Audubon County journal. (Exira, Iowa) 1884-1993, 1904-08-04
The Holdup at
Antelope 5 Run
BY CURRAN r. GREENLEY
Copyright, 1905, by 7. G. Mcclure

ped to the ground at a safe distance
and eased the cinches to give the black
pony breathing space. A rim of sill
yer grew and widened along the east
and as Gerald watched the moon
swung up the sky and the south wind
came rushing cool and sweet against
his hot brow. How like to that night
three years ago, when they had stood
together meath the palms at st. Au-
gustine! In place Of the loneliness Of
plain and sky-the Dream City, jewel
crowned, the gray old fort, the SHIN
mering moon silvered sea-and Mar
garet One night in mans life, when
she had answered Eyes" to the story
he told, out there on the crumbling
! walls Of San Marco. He remembered
how they had watched the little blue
clad figure as it toiled up with the
fateful message, the message that
dashed the sweetness from the orange
scented night hushed the music of the
sea, leaving him alive to only the sense
of ruin-utter ruin!
Three hours later he was on the way
to New York, leaving only brief note:
Il cannot hold you to your promise.
am beggar." He knew now the
wrong that he had offered her woman
hood. But then, with the old man who
had been more comrade than father,
lying with bullet hole through his
brain, there seemed no other way. 1t
had been maze commencing with the
pitiful funeral, with himself as sole
mourner; then the long days when ey-
| cry hour disclosed the wrong that had
| been done to women and helpless chill
dren. A very madness of speculation
had possessed his father, and the
worthless paper seemed to grow into
| mountains of guilt ard shame. Settle
| ments, judgments, foreclosures, and
there came a day when he stood with
barely enough left to take him west
out of sight of his kim
Five long years. They were filled
with life and movement and a1ash
with barbaric color wrought in strange
pattern of border warfare, night raids
when Comanche and Apache were
"out." But the Blue Star ranch had
prospered. The cattle had thriven and
grown from scattered punches into a
great herd, Of which Gerald was half
owner. Tomorrow they would start
on the long trail to the market places.
The black pony shifted the air sus-
piciously at rustic in the dried sage
grass. A shadow came out from
among the shadows and stood upright.
and as the blanket slipped from her
shoulders Gerald saw that 1t was
,Juana, the Mexican wife Of Comanche
Jake. He knew the woman. Only
week before he had come to her
rescue just in time to save her from
Comanche Jake's bowie knife, and now
spoke to her kindly. "You, Juauai
What is the matter now Is Jake aftea
| you again?"
Juana crept still closer. "Senor!
Senior! For the love Of Our Lady, call
out your men and ride to Antelope's
run. They'-with twist of her hand
toward the distant tepee in the mes.
quite-'they are over there-half q
dozen like Jake, all mad with the mes
cai-and they go to rob the Anguilla
stage when it passes Antelope's run.
Senior, they will kili-they'll kill me
when they find I've told, but Caracas
Johnny came in at nighHall from up
above and told how he got q mes.
sage while at Anguilla in cipher from
pal Of his in Santa Fe. and it said
there was government gold a-comin'
through and that there was q woman,
too, who was rich and had money
along with her. They've got it all
planned how to do for the driver and
the guards, and Caracas Johnny is to
have the woman. Senior. for the love
Of the mother that bore you, get out
your men and save her or kill her. It's
twenty miles to Antelope's run, but
Jake and the boys won't start till mid.
night and they'll be drunk with the
mescal."
"And how about your" asked Ger.
aid.
Juana gathered her blanket closer
"Senor, if you let Jake come back, he
will know told you. Then God and
Our Lady have mercy" And the squat
figure slipped away into the night.
He did not question the truth OF
the woman's statement. There was
work for the Blue Star outfit at Ante
lope's run. 1t worried him that this
should have come just as they needed
all their best men for the big drive
but where woman was at stake there
could be no question Of cattle.
Ten minutes Of hurried galloping tt
and fro and Gerald led off his cattle
force. leaving half dozen, out the
gate AS they shot up the Santa Fe
trail his watch showed II o'clock BIZ
the moons rays.
The swift ponies lay down to theil
work and the earth rolled back be
meath their hoofs as they rode in the
quick cavalry trot over miles of sage
grass and white sand, past prairie dog
towns. where the alert tenants whisk
ed out of sight like SO many small
ghosts, past the dry arroyas like white
scars on the face Of the plain. On ant
on. Here bunch Of mesquite, gnome
like in the spectral light, clumps o.
prickly pear and weird contortions OF