The Cairo bulletin., 1911-02-25
THE HORSE
THIEVES
By 7. SoSE L. IRE SER
Copyright BY nerlcan rress Asso-
ci4aH. I'LL.

lively life out yere, said the Old plains
man, there use t. was. These yera
railroads ruin couass;;'y,''
was to spend the night in Josh Nil.
ler's cabin. We we're smoking our
pipes after supper. and his wife was
washing the dishes J encouraged him
to>talk about the coa.,Nry as ii was
formerly.
Them Was times WI n the men
was wild rs the beasts, livery man
was armed with a rifle Il Ted to his
saddle, two revolyers In H.. clt and
likely couple more in his s.tsit;'ebags.
Anyway that's the way ustd to go
about. .tpd | tell you we HAD some
Pretty likely womels about ylac in
| therl days. They could all shoot aud
shoot straight enough too. And. better
than that. they wasn't all day d9il Il.
One on 'cfi corrtcd, too, fur | wasi
married taen. but so far as could !,
she hadn't no use for me.
TIE boss thieves was ahoGt as b
stuff to deal with as anything we Ii |
out we're in them days. There W. !,
enc gang of 'cm that and some of Il
rest Of Is got after and broke up We
killed some, hung some, and some OF
| EN- got away. | hearn that them "a
got away SAID they'd get even with
me. They'd cit me alive and when
i they got me they'd make me suffer Ii
death for every man OF their gang ia
! killed
And they got me sure enough. One
AFTERNOON I'd strayed away from the
settlement crossed the river one of
the forks of the Missouri by a ford
and looked about for some game for
supper. ! had only nay rifle with me.
but l considered that enoreh to deal
with any Indians roamin' about
/ didn't come on to 10 game. ana. fpelin'
kind Of lazy laid down on the ggound.
THE breeze rustIe1 The leaves If II
tree under which WAS !ayin. and the
birds was a-singin, and everything
was cencefu That was what made
the difference when the shootin' AMI
| the scaIpin' begun In them times. We
jumped from one TO t'other In a jiffy.
One minute it YVES liStcnin' to the
gurglin o water and the sighln' of the
breeze: the next we hearn bullet
singin or Il warwhoop,
/ wen, l fell asleep was woke up
up by Il shake and there. looking down
/ into my face, was Bill Aiken, one O.
! the boss thieves that had said he'd do
me. He'd got my rifle. aud | saw It
was all up with me. EilI's boss was
nippiH' the grass SO was mine. Three
other fellcrs come ridin' up They
Was the iOl!iest lot AT gittin' me you
ever see. and they begun at onct to
lay plans for torturin' me to death.
"They concluded 10 take me to their
camp. They tied lariat around my
neck and one Of 'cLl held I'm end bc-
/ fore me. and another held oap end be-
| hiud me, 50 that | shore couldn't Sit
away, Then they put me on my boss.
TO git TO their camp they WAS obliged
to 90 over the ford Id come by. Two
Of 'em rode ahead and two behind me.
When we reached the ford the first
man went IN up 10 his boss belly. {
was wonderin' II couldn't End some
way TO drown. But Gidn't have much
tlrle to think about 1t, for Ia scarce
got into the water when the man
who'd gone in first pitched forward
into the drink. At the same time
beard a crack and saw Il bit o smoke
foatin' away from the high bank OIL
t'other side of the river, But could
see notilin' but the smoke.
THE second man, seem the one
ahead killed and not seem what killed
him, didn't know what to do All OF
us was In the river aud crossin Il
stream IL the wo'st possible place for
to be attacked The third boss thief
called on the scco!d to so on. but he
fore lie could do 1t there was another
crack, and he dropped too. | was Won
delin' If | was to be kiled-ruther
hopin' was-when the man behind nae
give n yell, and lie went the same way
as the others
| lone idee by this time must "a got
into the fourth mans head. reckon
be thought some one was doin' all this
for me and, not llkin' to livc me
chance to escape, concluded to shoot
me. | turned jlst In time ID see him
putin his hand back to git his re-
volver when a rel spot came in HIS
forehead and he didn't cit no pistol.
were was four men either dead or 80
near dead they couldn't 90 nothin'.
Two of EN- was Fon' downstream
under the water or course | didn't
waste no time. | spurred my boss and
started across the ford When I'd
climbed the bank looked for them
as had done the shootin Gidn't see
no one 1t was as peaceful there as
an April mornin | listened. but I
couldn't hear nothln' except breeze
shakin' the leaves of the trees. The
grass was long, and hunted about
in it.
Purity soon came to a gal lynn as
If dead. She was the one | was tellin'
you about spell ago A rifle and u
AZ caliber revolver laid by her. | got
off my boss and knelt down to do
somepin to help her when she opened
her eyes. Seem me, she put her arms
around my neck.
"She was the party as had killed four
boss thieves and had saved me. Bein'
out thar, she had seen 'em and. know
In | was nigh had gone hack tn off