THE WOLF HUNTERS 



while I gathered in his battery an' buckled the 

 belt around me over my own. 



"Then I commanded, * Dismount!' which he did 

 like a little man, an' I made him tie his horse to a 

 tree; an' then I undone his lariat from his saddle 

 an' made him turn his back to me while I tied his 

 elbows together behind his back with one end of 

 the lariat; an' with the other end made fast to the 

 horn of the saddle, with a good holt of it in me 

 fist, I mounted his fine horse an' druv him before 

 me, as you saw. 



"An' now what are we to do with him? No 

 doubt he deserves hanging, as they all do, but it 

 ain't my style to kill a helpless prisoner an' I know 

 you nor Tom wouldn't do such a thing, though 

 I told Tucker, comin' along — ^just to keep him 

 well scared up that we would hang him in the 

 mornin', sure as fate, as soon as it was light enough 

 to see how to do a good job of it; an' I b'lieve he's 

 afeard we're going to do it, for he's been mighty 

 serious ever since. Ef we was nigh to any of 

 Uncle Sam's sogers we could just turn him over 

 to them, an' tl^'d fix him, sure, for the order is 

 out fer these jayhawkers to be exterminated to 

 death or druv out of Kansas, an' the sogers is 

 huntin' 'em down wherever they can hear of 'em. 

 By the way, the ol' storekeeper told me that he 

 had sent oflFthat letter, by the mail that went past 

 this evenin', to General Hunter, at Leavenworth, 

 askin' him to send a few sogers out along the Santa 

 Fe road to look after these fellers." 



68 



