Rensselaer Republican, Volume 18, Number 29, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 March 1886 — WALTER SOMERS’ ESCAPE. [ARTICLE]

WALTER SOMERS’ ESCAPE.

It was an odd name for n girl—Sacratnento. j So the girl herself thought ns she stooped down beside a spring at the foot of a cottonwood tree and lazily dropped her pail into the water. “It ought to have been given to a’boy. if it was a tit name to give anybody,” she said, quite aloud. “But I'm more boy than girl, anyway." This fact was added rather bitterly, as she looked at her brown, rough hands and her bare ankle, and thought of the “boy’s work" she hud to do. And it was hard to believe that this was the best kind of a life for a young girl like Sacramento- Here she lived alone, for her father was down at the mouth, of the canyon all day. The garden work she was obliged to do, and the care of the cattle fell upon her. It was not often that she saw any person but her father, although now and then, in spite of herself, she came in contact wjth the rpde men of thf mining camp up above. Yet Sacramento had her dream, one that she “Scarcely dared to own, ” but it came to her often as she went about her work. - ’ She knew that down at Santa Barbara and in the towns along the coast, and far, far away across wide stretches of continent to the great East, there were girls who lived very different lives from hers, and she dreamed of such a life for herself. • “Oh. if I could only go away from here!” she cried out, almost as one cries for help. “If I could only go down to San Francisco and go to school there for a single year. Ah, if I had Ssiß>." - Suddenly there was ..a step—not a man, but of a horse—on the bank behind her. and then some one spoke. She knew the «»ice without looking up. It was Pete Larrabee, a fellow who lived on Hahnemau’s plantation, two miles along the trail. He sometimes rode by. He had not heard ber last words at «fii; yet, strangely enough, his own were a repetition of them. “Five hundred dollars. Sac,” said he; “SSOO in gold! D’ye want ter earn it? Ther’s yer chance," and he threw down to her a bit of paper crumpled into a ball. She picked it up, and, slowly unfolding it, run her eyes over its contents;

“500 DOLLARS REWARD. “The above amount will be paid for informationleading to the arrest, dead or alive, of Walter Somers, who has worked for some time past on Maxwell’s ranch. Said Somers is about 18 years old and live and a half feet high, rather good looking, with light, curly hair, blue eyes, and a light moustache. When last seen he hail on a black slouch hat. gray business suit, and blue flannel shirt, and boots with red tops marked with the maker's name. ” The name of the county sheriff was signed at the bottom of the bill. Sacramento, having glanced it through, looked an. “He’sbeen a stealin’ horses'” exclaimed Pete. “Got off last night with four of Maxwell’s best, somewhere. That reward won’t do much good, though. The regulators ’ll lasso him and string him up long ’fore tlie' Iww’ll git started. They're havin' a meetin' uow up at the gulch. I tell ye they are mad. They’ll make quick work if they ketch him. Yer father’s there. Ye needn’t look for him home afore night, much,” Then, after a word or two more, the-man rode on, and presently Sacramento took up her pail, and with the sheriff’s bill still in her hand, went slowly up the bank (and across the trail toward the house, thinking -*ery seriously about the 500 dollars all the while. It was some hours after this, and the afternoon sun was going down behind the tops of the mountains, that Sacramento, having finished her nousework, was preparing to sit down on the porch to do her sewing, when she was met in the doorway .by a young man she had never seen before. And yet he was no stranger. The girl knew him instantly, although the slouch hat was pulled down over the flaxen hair and blue •yes, and the gray trousers, torn and muddy, had been drawn out of the boot legs so as to no longer allow the red tops of the boots with the maker's name to be seen. It was the horsethief. She did not, however, express any surprise as she saw him. She was accustomed to the sight of rough, evil men; and at the first glance she had felt that this one could not be cither very wicked or very dangerous. He was not much more than a lad, and had an air of gentleness and good breeding about him that six months of Western life and the plight he was in at that moment had by no means destroyed. He seemed to be short of breath, too, and was trembling •s if he had been running. Instinctively he raised his hand toward

