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

ford 1t, | took the money, and lost M
| time getting busy. well knew thu
strangers would give the doctor shor
shrift.
For Mrs. Johnson soon got asylum
in camp of bullwhackers (oX-tean
/; freighters) near, by, men knew
| would treat her we'll and never give
her up as long as they could pull
trigger.
To them | suggested that some O
them sit in and draw cards with me IL
the rescue game; but they allowed
they were ready enough to confront
any odds to protect woman, but
didn't care to attempt break-in or
that vigilante roundup for any mar
who was nothing to them.
So it was up to me to go it alone
and did my best. ee 49,
But the time lost searching for
good horse and saddle with which tc
pack away the doctor, in case | had
luck enough to rescue him, came near
costing his life.
When I Hoped into town, the streets
saloons, and stores around it's center
we're deserted, for practically the en-
tire population was grouped near the
north end of the main street. where
the vigilantes were massed about a
telegraph pole, over whose cross-arm
the strangers had already thrown the
free end of the rope they had knotted
to Johnsons neck.
The way I broke that stranger com
bination makes me laugh to this day
It proved so easy, and yet much fear
the plain truth of it will sound to the
average reader an incredible fable-Or
worse
Still, there was little of the he
roles in my crude strategy, for while
lin effect l charged into and through
several hundred people at full, gallop
I figured that the moment powder
burned the rank and file of the town
folk would sprint like quarter horses
trying to get out of range.
And / figured that if they did not
leg it extra fast, three-fourths Of the
strangers would be apt to catch up
with them, for not one in hundred OF
all the .vigilantes | ever saw owned
nerve enough to stand up before man
with a gun in his hand.
Nor did my calculations miscarry
They worked to nicely in all but the
fact that got rather more lead in my
system than l had counted on.
Into and through the crowd of on
lockers I dashed, scattering them like
sheep, and had smashed in among the
group of strangers massed around the
perch they had picked for Johnson be-
fore they had time to realize what was
th0f vryN1I
reach none but those who deserved it,
cut loose with my six-shooters right
and left.
Melt? They just faded into the
bald gray buttes of the local scenery,
most of them-all of them, for suffi-
Gent time to let me slash Johnson's
hands free and pass him a Winchester
as he swung into the saddle Of my
spare horse.
But the moment their first surprise
was over there We're enough nervy
men in the lot to give us all the trou-
BILE we could get along with, and no
more had the Mormon hit the saddle
than we became the center Of hell OF
hail it was mystery We escaped from.
Nor did escape scratchless; my left
arm and right foot were broken before
we had run two hundred yards, and
then, worst of all, down pitched my
horse, dead.
But DR.. Johnson proved good
leather pulled up instantly and dragged
me up behind his own saddle, and then
on We raced. He played the game
and struck by me so pluckily that l
bore him no grudge for the 7air OF
painful and badly crippled wounds he
had been the means of getting me.
II there was mounted pursuit that
night, we saw none Of it. Guess the
scare thrown into them had them 60
ing sideways or running rings round
themselves for an hour or two. anyway
long enough to enable us to fade away.
The extent of casualties behind me
Of course l did not know at the time
but shortly thereafter I learned I had
killed outright four and wounded six
of the Johnson necktie party. Plenty
l remember I allowed to assure their
apprentice against unfavorable criti
cism if my preceptors, old Cox and
Peach, had been on hand to see the
fun.
After a wide circle, and breaking
trail As well as we cOuld, late the neX'
day we made it to the near vicinity OF
Fort Bridger, where, in consideration
of pretty athletic touch offmy re-
ward money, a Mormon family gave
me shelter and care, bringing out the
post surgeon to dress my wounds.
And there the doctor left me, tc
push on into Salt Lake, with my full
consent Helpless to ride myself, still
my right pistol-hand was yet In action
and if bigger posse Of Gren River
ties came in on me than could take
care of Single-handed, two of us could
not expect to stand them off. So il
was for me just question of keeping
hid out until able to fork horse again
and hit the trail.
Several days passed without any
sign of pursuit, until had begun tc
think the luck was with me.
But one afternoon, while l sat al
window watching the road, up tc
the house rode three horsemen whom
I recognized at some distance as three
of the we'll known Green River stran
glers, Ed Gilmore, Jack Roe and jim
Buck.
Fortunate for me it was / sat at the