The Life and Adventures of Nat Love: Better Known in the Cattle Country as "Deadwood Dick"Love, Nat
History
The Life and Adventures of Nat Love: Better Known in the Cattle Country as "Deadwood Dick"
Love, Nat
African American cowboys -- West (U.S.) -- Biography; Cowboys -- West (U.S.) -- Biography; Love, Nat, 1854-1921; West (U.S.) -- Biography
The fat wobbling greaser who was behind the bar looked scared, but he
proceeded to serve us with as much grace as he could command. My
forty-five colt which I proceeded to reload, acting as a persuader.
Hearing a commotion outside I realized that I was surrounded. The crowd
of Mexican bums had not appreciated my kindly greeting as I rode up and
it seems did not take kindly to being scattered by bullets. And not
realizing that I could have killed them all, just as easy as I scattered
them, and seeing there was but two of us--I and my horse--they had
summoned sufficient courage to come back and seek revenge. There was a
good sized crowd of them, every one with some kind of shooting iron, and
I saw at once that they meant business. I hated to have to hurt some of
them but I could see I would have to or be taken myself, and perhaps
strung up to ornament a telegraph pole. This pleasant experience I had
no especial wish to try, so putting spurs to my horse I dashed out of
the saloon, then knocking a man over with every bullet from my Colts I
cut for the open country, followed by several volleys from the angry
Mexicans' pop guns.
[Illustration: I Take Charge of My Buffalo and Outfit]
The only harm their bullets did, however, was to wound my horse in the
hip, not seriously, however, and he carried me quickly out of range. I
expected to be pursued, however, as I had no doubt I had done for some
of those whom I knocked over, so made straight for the Rio Grande
river riding day and night until I sighted that welcome stream and on
the other side I knew I was safe. Crossing the Rio Grande and entering
Texas at the Eagle pass, I rode straight to the old home ranch where I
stayed resting up until the boys got the horses out of Mexico into
Texas, then I joined them and assisted in driving the horses into the
ranch. I congratulated myself that I escaped so easily and with such
little damage. It was certainly a close place but I have been in even
closer places numbers of times and always managed to escape. Either
through trick, the fleetness of my horse or my shooting and sometimes
through all combined. At this time I was known all over the cattle
country as "Red River Dick," the name given to me by the boss of the
Duval outfit, when I first joined the cow boys at Dodge City, Kansas.
And many of the cattle kings of the west as well as the Indians and
scores of bad men all over the western country have at some time or
other had good reason to remember the name of "Red River Dick."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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