l forward,
firing both guns into the ground at his feet as he went down.

"Then the stuff was off and she opened up in earnest. They fought all
right. I was on my knee pumping lead for dear life, and as I threw my
carbine down to refill the magazine, a bullet struck it in the heel of
the magazine with sufficient force to knock me backward. I thought I
was hit for an instant, but it passed away in a moment. When I tried
to work the lever I saw that my carbine was ruined. I called to the
boys to notice a fellow with black whiskers who was shooting from
behind his horse. He would shoot over and under alternately. I
thought he was shooting at me. I threw down my carbine and drew my
six-shooter. Just then I got a plug in the shoulder, and things
got dizzy and dark. It caught me an inch above the nipple, ranging
upward,--shooting from under, you see. But some of the boys must have
noticed him, for he decorated the scene badly leaded, when it was
over. I was unconscious for a few minutes, and when I came around the
fight had ended.

"During the few brief moments that I was knocked out, our boys had
closed in on them and mixed it with them at short range. The thieves
took to such horses as they could lay their hands on, and one fellow
went no farther. A six-shooter halted him at fifty yards. The boys
rounded up over a hundred horses, each one with a fiber grass halter
on, besides killing over twenty wounded ones to put them out of their
misery.

"It was a nasty fight. Two of our own boys were killed and three were
wounded. But then you ought to have seen the other fellows; we took no
prisoners that day. Nine men lay dead. Horses were dead and dying all
around, and the wounded ones were crying in agony.

"This white man proved to be a typical dandy, a queer leader for such
a gang. He was dressed in buckskin throughout, while his sombrero was
as fine as money could buy. You can know it was a fine one, for it
was sold for company prize money, and brought three hundred and fifty
dollars. He had nearly four thousand dollars on his person and in his
saddle. A belt which we found on him had eleven hundred in bills and
six hundred in good old yellow gold. The silver in the saddle was
mixed, Mexican and American about equally.

"He had as fine a gold watch in his pocket as you ever saw, while his
firearms and saddle were beauties. He was a dandy all right, and a
fine-looking man, over six feet tall, with swarthy complexion and hai