Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1914-06-16

OTTUM
myself when sober, in drink Peach
was raging fiend whom Cox was al
ways careful to avoid and Of whom l
was equally cautious, for at that time
could not have stood up against him
| for a moment.
! Thus It fell out that, one evening
about our camp fire, We made SOL
emn agreement that, under no pro-
vocation should we engage in quarrel
among ourselves, much less should
either of us strike another; and that
II, unfortunately, either should break
this engagement, the other two should
join in restraining him.
Realizing doubtless, that the sug-
gestion Of this ageement, which came
from Cox, was inspired chiefly as in
surance against his own mad out
breaks, Peach concluded the discus.
sion by insisting upon exacting
promise from both Of us that, In the
event he should attempt to strike
either, we would promptly shoot him
down-little fancying he would soon
be earning such self-sought punish
ment.
But oddly, scarcely fortnight had
elapsed before, on one of our busiest
days, when we were at mountain
camp engaged in marketing a newly
broken bunch Of horses. Peach got
roaring drunk and demanded Of me,
as the company treasurer, thirty dol
lars, which I gave him. This did not
To- III I'm, ho
blers soon got it, and within an hour
he was back in camp demanding or
me the hard earned one thousand dol
lars which represented the total cash
In the very instant refused his de-
mand, he sprang forward to strike me.
Powerless otherwise to resist him,
mindful of our agreement and certain
he would beat me half to death unless
I awaited myself of it's terms, stood
my ground, took his blow and. in the
same moment, pulled trigger, sending
a ball fairly through his right lung.
And even at that he scarcely got the
worst of it. While his wound had him
short of wind and laid up In doctors
care for two months, his blow broke
my nose so badly that for weeks the
week of it clinging to it's old stand
was hopelessly retired from every sort
of business. For years thereafter 1t
caused me, from time to time, the
most acute suffering.
However, blow and shot served
good purpose; for once Peach was up
and about again, we were closer
friends than before, and never again
to the end our association did hard
word pass between us.
But God knows we were never long
out of trouble, of one sort or another,
and always serious. Try my best,
could not keep my mates out of it.
Cox was actually worse than Peach,
for he was as keen for battling when
sober as Peach was when drunk. His
deadliest animosities, however. were
toward Mexicans. He hated the race
as a whole in the same wholehearted
way they hated the invading tide OF
overland American emigration. Thus
1t was not long after Peach rejolned
us that, in little placita EMPOWERED
among the live oaks, Mexican monte
dealer who proved to be quicker at
pulling the bottom card from the pack
than at drawing his pistol, invited and
received death at Cox's hands.
But for once the paisanos were too
thick for him; although he contrived
to wound two more before he went
down, stunned suffi GENTLY to leave 1t
an easy matter to tie him and pack
him off to the frail choza that served
as the local Jail.
Luckily for him, woman OF the
village was sufficiently enamored OF
Cox to bring word Of lbs troubles to
our camp. Peach was alone there at
the moment having ridden out to
drive in our horses. But little mat
ter of odds never bothered Peach; in
a trice he was mounted and dashing
through the town at top speed, throw
ing lead at every man who ventured
to show himself, deluging the place
with such a torrent of blue hail that
the guards about the Jail ran for cover
along with the rest. That left 1t an
easy matter for Peach to release our
mate, haul him up beside his own sad
die and fetch him safely to our camp.
Luckily, l got in with our horses about
the same time, when we made a two
days shift at such speed that 1t carried
us beyond their hue and cry.
This change brought us far into the
north, close on the then outer line OF
settlements, where the Digger Indians
were fiercely resisting the slowly en-
croaching miners and ranchmen: or
rather, to be more accurately truthful,
a few of the more desperate were so
engaged for most of the Diggers were
timid folk.
So the third morning of our drift
northward, We were not particularly
surprised when, on reaching Hat
Creek, We found Callahan's ranch
sacked and burned.hi horses gone,
and himself and one hired man stark,
Artistic with Digger arrows
OF course we joined a party OF
neighbors that soon gathered and took
the trail, but they proved such faint
hearted lot we soon left them, and
struck across toward Eureka, drop
ping into and climbing out Of the faith
omless gorges of Roaring Fork and
Mad River-both of which, will
stake my word. honestly deserve their
names--and followed down Eel river
until we came to Hydesville, where
Gust our luck) we found Captain