OCR Text |
Show 272 FORTY YEARS AMONG THE INDIANS. tion we were going. As we neared it the Mexican said, " There are your animals ; the thieves have gone in there and we have got to fight." We looked back, but no one was now in sight. The Mexican asked, " What shall we do? Will you fight?" I told him I would, if necessary, and for him to take out on one side, keeping out of gun shot, I would go on the other and we would get beyond the cedars and keep the thieves from running the stock off. We were in a wide flat, with mountains on each side. We rode clear round on the run and met. We saw no sign of thieves. Soon five men, with the Mexican cap-tain, came up. We approached the cedars cautiously and found all the animals bunched, but no thieves. We made a care-ful survey of the country and found the tracks of the thieves, where they had gone off in another direction. The captain asked if I wished to follow them. I was too thankful to get the stock, so I told him to let them go ; that they had had their trouble for nothing. We arrived at our camp about sundown, having rid-den nearly forty miles. The commander charged us nothing, but we made the soldiers a present of a few dol-lars, which they accepted very thankfully, as a Mexican soldier serves for almost nothing and boards himself. Our animals were never molested afterward. There was quite a number of teams camped around at the time, and there was considerable interest shown, as most all thought it was the Apaches that had stolen our animals, but it was doubtless thieves who had taken them expecting to get a reward for fetching them back. When we returned, the captain told them it was no use for any one to steal my animals, unless they rolled |