TRACY, THE BANDIT 
 
 OR THE 
 
 ROMANTIC LIFE AND CRIMES OF A ^TWENTIETH 
 CENTURY DESPERADO. 
 
 BY CLARENCE E. RAY 
 
 ILLUSTRATED-, 
 
 No. 12 
 
 REGAN PUBLISHING CORPORATION 
 
 26 East Van Buren Street 
 
 Chicago 
 
Made in IT. S. A. 
 

 CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 I. In Old Missouri 7 
 
 II. Breakfast with Tramps 13 
 
 III. Tracy as a Cattle Rustler 20 
 
 IV. Behind Prison Bars 26 
 
 V. Trapped by the Mormons 31 
 
 VI. A Chained Tiger 35 
 
 VII. What a Woman Dares 42 
 
 VIII. Evil Associates 47 
 
 IX. The Horse Thieves' Rendezvous 52 
 
 X. The Battle 57 
 
 XI. The "Double Cross" 62 
 
 XII. Hunted by Arapahoes t 68 
 
 XIII. A Water Rat 75 
 
 XIV. Holding Up an Automobile Party 80 
 
 XV. Robbing a Bank 85 
 
 XVI. A Fight for Life 93 
 
 XVII. Tracy Becomes a Burglar 98 
 
 XVIII. A Carnival of Crime ' 104 
 
 XIX. The Path to Freedom Blazed with Blood. . 110 
 5 
 
 ^N/~*| 
 
 932763 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 XX. Two Sheriffs Held Up 115 
 
 XXI. Tracy and Merrill Ambush a Posse 119 
 
 XXII. "On to Washington" 125 
 
 XXIII. Sheriff Bert Blescher Is Shot 134 
 
 XXIV. Outwitting a Posse 139 
 
 XXV. The Death of Merrill 144 
 
 XXVI. Six Men Held Up 149 
 
 XXVII. Tracy Against a Posse 154 
 
 XXVIII. Tracy Again Breaks Through a Cordon of 
 
 Militia 159 
 
 XXIX. The Capture of the Jerrolds 164 
 
 XXX. Saved Again by a Woman 168 
 
 XXXI. The Woods Full of Deputies 172 
 
 XXXII. A Dash for 'the Wilderness 174 
 
 XXXIII. Tracy Rides a Bike 179 
 
 XXXIV. The Outlaw's End.. 182 
 
TRACY, THE BANDIT 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 IN OLg MISSOURI. 
 
 "Its no use, 'Genie, I'm goin 5 to git out." 
 
 "But Harry, if you didn't have anything to do with 
 it what need you care?" 
 
 "They'll say I did an' the old man would be the first 
 to give me up. The store was robbed and I know who 
 did it. But they might cut me up before I'd tell." 
 
 "Is it for my sake, Harry?" asked the girl gently. 
 The young fellow stared stolidly into the fiery red of 
 the western sky and was silent. The girl threw one 
 bare arm about his neck and kissed him. He caught 
 her to him and when he spoke there was a vicious 
 note in his tone. 
 
 "I'd shoot the sheriff and git out of the country to- 
 night if I thought there was any danger that you 
 would be brought into it," he said. 
 
 "But you know brother Ben was into it," she said. 
 He made no answer but took her by the arm and led 
 her up the hill towards the fiery glow which proclaimed 
 the recent retirement of the god of day. 
 
 He was a tall, well-made fellow, his fine figure show- 
 ing in symmetrical lines in spite of the ill-made jeans 
 in which he was clothed. There was lithe, strong, 
 young manhood in every inch of the six feet of him. 
 
 7 
 
8 TRACY, THE BANDIT. 
 
 His face browned by a life spent out of doors, was 
 clean cut, the profile scarcely marked by the moustache 
 that -wa'Ss just- springing on his lip. His blue-gray 
 eyes were keen and at times, just now for instance, 
 they shone with a sinister gleam. His head was 
 covered with waving brown hair. Even then he was 
 such a man as women would love and men fear. 
 
 As yet there was no heavy crime on Harry Tracy's 
 soul, though he had been very near to crime more than 
 once. He might have looked any man in the face 
 honestly though perhaps the eye that has looked so 
 often over the sights of a gun and dealt death to one 
 aimed at would even now have no difficulty in looking 
 fearlessly at any man. But the Harry Tracy who 
 has bought infamy at the expense of blood on the 
 Pacific coast is not the same man in soul or feeling 
 as that one who led 'Genie Carter up that hill in the 
 Ozarks, near the Arkansas border of Missouri, that 
 June night eleven years ago. 
 
 The girl clung to him fondly. She did not at all 
 mind the fact that in the hollow of his arm there lay 
 a shotgun. She was a daughter of the Ozarks. Born 
 in the mountains, she had spent nearly all her life 
 there. The suggestion of refinement in her tone was 
 an acquisition that came from living for a year with 
 an aunt in Kansas City. 
 
