The Donaldsonville chief. [volume] (Donaldsonville, La.) 1871-current, 1910-05-21


very cold. Capt. Bill had not entirely recovered
from the bullet wounds received in the fight with
Matthews two months before, and was bent and
debilitated, but he did not fater. With Queen
and Harwel he plunged in and waded the icy
water, chin Deep to the other side. Twice more
the trail led to the river and crossed, and twice
more Mcdonald and his men Waded that bitter
current.
Mcdonald now made up his mind that the rob-
bers would be likely to cross a road that had
been cut through the bottoms, and head for the
Territory. He called to one of his men-Ran
ger Mcclure, who appeared just then, a little
distance away-to get all the force he could and
guard that road, while he, Mcdonald and Queen
and HarWeu, would continue to beat the brush
and search carefully through the bottoms At
that moment Lewis and Crawford were near
enough to hear this order, and the realization
that 1t was Bill Mcdonald and his Rangers who
were on the Srai1 gave them sudden and more
severe chill than the icy water they had Waded.
They had been heading for the Territory as
Mcdonald suspected, but decided to change their
course towa1i a creek that ran parallel with
the river. On their way to it they were Obliged
to cross an open field, and though by this time
it was night-between nine and ten O'Clock
full moon had risen and they were discovered
by the men guarding the road and fired upon
They returned the fire they ran, but no dam
age was done on either side. Meantime, McDon-
with wet and cold, having come upon house in
their search had stopped to try for cup of hot
coffee At the sound of the shots they rushed
out horse was hitched at the door and Can't:
Bill leaped into the saddle and hurried in the d.
rection of the alarm. AS he rode I'D, he saw
IN the moonlight q crowd, the local posse gath
cred on the little hgIl overlooking the wheatfied
where the robbers had crossed The Ranger
captain fully expected to find the captured or
dead bandits in that crowd, and called out as he
came up:
Boys, where are they? Where are the rob-
bers?"
Right over there, Cap. They ran in the brush
over by yonder big tree"
well, boys, we've got them Wen charge IN
there"
They pushed rapidly into the bushes without
further parley-McDonald aiming for the tree
McCauley and Mcclure spreading out to the
right.
Suddenly the captain found himself confront
ed by creek, and looking across saw two armed
men squatting in the weeds. They appeared to
be On the point of raising their guns to fire,
but with McDonalds appearance and his sharp
command: Hold up, there!" made from behind
MS own leveled Winchester, they were unable to
complete the action. Their guns dropped into
their Iaps-they seemed stupefied
Throw up your hands!" was the next order
The hands went up
Capt. Bill stepped into the creek about three |
feet deep, and waded across He noticed bag
doubtless containing the stolen money, and oh
served that the outlaws had laid their car
tr1dges out on log for convenient use
McCauley and Mcclure waded across and as |
sisted in searching the prisoners A purse of
gold was found in one of the mems pockets. Tha |
bag on the ground contained the silver
reward of $4,000 for the capture of Lewis |
ana Crawford maid nv ho two hooly
Wlchlta Fails The local posse divided it into |
81 equal parts. in Whtqh thsy shared pro rata |
vita the Rangers