CanÌƒon City record. [volume] (CanÌƒon City, Colo.) 1883-192?, 1903-08-20
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pOfy, talu Dill Cttcf, INC ecouI >
never found much danger except from
horse thieves"
Ever met any of 'emT inquired
Tom Cunning. drawing his chair closer
and turning his head sidewiSe to catch
his answer.
"weIl. yes. Andy Gwinne and once
had brush with some of 'em- One
day after dinner. while we were smok-
ing our pipes and looking up toward
the mountains. two men came down
the slope opposite and made straight
for our camp. The nearer they got to
Us the worse they looked However,
there are a good many people In the
country with lots Of good In 'em under
q rough outside. and they seemed very
friendly. They said they had their
camp up In the mountains. that they
had seen our camp and az people were
scarce had come over to get a sight
Of somebody besides themselves We
brought out the demijohn and gave 'em
what they wanted to drink. and after
spending an hour with us. during which
they looked mighty carefully over our
stock, they went back in the direction
they came from
ANDY and were both suspicious Of
EN-, especially when we saw the inter
est they took in the stock. The horses
weren't picketed. though we had drag
gcd logs to make corral In circle.
with an opening closed by our tent
The corral wasn't very high and only
intended for ordinary purposes-that
u, 1t wouldn't stand a stampede Ii
the men were horse thieves they had
probably made their visit to look US
over and see just how we kept the
stock We had three horses-my mount
and Andy's and a pack horse for the
TINT and supplies We talked the mat
tar over and concluded that we'd likely
have q visit during the night and bad
better picket the horses After max
ing everything fast we lay down with
our rifles in our hands.
when we woke up in the morning
the stock was there all right, and we
concluded that we'd made q mistake
about our visitors. We hunted during
the day and In the evening used the
same camp. What we should have
done was to 90 as far from It ~ posi-
bic. That night we picketed the horses
again. but didn't sleep on our arms. ~,
the soldiers say. though should think
weapons would make . very uncon,-
Portable bed. Nevertheless we had 'em
close by and could easily reach 'em-
-All Of a sudden we were wakened BY
terrible yells and bang. bang. bang. I
knew in a minute what 1t meant: In
fact. we both did. for we grabbed our
rides and got outside the tent mighty
quick The horses were snorting In
terror and trying to break their teth-
ef1 but we had tied 'em against Q
stampede and had tied 'em strong.
The consequence was not horse broke
loose. This wasn't what was calcu-
lated on by the men that had tried to
stampede 'em. They made second
demonstration. and as they didn't start
the horses they came gailoping right,
down to the edge OF the corral They
didn't come from the direction they'd
come from the day before. because that
would have been uphill. but from the
rear. which was downhill- I saw q
mounted figure against the sky line
Just jumping the corral and fred The
figure pitched headforemost oves the
logs. and the horse came on. 1ItEapin9
the other side Of the corral and tearing
on down the slope. Then Andy cNught
sight Of another man and put 4 bullet
into him. dropping him on his ho'se.
which stood stock still
"well. we crawled up careful on Il,
the two men-we heard nothing OF any
more-fiuding one stone dead and the
other dying
~ t. nod sxrx> 10 r.rfr
camp up there on the mountain You'll
nnd little gal there bout thirteen
years old Tell her her pap won't come
to her no more
1T was all he could do to get the
words out so that we could understand
them. and he was dead soon after.
81 didn't like the business at all. Kill
Ing people isn't to my taste. In the
morning we covered the bodies with
wood and leaves and put stones on to
'em. then started to find their camp
We hunted a good while. but at last
struck II by smelling smoke. Going IN
the direction from which II came. we
saw a couple OF tents with a fire before
'em and little girl in the act OF hang
ing a coffee boiler over It
-The hardest job ever had to do was
to tell her we'd killed her father. She
eort OF wilted under II. as though
biighted by one OF those hot blasts that
come out Of a volcano. She was nice
little thing. nothing like the daughter
Of a horse thief. Indeed she didn't
know her fathers business Her
mother had died eeveral years before.
and since that time her father had
gone downhili. though she had no sus-
picion that he had got to horse steal
ing. and didn't tell her. said II
was all a mistake"