Rocky Ford enterprise., 1910-03-11

somehow almost without realizing 1t they told
a great many things about themselves and
neighbors. He wrote down the orders and
listened and chuckled Mt some Of the yarns.
while he encouraged further condolences.
The tree man did not hesitate to give a
generous return for any such condolences. In
venting on the spot some of his own for the
purpose. The number and character of crimes
he confessed to having been accused Of in
the States would be worth recording In this
history II they could be remembered now. The
tree man would then fall to abusing laws in
general and the men who enforced them In
particular and end by declaring that he was
nightly In love with that particular section
and would stay where there was little
chance Of meeting any Of those obnoxious on
cials. II the boys would consider him one Of
them and all stand together In time Of trouble.
Talk like this would open the door for any
thing. The rest Of the interview was likely to
run somewhat as follows:
BY gum" mods the big. burly individual.
staring at a picture OF such peaches as grow
only in paradise. "eatin' peaches like them
would be like holdin' up the Santa Fe express"
That's what" assents the salesman gaily.
regular picnic all the time. ] spose you fel-
lows in here have money to throw at the birds
after that kind Of job
well. not much after all. Too many
to have a piece out of II. Everybody wants to
help on It lit has to be a pretty big basket Of
money to cut in two more'n twice and leave
enough to pay"
The salesman shows a sympathetic interest.
''Of course" he agrees. Its too bad to
spoil a good bunch Of money by making little
piles Of It. guess you have to have n good
many. though. for job like that
NO: two can do it. an there amt no need
of more'n three One to take care Of the en-.
gineer. another to pull down on the passengers
and the other man to go through em. It's
plum easy. They give up like sinners at a
camp meetin,' and the messengers and mail
fellers come down pretty easy. too. II they
don't put few shots through their
and that fetches 'em.
You ought to come down here an go in
with me. You've got a persuadn' way about
you that would make man give up anything
he had and thank you for takin' II. II 'ud
pay yeh better. ! reckon. than ridin' a paint
hohs over the country. peddlin' trees. That
reminds me-you en- give me six o. them
peaches an few O them pears an plums an
a couple O. cherry trees and some grapevnes
the big yaller ones-Niagaries. ] think you
said they was"
And this the drift OF more than
conversation between the Cherokee agrcultur-
lists and the genial tree man. who certainly
did have "persuadin' way" in making n man
give up anything he had in the way OF infor-
nation.
So for several weeks the tree man his
paint horse with his old tenderfoot saddle and
his picture book Ioitered up through the Strip
and over into the Territory. on the surface
taking orders for spring delivery and beneath
It all locating the different communities Of
offenders the individuals OF the same. and
securing data OF particular crimes. He ended
his canvass at last at Guthrie. busy frontier
point on the Santa Fe. with twenty-five hun
dred dollars worth of orders for trees. trees
which might be bearing to this day II the
spring deliveries had been made planned.
But Mcdonald was ready now for deliveries
Of a different sort-deIiveries of the purchas-
ers themselves into the hands of the law. As
a preliminary step he swore out warrants for
eight men-the chief operators in a very bad
community located along a small creek be-
tween Guthrie and Kingfisher-about Is miles
west of the latter. He then went with his
warrants to n deputy marshal at Guthrie and
invited his cooperation in making the arrests
The Guthrie deputy looked at him with curl
osity. wondering perhaps II this circuit riding
Texas person was in his right mind Clearly
the fame OF Bill Mcdonald had not yet pene
trated into darkest Oklahoma. Then. when
he had looked over Bill Jesss credentials. and
perhaps felt his pulse. he said:
IF you can get a company of soldiers to
go along I might undertake that Job with you.
You don't know that Sand creek crowd-I do
No two men ten men could go up against
that outfit and get back alive Bring a com.