CONTENTS
[ HOW THE LAW GOT INTO THE CHAPARRAL ]
[ THE BLUE QUAIL OF THE CACTUS ]
[ A SERGEANT OF THE ORPHAN TROOP ]
[ THE ESSENTIALS AT FORT ADOBE ]
[ JOSHUA GOODENOUGH'S OLD LETTER ]
[ CRACKER COWBOYS OF FLORIDA ]
[ THE STRANGE DAYS THAT CAME TO JIMMIE FRIDAY ]
ILLUSTRATIONS
[ 01 Texas Rangers Holding up Chapparal Bandits ]
[ 02 A Bearer of Civilization ]
[ 03 The Charge Anp Killing of Padre Jarante ]
[ 04 We Struck Some Boggy Ground ]
[ 05 Prisoners Drawing Their Beans ]
[ 06 How the Law Got Into The Chaparral ]
[ 09 On the Shore of The Tank—morning ]
[ 11 Too Big Game for Number Six ]
[ 12 Mile After Mile Rushed the Little Column ]
[ 13 The Horses Assembled in a Side Canyon ]
[ 14 The Two Men Climbed Slowly ]
[ 15 Brave Cheyennes Running Through the Frosty Hills ]
[ 16 Through the Smoke Sprang The Daring Soldier ]
[ 17 This Time the Air Grew Clear ]
[ 18 This Was a Fatal Embarquation ]
[ 19 The Omen of The Little Blue Birds ]
[ 20 Ye Spirit Dog Strode from Ye Darkness ]
[ 26 The Attack on The Cossack ]
[ 28 The Arrest of The Scout ]
[ 31 Not Much Fitted for Bush-ranging ]
[ 32 The March of Rogers's Rangers ]
[ 33 The Storming of Ticonderoga ]
[ 34 Paddling the Wounded British Officer ]
[ 35 The Capture of The French Grenadier ]
[ 36 About Four Dollars Worth of Clothes Between Them ]
[ 38 Fighting over a Stolen Herd ]
[ 41 Cowboys Wrestling a Bull ]
[ 42 The Lawyer Had Become a Voyager ]
[ 43 It is Strange How One Can Accustom Himself to 'pack' ]
[ 44 Down the River on a Golden Morning ]
CROOKED TRAILS
HOW THE LAW GOT INTO THE CHAPARRAL
“You have heard about the Texas Rangers?” said the Deacon to me one night in the San Antonio Club. “Yes? Well, come up to my rooms, and I will introduce you to one of the old originals—dates 'way back in the 'thirties'—there aren't many of them left now—and if we can get him to talk, he will tell you stories that will make your eyes hang out on your shirt front.”
We entered the Deacon's cosey bachelor apartments, where I was introduced to Colonel “Rip” Ford, of the old-time Texas Rangers. I found him a very old man, with a wealth of snow-white hair and beard—bent, but not withered. As he sunk on his stiffened limbs into the arm-chair, we disposed ourselves quietly and almost reverentially, while we lighted cigars. We began the approaches by which we hoped to loosen the history of a wild past from one of the very few tongues which can still wag on the days when the Texans, the Co-manches, and the Mexicans chased one another over the plains of Texas, and shot and stabbed to find who should inherit the land.
Through the veil of tobacco smoke the ancient warrior spoke his sentences slowly, at intervals, as his mind gradually separated and arranged the details of countless fights. His head bowed in thought; anon it rose sharply at recollections, and as he breathed, the shouts and lamentations of crushed men—the yells and shots—the thunder of horses' hoofs—the full fury of the desert combats came to the pricking ears of the Deacon and me.