Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1914-07-23
The VANGUARD
TALE OF THE OLD FRONTIER
* BY Edgar Beecher Bronson
Author of o a Ranchman,"
Closed Territory" Etc
It's Fifth New York CIT!
A TALE OF THE OLD FRONTIER
BY Edgar Beecher Bronson
nn xucnntinued

horse. and to dismount.
Then riding up beside him ant
withdrawing a foot from the stirrup
managed to remove several or knee
lands teeth with the toe Of my boot
much more quickly, If not less pain
lessly. than the cleverest dentist coult
have done. then wheeled my morse
and rode away, confident he lacked the
nerve even to shoot at my back.
Brutal! Yes, crudely, rawly brutal
am hound to admit my treatment o.
those men was; but the reader VII
concede | first did my best to manage
them by kindness, and only resorteo &c
violence when forced to It,
Ava that it was precisely what was
reedad To master the wild, lawless ele
mant thereabouts thronging, is reason
ahlv proved by the fact that l helc
down nv lob of deputy sheriff and
hnIlion.guard for the mine for two
voars and that without further serious
trouhie until near the end of my serv.
ice, when I had to take In big, nao
nan travelling under the misleading
name Of Charles Small, and with two
men I had deputized. captured. near
Tn,ncan the Bass gang that mao
vrecked and robbed Santa Fe train
at socorro. ..o
faaying the Carlisle Mine, Tor the
ravt tvo or three years l became a
rather more rapidly rolling"stone tnan
naval. I took a whack at the golo
Nalds Of northern California; tried my
hand at farming near Pomona, where
everything I planted seemed to resent
4 and stubbornly refused to grow :
iumned back north to Stockton ano
h.d = no at pressing hay-and found
Il N much harder work than pressing
nistol.trigger than I soon gave II
nm. then drifted down to Nogales'
Arizona. and backed into job more
n NV Iine-that of deputy sherif.
MI within a few months after my
.nnointment the town had become SO
neaceable. and life there grown SO
hopelessly monotonous that resigned
and started into Sonora on pros
pecting trip. -. +.
For me the trip was loser, not IN
the least to my disappointment, Tor !
had become used to 1t, but 1T proauceo
nv mate a stake sufficiently handsome
to suit anybody.
II Leadville, some years earlier, !
had known him as sure-thing caro-
artist. rolling in prosperity, and why
he should want to go p1king on INTO
the Sierra Madres with me, prospect
ing. was only explainable on the theory
that some one was camping on MIS- trail
he was not anxious to meet.
But I never INDUCED my curiosity TO
the. extent of asking him any questions
on the subject.
81 course in that wild mountain
region there were small prospects or
any rich pickings in his gambling line
hut, one night that we were camped IN
. placita below Bavispe the chance or
his life blew in, as 1t turned out.
Shortly after our arrival there
wound into the little plaza about the
slickest conducta I ever saw In the
mountains. string Of fat mules, load
/. al Wa later learned, with silver dol
lars and rich merchandise, with a
heavy escort of armed men.
But the owner outshone the con-
Quota. A middle.aged Mexican hidalgo
he appeared, of the bluest blood, 1t one
might Judge from his high and mighty
airs and the costume he wore.
HIS get-up would have made the
xaudiest bandit chief of the Sierras
look like a peon. His jacket and
trousers Of golden yellow leather were
30 spangled with silver braid and
conchas that he must have been
weighted like knight in armor; big
sombrero so loaded with gold one could
have banned 1t profltably for week;
saddle with horn nearly as big as
his sombrero, covered with gold boss
bearing the eagle, RATHER, and cacti OF
thu Mexican national arms; spurs and
bridie-bit of solid silver; machete and
pistol handles set with gold.
He sure was great locker, was that
hidalgo. and seemed to suspect as
much himself.
To us he paid no more attention
than to the raggedest poems, at least
until my mate, catching him standing
near, quickly spread a serape on the
ground suuatted on one end of it, pro,
duced a monte deck, dumped his wad
before him, and called for some high
roller to come and tap the bank.
Tap the bank! Why, at the most II
would not stack up above a hundred
'dobe dollars, but a blooded call for
tap of bank Is dare no Mexican
with the price can resist.
Whirling at the sound Of my mates
cnallen8e, the nlQdlSO StrOlleu up "
the improvised layout, looked disdain
fully on the insignificant pile OF silver
and scornfully asked:
well, son, have you no more?
do not like to play for trifles."
Sorry, senor," replied my mate
''but / couldn't dig up another two-bit
piece. and | reckon I'm regretting the
fact about as much as you, for II my
roll was larger I'd waste less of my
valuable time winning all of yours
The insolence Of the answer worked
as well as it had been hoped, for the
hidalgo promptly squatted on the other
end Of the serape and challenged
Come on, then. You are welcome
to all If you can win it-and you car
depend there is plenty"
Covering the bank-roll, the deal be
gan. OF course the hidalgo never hat
a look-in. except as, now and then, the
dealer allowed him win to make sure
of holding his play.
Across to and round about the
dealer flowed stream Of 'dobe dol
lars until he looked to be afloat on
- usI..~