 In the flower of her girlhood she was a fit mate for 
 the young man against whom she leaned. Tall, 
 willowy, fair to look at, she was the belle of the coun- 
 try-side and among the rough young fellows of the 
 mountains there were plenty who would be glad of 
 
TRACY, THE BANDIT. y 
 
 the chance to do Harry Tracy an injury that would 
 take him from her. 
 
 They stopped on the brow of a hill from which the 
 greater elevations of the west could be seen silhouetted 
 against the deepening shadows of the sunset sky. 
 
 "I'm off over them mountains/' said Tracy. 
 
 The girl sank down on the stump of one of the 
 mountain monarchs that had fallen to make a part of - t 
 the home of the Tracys the cabin could be seen dimly' 
 down in the valley. 
 
 "Face it out for my sake, Harry," she said. 
 
 "I'm goin' away for your sake, 'Genie/' he said. 
 
 "Tell me about it," she said. He hesitated, then told 
 her. 
 
 "You remember when I left you here Tuesday 
 night?" The girl nodded. "Well I went down along 
 by the river road. I had some night lines I wanted 
 to look at. I was layin' on the bank smokin' and 
 must have fallen asleep, for I started up when I heard 
 voices right near. 
 
 "There was three men in a skiff pulling hard. I 
 knew all of them. One of them said: 
 
 " 'We better plant the stuff in that pile of brush 
 back of Hoke Gerrish's place/ 
 
 "Then if there's any row we can set fire to it/ 
 said another. 
 
 ' 'We were chumps to monkey with the mail/ said 
 another; and I knew Holton's store and the post- 
 office had been robbed. 
 
 "They went on and I lay there thinkin' about it. 
 You know, 'Genie, I've been a kind of a wild kid and 
 
10 TRACY, THE BANDIT. 
 
 hain't had much chance and when I heard them fellows 
 talkin' about plantin' the stuff it came to tne that it 
 wouldn't do much harm to help myself to some of it." 
 The girl showed no repugnance at the remark. 
 
 "Well I waited a couple of hours and then went 
 down to Gerrish's brush pile. I was nosin' around the 
 pile when somebody got up on the other side and 
 pointed a gun at me. 
 
 "I guess 'Genie, it's a good thing I didn't have my 
 gun along that night or there might have been blood 
 between me and you." 
 
 "It. was my brother Ben," she said. 
 
 "It was, and he allowed I better git out and hit the 
 pike. I didn't stop to argue. When I got home I 
 tried to git into the house quiet but I met the old 
 man. It was pretty near daylight and he done some 
 cussin'. 
 
 "Yesterday when the word went 'round that they 
 were lookin' for the men that robbed the store Tues- 
 day night the old man allowed that I had better git 
 out if I didn't want to be taken and I'm going. I'm 
 goin' down and help myself to that plant before I go," 
 he added grimly. 
 
 There were tears in the girl's eyes. 
 
 "So it was Ben," she said. - "It's a wonder you 
 don't take a shot at him, Harry." 
 
 "I thought about that, too," he said quietly. "But 
 there is you and blood is blood, you know." 
 
 "No blood could lie between you and me Harry," 
 said the girl with a show of passion that startled the 
 man. "I am going with you." 
 
TRACY, THE BANDIT. 11 
 
 "Not on you life; why I'm goin' to hike." 
 
 'Then I will come, too/* 
 
 "Will you? Then when I get square and send for 
 you you'll come?" 
 
 "Anywhere, at any time. Hear me swear it." 
 
 "Don't swear," said Tracy putting his hand over 
 her mouth, "I can do all the swearin' for both of us. 
 If you say you'll come, you will." 
 
 "Anywhere, in sickness, or health, prosperity or in 
 prison, send for me and I'll come to you." 
 
 Tracy knelt beside her and kissed her passionately. 
 
 "It may be the makin' of me to git away from this 
 life," he said. "We'll be better off away from this 
 crowd." She hid her face in his neck and wept 
 Presently, with a sharp movement the man bent down 
 and picked up the gun that lay beside him. She 
 started and peered into the gloom with him. 
 
 "That's Ben Nolts, the sheriff's deputy. I guess 
 this is where I start my hike. Good by, dear. If I 
 send for you and you don't come I'll come for you." 
 There was that sinister look on his face again as he 
 touched his gun. The girl was not moved by the 
 threat. She was a race which does not condemn 
 a man for revenging the infidelities of their women. 
 
 "Good-by," she whispered. There was a clinging 
 embrace and the young fellow disappeared amongst the 
 trees. 
 
 The girl sat motionless, listening to the hoofbeats of 
 the deputy sheriff's horse. Suddenly there came a 
 crashing sound from the depths of the timber. 
 
 "Halt !" The deputy reined up his horse and pointed 
 
12 
 
 TRACY, THE BANDIT. 
 
 a rifle in the direction of the noise made by Tracy in 
 stumbling over a broken bough. "Come out yere 
 Tracy, or I'll fire.". 
 
