The National tribune., 1910-07-21

long hair sprinkled with dark spots.
Her legs were trim and her neck long
and tapering: a very prominent eye,
and ears always in motion, very pleas
ant under the saddle and not the least
disposed to lag. Our advance party pro-
ceeded down a small stream, the banks
or which were tnickly- grown with
brushwood and with thickly-wooded
hills again. Here we saw a party of
seven men coming to meet us. One of
our party said: "They have been to
town to get the news, but what the
deuce are SO many of them for?" Com
rade Lunn said: Look, boys; they have
guns"
We. stopped and called to them to
halt. Instead of doing so, three of them
lodged back into the brush out of sight,
nor did we see them again. The other
four put spurs TO their horses, coming
directly toward u.s. We braced our
selves to meet the charge, having our
revolvers ready; but SO yards in front
Of US they took a byroad leading be-
tween two fenced fields and into the
woods beyond. They fired at us just as
they turned off on this road, then
leaned forward on the necks of their
horses and made them go. We re-
turned their fire and took after them.
Only Stovall and 1 could keep in sight.
We gained rapidly. BY this time we
had reached the timber. The road
crossed stream which the recent rain
had swollen slightly and made very
muddy. The ford was rocky. The lead
er's horse biundered and nearly fell in
midstream. The horse recovered him
self and went On free of his rider, who
attempted to get up behind one of the
others. Instead he pulled him off into
the water. The second horse went on
riderless.
Stoyaii, in advance, demanded theiI
arms. One of them, Cooper, gave uI
his in way apparently satisfactory tc
his captor and quickly. Just as l came
along Stevall demanded the revolver OF
the second man. The man reached back
to his hip innocently enough. Stovall
quick as a flash, cooked his revolver
and yelled: Don't you know how to
surrender a revolver? Unbuckle that
belt" This the poor fellow managed
to do with some difficulty, as he was
shaking hs one with ague. Stovail left
me 70 guard them, and galloped on
after the others. Craig came up, work
ing vigorously with both hands and feet
TO make his old daft horse go, but the
best he could get out of him was a
clumsy canter.
When he got up TO the prisoners I
called, "Good-by. Craig. / am going to
help catch the Others" and I galloped
on. leaving him with the rebels l soon
sighted Stovall and Lunn. / was some
80 or 40 yards in the rear, when ] saw a
fresh trail made by several horses.
called TO the others: "They have gone
this way" I-gave my horse the rein
Her speed and the tenacity with which
she clung to the trail surprised mo
Over long. rocky. wooded hill and
thru another valley she went. Here
the timber was more open. One hun
dred and fifty yards in advance I saw
the Johnnies, dismounted fixing theil
saddles. felt lonesome for a moment
but saw that the Johnnies were worse
scared than / was.
Instead of getting behind trees and
opening fire, they seemed to be inter.
ested in only one thing-to climb theiI
horses and get away. 1 pressed on
telling them to surrender If they valued
their lives. This they seemed to have
no inclination to do. l gained on them
until I was within Is PAGES; then / be.
gan to snap my Colts, first at one, ther
the other. Finally one shot went. A
this they separated. The two loose
horses followed one. My little gray fol.
lowed him. He had q good horse, and
persisted In trying TO outwind mine.
He would not pay the slightest atten
ton to my protestatlons that / did not
want to shoot him, but that 1 surel,
would IL he did not surrender. The fact
was, no other shot would go from tha
revolver. ] grabbed its small end. A
few extra jumps of the little gray tool
me alongside of him. Then he threw
up his hands with: Il surrender. ~
where's your gum" asked. Lost in
the rum" he replied. ! passed my hand
quickly over him. He had only belt
cartridge box, a few rounds of ammuni-
: ton and Q pocketknife. With my helr
he quickly caught the horses, and we
took the back trail.
We met Lunn and his mule. He had
heard my solitary shot, and had taken
the nearest cut and got to me as quick
Iy as he could 1t was getting dark
,Yhen we overlook our party. was 19