Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1914-05-01

On the front piazza we four held a
laughing dispute as to who should
pay for the supper. Then Miss Mar
garet said in a good, loud voice:
I'll tell you! Well race for it!
The last couple to touch the rosebush
by the front gate has to pay" We all
laughed and agreed. After one or two
false starts for a bluff counted "one-
two-three!" and we raced past three
detectives who just stood grinning at
our antics. When we were safely
away from the hotel we bade the
ladies a hurried goodbye and took
stock
They managed to get aboard a dis
reputable tramp steamer. giving the
captain $500 and went cruising In
Central and South American waters
till their roll was gone, and then re-
turned to the train. There they pull
ed off couple of successful robberies
which SO reused the territory that 1t
led to their downfall. "Those two
big jobs" says Jennings, "had blind
ed us TO the state Of the country. If
it sizzled when we left New Orleans,
it boiled now. The rewards for US
dead or alive-were so large as to
tempt our best friends" Neverthe-
less, they held up train and robbed
it. That was their last success.
"Have You Any Whisky?"
The whole country was after them.
The posse of citizens, each COM
manded by a deputy marshal, had
spread fan-shape over the whole
country" Once the fugitives ran
straight into a camp in the darkness.
Jennings, after u moment, saw that 1t
was a camp of hunters, not marshals.
They turned out to be highbrows
from Massachusetts, one a Harvard
professor. / rode in among them,
Il deputy marshal, and
demanded their hunting permit
When they'd dug that up from the
wagon, asked severely:
Have you any whisky among your
effects?"
To bring whisky into Indian terri
tory was a violation Of the law. The
Harvard professor stammered as he
declared that he didn't.
Don't you lie to me, young man.
l said, and out came the jug. 1 lifted
it.
Here's to you," said. 1--WE aren't
marshals. We're outlaws" At first
they were scared. Then their man.
ners, which were distant, reserved and
Yankee, thawed out. They asked us
to supper We accepted, and every
one had a good time.
They tried to escape toward Ar
kansas, and were beaten back. They
finally took refuge, after many close
calls, at the ranch Of a man named
Hairless. He was in jail, but his wife
and her young brother and friend
named Ida Hurst took the hunted
men in. A neighbor saw them and
Muscogee, Bud Ledbetter, who was
hunting them nearby.
Suddenly Mrs. Hairless burst
through the door. Her hair was fall
ing down her face in wisps. She
clutcned the melodeon for support un-
til she got her breath to shout out the
one word:
"Surroundedn' Then she gasped a
few particulars. They were in the
were everywhere to the
north of us. They had said that she
and Miss Hurst might go down to the
before they opened fire.
How many of them?" 1 asked.
Thirty" she said. Then her arms
flew up over her head and her fists
clenched. Thirty or forty against
four-you poor boys-what is to be-
come of you?"
The women ran and the battle be-
gan. Frank and AL held the kitchen
while the other two, Bud and Bill,
fought from the front room. The
first shot laid AIS cheek open, and a
few moments later Bill and Al were
both shot in the legs. A little later
AL was wounded again.
1t became evident that they could
not hold the house, and Al ordered
Frank and Bill to run for the or
chard, while he and Bud covered
their retreat with heavy fire on the
enemy, who were mostly in the barn
and log house.
When I jumped back to the door,
Frank and Bill were streaking across
the yard, and the bullets were tear
ing dust around them like hail. l
couldn't turn my eyes away looked
each moment to see Frank go down.
Once he stumbled, and thought he
was gone, but he came up again un-
scratched, dropped to his knee, fol-
lowed by Bill, and began pumping lead
into the barn at the left Of the firing
line. The log house wasn't within his
line of fire. The shooting from the
barn died down.
Come on, All" yelled Frank.
Bud and l made our break. 1t oc-
Cured to me that we'd better finish
off the barn before we took to the
open. We rushed to the front cor
ner of the house. AS we whipped UP
our Winchesters, hat appeared
above the rock foundation of the
barn. Bud and l shot together; the
hat jumped into the air.
Got his head" I said. AT once
the fire from the barn stopped. We
had shot Deputy Marshal Lewis
through the hair-not the head-and
the nearest in his force had taken to
a corncrib.
A big gun opened from the grove
at the other end of the line. Those
fellows were in a position to take our
backs as we made toward the peach
orchard, and a man who forgets such
things in the heat Of battle gets kill
ed.
l ran to the southwest corner and
pumped a few shots at them. My
movements stopped all the shoot
ing in that quarter-they thought we
were charging them and ran away.