his hrnid, and then, bethinking Ifitnself, . dropped it again. “» onlil you give ms oomething to ent mid j drink?" he naked, in a hesitating vbi.ee. ! ''Anything will do, lam rery hungrr. l—l I Jiave had nothing to act nines hist night." "Come in,*' Haid'Sacrnuiento gravely. In her voice there was neither kiuduewH nor unkindnesa. she waa trying to realize the j -situation she waa in. “Come in and wit down!”' 1 , , i ’ Then sin* went into a closet near by. and began taking dow n milk bread and meat, ns she slowly didjo turning the mat* ter over i« her mind. Here was this man who had been stealing hones, and for whose capture SSOO was uflered, in her own kitchen. Five hundred dollars! Exactly the sum shii bad been wishing for —the num that wonld take her down to Han Francisco to school and make a lady ofher. And this sum may lie hers if she could in some way, secure this stranger or somehow keep bini in the house until help arrived. Help? Why, she hardly needed help. He, was weak and exhausted, and in the drawer' of the kitchen table there was a loaded revolver, which she well knew how to use. iShe enme out piesently, and set file things before him, bringing also the teapot from the stove and pouring for him a cup of tea. Then she went and sat down by the window, and watched him furtively as he ah*. In spite of his caution, he hnil taken off his hat while he was entingr She could better see what he was like.; It was alriiost A boyish face,' worn, bnF not’ wicke<f, with the curling h lir lying in dark clusters upon his pale brow, in the. hands, small and Well shaped, and in all hienrotions and mnnnter. she felt that she could read something of his story. She had heard before this bow young lads in the East, tilled with romantic notions about Western life and adventure, sometimes left their luxurious homes and found their way out to the ranches of the Pacific. Perhaps he was one of th. se. As she looked at him, fancying all this, and realizing the terrible strait he - was in and the probable dark fate that was before him, her heart yearned with true womanly sympathy, and her feeling found expression before she was able to restrain herself. “Oh, how could you do it? How could you do it?” she, suddenly exclaimed, her voice quite full of what she felt. He looked up at her in wonder; but as his eyes met hers he understood her. “I didn’t do it. Upon my honor I did not,” he said. “It was that man Dennis.” roliet.. Horse stealing was held in that section to be a crime worse than murder; and she was by no means free from the popular estimate of its grave nature. “Oh, I’m glad of that!” cried she. “But —” she hesitated, and then went on doubtfully* “But. then, how was it? Why did you run away?” “It was Dennis’ doings, their laying it to me. lie did that to clear himself. And after that you> know as well as I do that there would have been no use in trying to prove myself innocent. They always hang a horse thief first and then consider his guilt afterward. I had to tun to save my fife," “Do you know that there is a reward offered for your capture?” “I know that the regulators are after me,” answered ths young man sullenly. “They came pretty near catching me, too, this noon. I just escaped them, and came down the canyon by the mountain trail. I have had a hard run for it, and v hat with that and no sleep for twenty-four hours. I am about used up. I felt as though I could not go another step when I saw your house. Now—you have been very good to me. I shall never forget—” “But what are you going to do now?” interrupted Sacramento. “ You are not safe here.". _ “I know it. But I threw them off the frack this noon, and I do pot think they are within five miles of me. Now, I have had something to eat, I will take to the woods again. I hope I may get clear away. If I don't"--his voice trembled au<l tears came into his eyes. “If I don’t I shall be hanged, I suppose. Oh. what a fool I was to prefer this sort of thing to home! And yet, I wouldn't care so much, either, if it wasn’t for my father and mother." And there the poor fellow fairly broke down. “Hark!” Sacramento exclaimed. She had been crying, too. She could not help it. They both listened. In a moment they both heard plainly the sound of horses coming down the trail. The - girl turned with instant self-possession. “Go in there! Quick! Quick! , There is not a moment to lose. Here, take vour hat!”

After handing his hat to him she halfpushed him across the room and into her own little room that led off from it; Then she hnrriedlycleared the table again, barely finishing the task as the horsemen halted at the door. There were three of them. One was her father. Sacramento knew the other two men by sight. They were rough, but of the better sort of those who made up the of Kelly Gulch. The faces of all three were stern ami forbidding, and they evidently had .been riding hard. They dismounted together. “Sac," began her father, as he entered the doer, “hev you seen anything of a young chap afoot or a horseback coming this way?” Sacramento had expected the question, and was ready for it. And she meant, if possible, to answer without a lie. - “ A young chap about 18 years of age. and five feet and a half high, rather good lotiking, and with red top boots?” replied she. “Yes! Yes! That’s hi,m!” cried one of the other men. “Has he been here?” “I was only quoting from this handbill,” said Sacramento. taking the paper from the shelf w-hf re she had laid it. “Then you hain’t seen him at all?” asked her father. “I have been- right here all day. and nobody has gone by except Pete Larrabee. It was he who gave me the bill. Are you sure that he came this wav, the—the—horsfe thief?” “No; but we didn’t know but he might. The chances is that he is sloped off to the mountains, meanin’ to go through Stovepipe pass. They’ll get him, though, afore sundown.” “It's sundown now,” observed Sacramento.. ■ “Then they've got him now,” was the sententious response. “And we shall be too late for the bangin' es we sh’d go.back. Leastways"—this was added to his companions—“you’d better come in and have a bite afore you go.” • So presently the three men sat down to the supper that the young girl quickly prepared for them. And while they were eating, she herself, at her father's bidding, went out to take the saddle off Bueno, his horse, and give him a feed. As she approached the door once more, a few minutes after, she heard words which caused her to stop and listen. _ “I don’t like ter say anything against thet kid o'yourn, neighbor,” one of the men was saying, “but it hex kinder seemed to me all ther white’s though she sorter hed some'at on her mind like. Ye don’t s'pose she knows anything 'bout that young feller arter all?” Sacramento’s father laughed at this, as though it was too absurd to be considered. The other, however, was not to be laughed out of his suspicions, “For all we know, she may hev hid him somewhere on the premmysis."

