Year: 1865

IOlu MIN JhOagnG u quite likely.


We rode on short distance further,
and close by spur of the timber he told
me that he must leave me.


4 should like to keep on with you, he
said, but 1 must take the rest Of my way
alone. Here is my path


He bade me good bye; hoped we should
meet again; gave me some directions
touching my route and then turned to-
ward the timber.


Dear Reader, did you ever, either while
standing in the street, or in some crowded
assembly, grow nervous and uneasy under
the impression that some one was gazing
upon you ?-and have you not, under such
circumstances, looked around and found
a pair Of bright, electric eyes fixed upon
you? Something so felt 1 as I rode away
from that stranger. At length the feel
ing became oppressive, and I stopped and
turned. In another instant I should have
been a dead man! The seeming hunter
had dismounted, and his keen black eye
was glancing along over the barrel of his
rife directly at my heart. As quick as
thought I slipped from my saddle, and on
the same second bullet came Whizzing
over my shoulder close to my ear. l
think the tenth part of a second lost to
me at that time would have been fatal.
The villain supposed, of course, that he
had shot me, and leaving his horse behind
he hurried toward me. Under such cir
cumstances l could have no hesitation. I
waited until he arrived within few PAGES,
and then I levelled my pistol and shot him
through the heart. He kept on toward
me, and 1 fred a second time; but the
first shot had been sufficient.


"You're a fine travelling companion,
aren't ye |" said I, as I bent over him.


He started to his knees, and raised his
hand toward the cane>brake, and tried to
cry out, either for help, or else to warn
his companions there hidden but his voice
had failed him, and be sank back dead
without having spoken a word.


With as little delay as possible I drag
ged the body up into the timber, and hav-
ing remounted my own horse, and taken
the rein of the dead mans horse over my
arm, started back 1 did not follow the
road over which I had come, but kept to
the southwark, towards Brickett's Ford,
where the Sheriff had talked of going.
By the middle of the afternoon I was on
the track of the officers, though I did
not find them until evening, 1 told them
what had discovered, and early on the
following morning, with fifty or sixty well
armed citizens, We set off towards the Big
Brake. 1 remembered the place where
the horsemen had taken to the water, and
upon entering here, and following careful
ly along, we found hard road, where
some peculiar movement Of the food had
thrown up ridge Of gravel Having
gained the cane-brake our way was clear
enough, for we found an open path, cut
through the canes, and at the distance of
a quarter Of a.mile, where the ground was
high and dry, we came upon the robbers
camp. Twelve of the desperadOes were
there and were easily captured; and the
amount Of property which fell into the
hands Of the officers was large. Some of
the villains were away, and probably made
good their escape. The chief Of the gang,
a Texan ranger, of the name of Bastrop,
was the individual who had Overtaken me
on the road, and whom I had shot, Had
he been content to let me depart in peace
I doubt if I should have been the cause
of trouble to him. As I have already
said, it occurred to me that the haunt Of
the robbers was in the cane~brake; but as
I had no particular desire to be mixed up
in such a mess, I might have kept on my
way, allowing the proper officers to attend
to the finding of the outlaws. The cow
ardIy attempt upon my life, however, de-
termined me otherwise, and the last act of
John Bastrop's career, instead of saving
his gang from arrest, as he had intended,
proved the signal Of destruction Of both
him and them.