Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1914-07-11
CHAPTER XII.
Cox RediNlXuS,


there was for me no hope OF redress
for the seizure by government land,
agents Of the one hundred CORDS OF
wood I had chopped on the North
Platte, / tramped west to Green River
whence a newly established stage-line
ran north to the then booming placer
camp at South Pass City.
The road was so infested with ROAD
agents who had been SO ruthless IN
shooting up the coaches that the JOB
of messenger, or stage-guard, mad BE-
come anything but popular. But to a
man stony broke like I was 1t looked
GOOD, and I had no more than applied
for it than I found myself elected.
The third trip proved quite enough
for me-showed me there was nothlng
in it with that company.
One evening, as we were SLOWLY
dragging through heavy sand on an
upgrade. out upon us from the sage.
brush sprang two bandits. One seized
the leaders and yelled to the driver to
stop, while the other jumped IN close
to the nigh front wheel and, by way
of introduction, handed up shot that
narrowly grazed me and wounder the
driver severely in the shoulder.
Almost at the instant he fired
sprane off the box at him, shooting as
7 jumped bored him through and
through, and landed al tangled up
with him as he crumpled up. Ana
Just as I contrived to roll free OF him.
| saw his mate starting from the on
side of the team to run around the
leaders for shot at me-a very silly
play for him to make at any man
more dangerous than a tenderfoot:
Firing from where lay on the ground
I sent A shot below the bellies or the
leaders that freed the roads OF number
two.
Frightened by the firing. the team
ran away, for the driver, with one arm
was unable to control them. More
over he told me later. he had thought
me- dead, and did not try very hard to
stop them.
Thus left alone and afoot. and not
knowing what mates the robbers might
have near at hand with their horses,
ducl,ed through the sage-brush ana
ough-boyed it into South Pass City
on my own hind legs.
There the stage company did hire a
doctor to dress the drivers wound and
nasesd me a few thanks. But since l
could not find any one to trade me
cartridges in exchange for the little
lag Of thanks that constituted my only
reward for saving the mails ana eS,
press. and since knew | was pouno
to be a marked man on that run, sure
10 be potted shortly If / stayed, l
threw up my job.
| heard some time passed before the
company found my successor.
The next move I made involved me
In altogether the most regrettable, and
one Of the most dangerous, assocla~
tons of my life.
At that time man who was known
as most desperate character, JACK
Watkins by name, was camped near
the mouth of the Sweetwater, engaged
in shooting elk, deer, and antelope, and
pedling the meat among the railway
contractors employed on the Union
Pacific.
While generally feared he had not
as yet outlawed himself. Thus, when
he proposed l should join him In his
meat-shooting game, offering me a
half interest in the gains if I would
do the killing while he attended to the
marketing, 1t seemed quite the best
looking opening in sight for me, and
took it. :,
Come to his camp, I turned to and
never worked harder, for l thought l
saw prospects of a good, quick stake
in sight.
TO be sure, the antelope and black
tail deer were easy enough; and If one
worked we'll back from the stage-roads
the flashing, yellowish-white TANKS OF
the antelope were as thick in the wide,
rich-grassed valleys leading up toward
Laramie Peak as sheep in pasture.
But getting elk was killing work for
fair; for until the first heavy autumn
SHOWS come and drive them to assem-
bly, in bands Of hundreds, and often OF
some thousands, in the low, open val
legs, they are only to be found high
up, about timber-line, near to perpet-
ual snow. The stalking, and packing
their meat down the gorges, was 0
Job to wear out the strongest.
However, at it l continued cheer
fully enough for three months seeing
little Of Watkins-never, in fact, ex-
eept to turn in my meat, unsuspicious
e the storm he was raising.
had not been unmindful that was
not seeing the color of any money, and
he must have been taking in lot OF 1t,
for there was quick sale for all the
meat We could deliver.
But since, in my isolated mountain
life. had no use for even a penny,
and then had no notion he meant to
rob me, I was not worrying about It,
But when my awakening came it
was rude enough. During a night he
had spent at my camp, come to pack
out a load of meat, had told him
hunter had built a dugout in the next
canon north of us and was shooting
meat for the railway graders-a
youngster, sort of a tenderfoot at that.
But since his only comment was
surly Hell he has!' I thought no
more OF it.
Shortly after dawn he left my camp
for a week or two, as usual, l sup
posed. Fancy then my surprise when,
the following evening, two or three
hours after dark, he stumbled into my
cabin, hung up on the wall new Win
chester and belt of cartridges.
Then he squatted by the fire and be-
gan aWkwardly counting roll of bills,