I "It’s easy enough .to See,” returned th* 1 proprietor of the oa.id pr.rumyHiH,"jv«tily ■ " Wnere d'ye think sipo’> bi | him? In het I bedroom? ” ■■ v j As he said this Sacramento,who was now I linear enough to see into the kitchen, saw hei ' I father' line from his chair and step to the ■ door d* l ' r ’>i<ni where she had conceal* ! j I the fugitive. Her heart almost stopped ; IteaUng ns she saw him open-the door arid enter the room, followed by his companion. .."We'll make a chis search .of it y bile we’re about it,” she heard him say within. And then she stood there in terrible suspense upon the porch, expecting every iiistant to hear the shout that would follow the discovery of the fugitive. But np such shout was heard; and instead of it, a moment later two men oame oul again, her father still laughing at hir friends. IT What conld it mean?] Had the young man been able to conceal himself '■ in the room and so evade their search? That war not possible. Then she thought of tht window. Could he have escaped from th< room by that? The window was so smaL ►he conld scarcely believe that he coulc have crept through it. And yet- he mus’ have done so. She went hurriedly to the back of thr house and then down beyond the horei sheds. No one could be seen. She halted a moment under a live oak tree jus at the edge of the garden. The evening was very calm and still, and the twiligh shadows ware deepening fast. Wa*- it th< rustling of the wind in the boughs overheat that caught her ear? She listened. - “Hist! lam here —in the tree.* The words came in a distinct whispe from directly above her. She stood and thought a single momen* before replying. Then she said: “Yot must get away from here at once,” in ar eager whisper. “One of the men suspeett. something, and they may at any momen' make a search of the place. I urn goin# into the/house a minute. Get down at once ang g° through the garden and across the trail to a spring that.you will find there . It’s at the foot of a big cottonwood tree Stay right the.re until I come.” Then phe went hurriedly to the house. Th< three mon were still sitting at the table, am' Sacramento felt rather than saw that on< of still regarded her suspiciously ai she cairie in. She did not speak to them a/ all, but went directly through the kitchen,to her ownirdom, and in a moment more can out. went about her work in the Kitchen and took up a pail,.apparently to go to the. spring for water. Ten minutes later, standing in the shadow of the cottonwood, yoiing Somers heard:a step, and then Sacramento, leading Bueno all saddled and bridled, appeared. He started forward. “Hush!" she said; “they may come at any moment. Listen to what 1 say. Your life depends on it. You must ride straight down the trail for a quarter of n mile. Then, close by a big cottonwood, just like this, you will strike a path to tlse left. Bueno will know it, once you get him in it. It Will bring yon, but half a mile on, to a road, that crosses the swamp. The end of this roiul has got out of order, and there are some logs laid. Lead Bueno across and then pull the logs away. If ,wu do that it will make trouble for those who follow you. Deyond the swamp is a big plain. Strike straight across it, having the moon squats on your light—the moon will be up by that time—and three hours’ riding wilt bring you to the new railroad. After that—God help yon to get safe away!” Sacramento paused and put out her hand. “Can you remeipber?” she demanded.’” “I can, but I can never forget—” “Never mind that. Here, take this. It is a little money. You will need it.' Now mount and ride —slowly a little way, and then for your life.” The young man still had hold o| her hand. The tears tame into his Tty next moment he was gone., ” The next morning Sacramento told her father the whole story and coaxed him into forgiving her. And the following afternoon a marTbrOught-Bueno over from the railroad town, and then she knew the fugitive was safe. Six weeks later a lawyer from Santa Barbara appeared with’a letter from Walter Somers. He was with his friends in New York. He begged Sacramento to accept, as a gift of gratitude, at least the amount of the reward that had been offered. And so it was that she went down to San Francisco to school that winter after all.