I've for
got them officers names, but J. bet II
they're a -livin they remember mt and that
days ride on the Laramie trail. An army
officers life was no picnic them days.
II used to throw off the brake, put tn,
bud to the six horse team, tie the lines tt
a seat brace, take my Henry and drop 0,
my knees in the front boot and shoot ovel
IL ..k NFor, o,,I r,appfc tho Sfnyls
handed runnin fight I've put up that way,
Sometimes I'd be jumped by Injins two OF
three times in one days drive of rs miles
1t was about all the excitement there wa'
in them days that a Teller could really en-
Joy. We'd drive over u division OF u
miles in one day and back the next. Gen
orally there was four or five stations will
changes Of horses on the run.
"But as we whooped 1t along in tina
palace car I reckon 1t come to me mor'
| than ever that times is changin and that
am gettin old, but I pinched myself to SCI
IL I was awake. Over on that hill is wher'
Ewenecked Smith and his gang of bull
whackers was corralled by C%heyennes ar
lost all their stock and over two-thirds Q
the men before one of the boys got bacl
from Fort Laramie with the soldiers.
see there's a schoolhouse Oh the hill now
Up that little gulch runnin off the vale!
yonder was where the vigilantes und
up Wartnosed johnson and his crowd ant
lynched the whole gang. There's a farm
house now at the mouth of the gulch ant
q big crop of corn in the valley below. A
a town where we stopped for noon I drov
up to once alone to find the only hous
l thnv1 IN thu tOxu1r IA stQrp utnttn11 hv11enQl
down, the station keeper and the stool
tenders killed, scalped, half roasted AM
chopped UP and the stock drove OF. ! ha'
to drive to che next station without chang
Of hosses. Now it's a big town with trol