Six Years with the Texas Rangers, 1875 to 1881Gillett, James B.
History
Six Years with the Texas Rangers, 1875 to 1881
Gillett, James B.
Frontier and pioneer life -- Texas; Gillett, James B., 1856-1937; Texas -- History -- 1846-1950; Texas Rangers
Early in the morning we were up and traveling. The mule Captain Roberts
was riding did not step out as fast as Old Rock had done, and the boys
had an easier time keeping up. We camped at noon on just enough rain
water to do us and took up the trail again after dinner. The trailers
stopped suddenly, and as we rode up Captain Roberts asked what was the
matter. They said it seemed as though the Indians at this point had
rounded up the horses and held them for some cause or other.
The captain dismounted and swept the country with his field glasses.
He circled around where the horses had been standing and found where
a lone Indian had walked straight away from the animals. He followed
the tracks to an old live oak tree that had been blown down. Then the
reason for the stop became apparent: the Indians had sighted a herd
of mustangs grazing just beyond this tree and the redskin had slipped
up on them and killed a big brown mare. Captain Roberts picked up the
cartridge shell the old brave had used and found it to be from a .50
caliber buffalo gun. We also found the mustang, from which the Indians
had cut both sides of ribs and one hind quarter.
Captain Roberts was much elated.
"Boys," he said with a smile, "we now have ninety-five chances out of
a hundred to catch those Indians. They will not carry this raw meat
long before stopping to cook some. We have followed them now over one
hundred and fifty miles, and they have never stopped to build a fire.
They are tired and hungry and probably know where there is water not
far away."
He spoke with such confidence that I marveled at his knowledge of the
Indian habits.
We were now on the extreme western draw of the South Concho River, far
above the point at which the water breaks out into a running stream.
Finally the trail led out on that level and vast tract of country
between the head of South Concho and the Pecos on the west. These
Indians turned a little north from the general direction they had been
traveling, and all of a sudden we came to some rock water holes.
Here the redskins had built three fires, cooked both sides of the
mustang ribs and had picked them clean. From this high table land they
could look back over their trail for fifteen miles. The captain thought
they had been there early in the morning, as the fires were out and
the ashes cold. We did not lose any time at this camp, but hurried on,
following the trail until late in the evening, when the trailers again
halted. When we came up we found that the trail that had been going
west for nearly two hundred miles had suddenly turned straight north.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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