HORSE-DEALERS AND STEALERS 203 



are the notes ; you can count them for yourself." So 

 saying, he handed the roll of £i notes over to the 

 innocent-looking purchaser, who counted them carefully, 

 then calmly pocketed them, and said, " Thanks ! they're 

 all right ; and now you may send to my stable for that 

 old blind crock of yours. Good day." 



Time was when horse-stealing was punished with death 

 in England, and there are still parts of America where it is 

 safer to kill a man than to steal a horse. 



One summer afternoon a man in a Western mining 

 camp, having tracked his two mules and one horse for 

 half a mile and discovered that a man's tracks with spur- 

 marks followed them, came back to " town " and told the 

 " boys " who were loitering about the saloon that some 

 Mexican had stolen the animals. Such news naturally 

 demanded drinks all round. " Do you know, gentlemen," 

 said one who assumed the leadership, " that just to shoot 

 these Greasers ain't the best way ; give 'em a fair jury 

 trial, and rope 'em up with all the majesty of the law. 

 That's the cure!" 



There was a smack of judicial moderation about this 

 proposal which commended itself to the " boys." To 

 shoot a man at sight was a process which had become 

 monotonous. They were glad of a novelty : something, 

 too, which would have a legal air about it. As they 

 returned to the veranda a Mexican walked over the hill 

 brow, jingling his long spurs as an accompaniment to the 

 waltz he was whistling. The advocate of law, pointing to 

 the stranger, said in an undertone, " That's him ! " The 

 unsuspecting Mexican strolled towards the saloon ; a rush, 

 a struggle, and, bound hand and foot, he lay on his back 

 in the bar-room. " String him up ! " shouted a score of 

 voices. But the advocate of law and justice bade them 

 remember their recent resolution, and give the prisoner a 

 fair trial. The fact that the Mexican did not understand 

 a word they were saying did not, in their eyes, prejudice 

 the case in the least. 



A jury was quickly gathered in the street, and hurried 

 behind the bar. The man who had suggested a fair trial 

 briefly stated the case to the jury, who were then shoved 



