Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1914-06-27


5 his head that night at the suffer-
. store. Anyway, we all liked to thinl
so-and it would not have been heal
: thy for any outsider to suggest any
/. thing else.
> Eat all events the fact Is that from
t week to week he grew more sullen ant
( morose, drank deep all by his lone
+ some, stuck close to his quarters ant
, met with scant courtesy and never
with cordiality such Of his brother of
, flcers as called on him and tried &
cheer and brace him up.
! Looked like he just naturally went
| bad all through-got bad heart like
|, a Navajo buck gets now and then, and
has to turn out by his lonesome, II
none will follow him. and plumber and
kill.
Finally, reckon, it hit him SO
hard no could stand it no longer, for
he went in and got permission of his
commanding officer to take his troop
on two weeks scout to the west OF
the post. Evidently, 1t appeared lat.
er, he had schemed out-the extra long
scout on purpose to get to draw a
heavy supply of rations and ammuni-
ton to make his Jump on.
Whether he had taken his men in
to his confidence remained only mat
er of guess work, of course, but am
myself thinking he did not spring his
scheme on them until he had them
out in the feld-too much danger some
Of them would get drunk and let 1t
out
THE two weeks Of his detail passed,
i and then another week, but no word
J came of him. Then we all concluded
he must have been wiped out, and the
commanding officer sent out search
party.
I And it was strange tale we found
hard to credit they brought back; that
/ they had followed his trail to little
spring well to the north Of Ell Capt.
tan. a straight jump without stop
that must have kept them humping
full day and night.
Thence his sign bore up above the
old Gran Quivera HUNS, headed on a
bee line for the Rio Grande, where it
would strike the stage road midway
between Valverde and Santa Fe, and
along it they followed him for four
teen hours without any show Of a
halt, when the leader decided to re-
turn and report to Fort Union.
1T was incredible, but either the
man had gone mad as sun dancer
or else had deliberately deserted.
There was no other explanation. So
after three weeks of uncertainty as to
which it might be, we were not so
greatly surprised when mail from
Santa Fe brought news that Captain
-, with his entire troop OF dragons,
had turned bandit!
"They had been shooting up Mexi-
can placitas in the valley and levying
prestamos on their merchants, holding
up stage coaches for money and valu-
ables and conductas Of freight for
food and supplies; cruel, pitiless, In
satiable, sparing none.
Long after we heard that his band,
constantly ,harried and hunted, dwin-
died rapidly, but that with the remnant
he went on scourging into the north.
swinging to the west of Santa Fe and
en- through Taos and the San Luis
Valley. In the wilds of the mountain
Gus region, about the head Of the
South Platte, he found refuge when
not raiding the rush of gold seekers
then pouring into California Gulch.
ultimately, he was captured, OF
course. Jailed in little Colorado
camp called Rosita, the local vigilantes
took bis pelt and hung it up to dry, but
were so careless in their work that the
pelt retained little value.
"His crimes were SO atrocious and
he was so bitterly hated that hanging
was held to be too merciful, and the
vigilantes made him run the gauntlet,
To he hacked and shot till be fell
While ranging the trails holding
I'D coaches, it had been his practise to
blacken his face, like an Indian brave
blackens his when his heart gets bad
and he goes out to kill, which won for
him the epitaph: He came into the
wo,; white, but left it as black OF
/ as Of character All Of which
e. 10 show you, boys, what mighty
poor paying job deserving is.'~
Threw bigger chill into us, did old
Kit than north wind whipping down
through the pines from the top Of Ell
Captain.
TO be sure, there were mighty few
in our column not in 1t for the love of
the game, few with any more DISPOSE
ton to quit it than lad loco over his
first girl.
But discipline had been eating
saddle gals into some of us, and Kits
yarn sorta buffaloed us and set us toe
ing the mark better, until Christmas,
when A Troop came near marching
into arrest in body.
(To Be Continued.)
,o>.inh AMoNc ENroMRED