Cowboy Short Stories, November 1939 — page 86: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

CITIZENS OF BOOTHILL 87 ARLIER in the day local officers had picked up the trail of the two train robbers, but had subsequently lost it. A cattleman living near the point where the pair had leaped from the coach, reported the theft of two of his horses and furnished a good description of the animals. Assisted by this information the Bandit Hunters started out. It was seen that the wanted men were headed for the vast cattle ranges of Northwest Kansas, where settlements were few and far between. Al- though the local lawmen had lost the trail of the fleeing bandits, the trained Hunters soon found it, and galloped forward in hot pursuit. é Night fell, and, rather than risk losing the trail in the darkness, the pursuers went into camp, but the first streaks of dawn found them up and ready for the long chase which lay before them. Leaving the line of the Union Pacific, the trail led north- eastward, away from the towns and out into the unfenced grazing country. At noon the cattleman’s two jaded horses were found, calmly browsing beside the trail. This told the Bandit Hunters that the outlaws had roped a couple of horses from a small herd on the adjacent range and had thus secured fresh mounts. But the animals ridden by the pursuers were known to be the fastest and the best stay- ers in the West, and although the fugitives had many hours’ start, the trailers realized that in the end they would be overtaken. The hold-up men evidently knew exactly what to expect, for they were riding at top speed, and just before dusk the second day the Hunters came upon a dead horse lying beside the trail. They had literally ridden the beast to death. From the deep-cut tracks of the remaining horse, it was evi- dent that the pair were riding double, which could not keep up for any length of time. That evening the pursuers, completely exhausted, again rested for the night. When they took up the chase the next morning their mounts were fresh and ready for an- other hard day’s ride. Before noon a second horse was found, and the Hunters then knew that the fugi- tives were on foot . . . and to be “‘on foot” in that isolated region meant that a place of refuge must be quickly found, or else face the pangs of hunger and thirst. From then on the trail was more difficult to follow, but, while Kennedy and hts party could not quite maintain the. same speed as on the preceding day, they were com- forted by the assurance that they were trav- eling many times faster than the dismounted fugitives. Just at nightfall the riders reached the cabin of a solitary homesteader, from whom they secured the information that the two men had passed that way during the middle of the afternoon. The homesteader had left his house about two o'clock and had gone to a field several miles away. When he tre- turned later he found that his place had been forcibly entered during his absence, and the intruders had cooked themselves a good meal from his scanty supply of pro- visions. Two unwashed plates on his rude table proved that two people had been there, and the footprints around the cabin gave evidence that they were unmounted. “Where’s the next spread?” asked Ken- nedy. : “Fifteen miles northeast of here. The men are headed in that direction, if they don’t get lost,’’ was the reply. “Boys,” Kennedy opined, “our men will be at that house for breakfast.”’ They rested in the homesteader’s cramped quarters until after midnight, and then set out again. Directed by the plainsmen, they rode leisurely toward the northeast, in the direction of the next ranch. At daylight they were in full view of a fait-sized frame ranch building, and, with the aid of a pair of binoculars, made out the two fugitives plodding wearily along in that direction. “There’s our meat, fellows!” Kennedy exclaimed with enthusiasm. Before the bandit baiters could overtake them, however, the desperadoes discovered that they were being closely followed and taking to their heels, they managed to reach the ranch and disappear inside while the trackers were yet a mile out on the open prairie. IVE minutes after they had entered the building, and before Kennedy’s quintet, halting far out of shooting range, had decided upon a course of action, the terrorized occupants of the house, a hus- band and wife, made a hasty exit by the side door and came rushing toward the lit- tle group of railroad police. They explained breathlessly that the two interlopers had burst in upon them, and at the point of six- shooters had taken possession of all the fire- arms in the house, after which they were CoOnniclooo S Go