46 LIFE SKETCHES OF A JAYHAWKER 



of men and try to capture them and return them to prison. Sometimes we 

 would succeed pretty well and other times they would get away from us. 

 They would always arm themselves the first thing by robbing ranch houses 

 as they came to them, so often they would be pretty well armed by the time 

 they reached our vicinity. 1 will only mention one or two incidents, though 

 we had many scraps with them. I know on one occasion, there were twelve 

 of them bunched together and we heard where their camping place was, 

 and we started to surprise them in the camp. Whether they saw us coming 

 or not, they broke camp and were on the move over the hills, but we soon 

 overhauled them and they didn't lay down their arms and surrender worth 

 a cent, but showed fight, and we had a running fight with them for about 

 four miles. They finally came to a ledge of rock on the top of the hill and 

 stood their ground as they were well fortified. We held them there until 

 dark, and got one of their number early in the fight. He had received a shot 

 that had broken his leg. His name was Hall and he was returned to 

 prison. We returned to the river and patrolled all night up and down, but 

 made no discoveries. They managed to work their way about sixty miles 

 further up the country where another posse of men got after them and shot 

 most of them. Their leader was a desparate character, his name was Jack 

 Powers and was known all over the state. It makes all the difference in 

 the world what a man is fighting for, with them it was life and with us it 

 was only to capture them. Another little incident I will mentiooi, as there 

 were only two of us concerned. We were sitting in the cool side of a 

 porch of a road-side inn when two men rode up and called for dinner and 

 they were riding bare-back. After they came out we questioned them pretty 

 closely and they said that the horses belonged to their uncle and the reason 

 they were riding bare-back was that their uncle had driven the horses 

 up with a carriage and they were taking the horses back. They were two 

 fine looking American horses and we well knew that it was almost a sure 

 thing that a Spaniard was not the possessor of an American horse. We let 

 them depart on their journey, but after they were gone we talked over 

 the circumstances .attending the situation and both came to the conclu- 

 sion that they were riding stolen horses and we agreed that we would follow 

 them up and take them. We overtook them after riding about a mile or so 

 and commanded them to stop and go back to Stockton. At that they com- 

 menced pleading and said kill them, do anything but do not take them back 

 to Stockton, which was about fifteen miles distant. We told them in Span- 

 ish, it was no use for them to make any fuss about it, they would have to go 

 back and that ended it. By ihe way neither of us had any weapon of any 

 kind, but they didn't know that. Just before we entered Stockton, we put 

 the horses' necks together and tied the men's feet together under the 

 horse's bellies, so we were sure they could not break away from us. As 

 we were going up one of the principal streets, a man rushed out of a livery 

 stable and hailed, or rather tried to hail us, but we only put spurs to our 

 horses the more and rushed them through to the jail, where I was well 

 acquainted with the officers and told them to take care of them, which they 

 did in short order. They hadn't much more than gotten them in jail, till 

 here came a man just puffing and blowing and pretty mad too because we 

 wouldn't stop. He proved to be the Sheriff of Amador County and was after 

 these same horses and wanted the men turned over to him. The next 



