Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1905-06-08
HUNTED DOWN.

When the men sent out Dy the Dig
Four Cattle Company IN search of
new pasturage reached the Wind
River Valley almost tue first thing
their eyes rested on was drove of
wild horses numbering so. The
drove was led by stallion, whose
grace and beauty elected unbOunded
admiration. Some of the drove had
escaped from bondage to roam the
plains free from the restraints of man,
but the leader had surely been toAled
in some quiet cove among the foot
hills, and his mother had kept guard
over him while the timber wolves
circled around him and gnashed their
teeth in hunger.
He had been born as free as the
air about him, and when his muscles
had hardened he had galloped with a
herd up and down the valley for 200
miles north and south. He had BRAY
ed the fierce winters, the cunning Of
the wolves, the spring of the noun
tain lion, the greed and cruelty of the
red man. There he stood at the head
of his drove, five or six years old,
black as midnight, with the excep-
tion Of the white star Oh his forehead,
and there was beauty and defiance
about him that appealed to the little
band-all but one.
See me put bullet inside that
star !" he said as he pointed his rifle.
IF you do l will put one through
your head !" replied the leader, and
he was backed up by his two compan-
ions.
For FIVE minutes every horse in the
drove stood there with head and tail
up and nostrils quivering and aanks
heaving; and then at signal from
their leader they were away like the
wind.
1t was through these men that the
Big Four outfit heard of the black
horse. The coming Of men and cattle
drove him and his fellows down to the
south end of the valley, hundred
miles away, but now and then they
seemed to have a longing to revisit
the old pastures, and they came
sweeping back. They never came
during the day, but always on moon
light night, and the first anyone knew
of their presence was the sound Of
their thudding boots. Three times
in the course OF a year they stamped
ed the cattle, and then the foreman
ordered their destruction. The next
time they came sweeping up the val
ley they were to be made targets Of
There was grumbling among the
men. A drove of wild horses is al
ways peril to herd of steers, but
it went against the grain of the men
born in freedom themselves to shooc
down other of Gods creatures. The
wolf, the coyote, the lion-yes, they
were mans enemies, but the wild
horses were his friends. If they were
not under his hand and obedient to
him they were still his friends Ev-
er since meu and horses were, bond
of friendship has existed between
them. When the horses came again
a few shots were fired, one or two
wounded, perhaps, and the herd es-
capped material damage. The fore
man saw how it was with his cow
boys. 1t was so with his own con-
science, and he did not blame them.
But the drove must go. There
were men over at San Bias who would
do any thing for money, even to the
taking of human life. For a certain
price per head they undertook to ex-
terminate the drove. There were
four of them, and they rode away Sc
cretly and swore the foreman to &C.
crecy. They had to. The cowboys
would have called it murder and de-
manded revenge The few settlers
along the foot Of the mountains were
rough and hardy men, who were
dealing with nature 10 the rough, but
they would not have tolerated the
slaughter.
The quartet found the drove and
began the work. Sometimes the
men killed from the saddle and some
times they skulked and sneaked on
foot and approached their game as a
] nanthsr does II was flom no feel