Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1907-09-27
DAILY STORY.
A COUPLE OF DONS.

don at all. He was Il cattle Stealer.
Don Chuaya, his neigbbor, was a real
don and cattle owner. Don Artero
settled near Don Chuaya. He wasn't
a desirable neighbOr, and the govern
| ment was asked to remove him. The
government fingered. Five hundred of
Don Chuaya's steers got mixed up
| with the other don's herds, and the
government was asked to send troops
| The government was very sorry, and
SO forth, but it had none to spare.
Don Chuaya at once proceeded to
/ hustle. He called in and armed his
| retainers to the number of fifty and
| made descent on the other don with
the avOwed object of capturing 1000
, of his biggest and latest steers. The
raid, and there We're an ambush and Il
| fight, and the forces of Chuaya were
put to flight. Twelve of them We're
killed and the others licked out of
| their boots. When a true don has
| bucked up against the game and got
| the worst of it he feels as badly cut
up as a hundred Uncle Rubes rolled
| into one. He swells with Indignation.
He CRASHES his teeth in fury. He gets
out at the front door and yells "Caram-
ba.' at the top of his voice. He can't
let things go that way. He is bound
to get back at the other Teller if it
takes hts last red in cash and his last
drop of blue blood.
Don Chuaya raised a hundred men
this time. He figured that q hundred
| ought to lick twenty-five, but it SO
happened that Don Artero was mean
enough to recruit his own force to
| seventy-five, and each one of them was
worth three poems as fighters. When
the forces came together the fight did
mot last ten minutes. Don Chuaya's
men We're defeated.
The next raid was made by Don
Artero, and he gobbled up a thousand
head of cattle. From thence on for
the next two years he bothered the life
out of the other and brought his proud
head low with shame and humiliation.
He even made threats of storming the
Chuaya hacienda and putting all to
the sword, and at last the old man
with the white hair and proud title
found himself under blackmal. He
had to pay so much a month to be let
alone.
These things were breaking Don
Chuaya'S heart when a red headed
civil engineer belonging to the survey
corps of the Mexican Central road
came along one day and heard the
story. He felt sorry for the don. He
1
other with contumely, and he sighed
for revenge. \ civil engineer need
not have seen war to be able to see
a strategic situation. This engineer
saw one at the hacienda. He saw just
where Don Artero would attack and
just where he would meet with disaS-
ter. There weren't a dozen poems on
the ranch Who would fight, and some
thing besides fighting must be resorted
to. The first thing was to find out
what the don would do in case he cap
tured Don Artero and his band.
When told that all would he killed he
sat down and had a talk with the old
man. -Four days later a hundred big
bear traps arrived from Mexico City.
: The bear trap market was tirmer than
for years before. The poems dug up
a certain space of ground and planted
the traps. and then Don Chuaya sent
word to Don ArterO that he was 4
= robber, q thief Il blowhard and COW
= ard. There was to be no more black
T. mail. The big robber was insulted
sneered at and defied. He was told
: that if he came within 4 mile of the
hacienda he would be chawed to rags
! You can wager that such a message
/, made the others hair curl. He rea6
the miSSiye and then SwOre by the
beard of his father that he would teal
! out the adobe walls of the others cas-
tie and eat his fried heart for lunch
/ con. He meant what he said, and the
|, horn was sounded and the dogs OF
f war unleashed. His band now mum
+ bered thirty-five men, and on the very
f next morning they appeared in from
:. of the hacienda, and immediate an(
unconditional surrender was demand
ed. Don Chuaya appeared and hurled
vile epithets at the robbers and daret
them to come on. The thing worked
q just as the red headed engineer sait
1t would. After you have called 4;
Q Mexican cattle thief coyote, a snake
> skunk, a gopher and a coward h
: wants to close in and argue the mat
! ter from q nearer standpoint. Dol
l. Artero uttered yell and led TIL
Ii charge. Only three or four rifle
o blazed at his gang. There was jus
room for the line to sweep across TIL
ground planted with bear traps, ant
Y within a minute after the yell the trap
were doing business. Snap, snap, wen
their heavy jaws, and yells and boot
4 of pain and terror followed
General Grant couldn't have don
a, better in his palmiest days. Out o
the thirty-five scoundrels all but tire
7 were caught and held fast, and whe
Don Chuaya went out to inspect then
n, he found no fight left in even tn
leader. The captives could not hav
suffered more had they received tw
: bullets apiece. The engineer had bus
ness elsewhere for two or three day
after the fight. When he returned 70
I, MT of lopd no fni1pI Don Cbnau