Mexico Missouri message. (Mexico, Audrain County, Mo.) 1899-1918, 1912-06-20

ghost may find his way upon his long dark jour
ney. After that they light no more fires, as they
consider that the dead man has had time to finish
his journey.
Whether AscensO grew deranged suddenly or
whether it was a slow and gradual process, no
one can ever know, yet the fact remains that he
came to believe in the religion of the Indians
with some variations and startling effects of his
own. Believing, he did, that death was only
road by which man passed into a longer and more
enduring, though not necessarily an eternal lie,
he conceived the idea of building up a fortune
for himself in that future life.
In Ascensios diseased brain there arose the
idea that whatever he slew in this world would
be his property in the next On that point he
a maniac; all others, perfectly sane. Now
began the series of thefts which made Brunels
name known from the Rio Negro to the Magellan
straits One after another he raided the horse
farms near the coast, drove away much of the
stock as he could, and, shaking of his pursuers
in every instance, escaped into the widest parts
of the pampas.
So for a long time, for years indeed, Ascensio
Brunei the Wild Man of Santa Cruz, lived his
life beyond the reach of the short arm OF the Ar
gentne law. Comasarios hunted him, various
Jueces de Paz decaimed about him, and the garri-
son of cavalry in Chubut "bolted their beef. and
started again on the track of the thief" And
then suddenly, morning the news flew across
the countryside that the Wild Man had been cap
tured. It was true The way of It was fol
lows:
In the very heart of Patagonia, upon the banks
of a river called the Mayo, lived and indeed still
live tribe OF Tehuelche Indians. the taest and
perhaps the strongest people earth. They are
hunters and horse-breeders, wonderful riders and
good men. They worship horsemanship and have
a number OF strange rites which they practice at
the birth of man child in order to insure that
he shall turn out a good rider.
Into the nature OF those rites need not go.
They very cruel. | merely mention them
that you may understand what task the Wild
Man set himself when he decided TO steal hun
dred mares from men such as these peerless rid
ers, trained in every phase of horsemanship, much
of whose lives is spent in searching for strayed
horses and who can ride hundred miles a day
without fatigue.
It appears that the herd of mares that Ascenso
stole were feeding in vega or marsh that
stretches the southern banks of the Mayo. No
one was watching them, and, they were well
used to their pasturage II seemed unlikely that
they would stray. Therefore, when shortly after
dawn an Indian lad came gaoping to the toldos
with the news that the mares had disappeared the
men of the tribe soon on horseback and rid.
ing upon their trail
Hard on the trail the Indians rode all day and
before sunset they aware of man clad in
skins driving the mares before him. Swiftly some
of the pursuers closed in on him, while others rode
to cut him of by canadon or rift in the pampas
which lay across his path Had 1t not been for
this canadon the Wild Man would never, in all
probability, have been taken.
As it was, he galloped down the sheer wall of it,
but only to find himself cut off by the Indians who
had been detached from the main body by the
cacique for the purpose. Riding In upon him the
Indians flung their heavy boleandores-the
Tehuelche weapon of three rawhide thongs, each
weighted at the end with ball of stone-which
entangled the legs of the Wild Mans horse and
brought it crashing to the ground. On the ground
the Indians captured the Wild Man. snarling and
biting
They did not slay the Wild Man, but bound him