 "For God's sake don't shoot/' shrieked 'Genie. 
 
 "Huh," said the man ; "so it is Tracy." He threw 
 up his gun to fire when a shot rang out and Ben Nplts 
 fell off his horse with a load of buckshot in his side. 
 
 Harry Tracy had winged his first man and was a 
 fugitive with the price of blood on his head. 
 
TRACY, THE BANDIT. 13 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 BREAKFAST WITH TRAMPS A HOLD-UP. 
 
 A wayfaring man, gray as to attire and dirty as to 
 hands and face, bent over a camp-fire and poked 
 delicately with a sliver at a big catfish artistically grid- 
 ironed on a number of railroad spikes over a bed of 
 coals. 
 
 Another wayfarer, as gray and dirty as his fellow, 
 picked baked potatoes out of the hot ashes with a 
 hooked stick. Now and then he peered into a steam- 
 ing black pot which emitted an odor of coffee. 
 
 "How's de spuds, Mike?" asked he of the catfish. 
 
 "Fit fer de face of any gent in de land," said Mike. 
 "How erbout de fish?" 
 
 "It 'ud bring eight dollars dis minute at de Wal- 
 dorf," rejoined the other. "Let's git busy." 
 
 The tramps were breakfasting or about to break- 
 fast under a railroad bridge spanning the mighty flood 
 of the Missouri, the "Big Muddy" rolling its turbulent 
 waters within a dozen paces of the tramps' camping 
 place. 
 
 It was early morning. The sun was high enough 
 to have taken up the dew, the meadows, through which 
 the great river makes its way north of Kansas City, 
 made an emerald border for the torrent of the river. 
 A growth of timber protected the hoboes' camp from 
 
14 TRACY, THE BANDIT. 
 
 the too boisterous wind which ruffled the waters of 
 the river. 
 
 "Serve de fish, Willie," said Mike, and Willie skill- 
 fully removed the big catfish to a layer of fresh grass. 
 
 "I guess dis is punk," remarked Willie, sarcastically, 
 as he separated a section of the fish. 
 
 "Well, you drop it!" 
 
 The tramps started up in affright at the tone rather 
 than because of the words. They were uttered by a 
 young fellow who might have been one of their own 
 kind, 'but for the fact that he was erect and his manner 
 commanding. And he held in a threatening way a 
 shotgun that looked ugly. 
 
 "Don't shoot, boss," shouted the tramps in unison. 
 And they fell on their knees. 
 
 "Go over and sit by the river till I finish my break- 
 fast," commanded the newcomer. The celerity with 
 which the wayfarers obeyed left no room for com- 
 plaint. The man with the shotgun sat down with his 
 weapon across his knees and ate ravenously of the 
 fish and potatoes. 
 
 "I don't want to hurt you fellows," he said presently, 
 "but I have found lately that the way to get a thing 
 that you want badly is to take it." The assurance 
 really put courage into the tramps. 
 
 "If I had sump'n to put in my face I'd kinder like 
 de idea of bein' stuck up," said Mike. 
 
 "If I wasn't quite so flat I'd swell up meself," 
 said Willie. 
 
 "It's funny," said the man who had been eating 
 
TRACY, THE BANDIT. 15 
 
 voraciously. "I guess you fellows might as well 
 cut in." 
 
 They waited for no further invitation but helped 
 themselves to the fish and potatoes, and conversation 
 was suspended until there was nothing left of the 
 feast but skin and bones. 
 
 "TSTow will you fellows tell me where we are?" 
 asked the uninvited guest, stretching himself out on 
 the grass. 
 
 "If I had your nerve," said Willie, "I'd fink' I wuz 
 in paradise now." 
 
 "Never mind my nerve but tell me where I am," 
 said the other. 
 
 "Well accordin' ter my mileage book dis spot is 
 principally about eleven miles from K. C." 
 
 "From where?" 
 
 "W'y K. C. Kansas City." 
 
 "Down river ?" 
 
 "Yep." 
 
 "What's above here." 
 
 "Well, deres St. Joe an' furder up deres Bismark an' 
 way up deres Montana." The man with the gun 
 suspected no jocularity in the reply. 
 
 "How far do you think it is to Montana ?" he asked. 
 
 " 'Bout four t'ousand miles, I should say. Coin' ter 
 make de trip ?" 
 
 Tracy, it was he, gazed thoughtfully away across 
 the river. For a month he had skulked through the 
 woods at night. He had lived on the growing corn in 
 the fields and had not scrupled to rob hen roosts. He 
 had been shunned by travelers and had in turn shunned 
 
16 TRACY, THE BANDIT. 
 
 men and towns. In a paper he picked up he saw a 
 description of himself and that there was a reward 
 offered for his capture. He was charged with robbing 
 a postoffice and shooting to kill an officer. He had 
 committed no violence but he had kept the shotgun 
 and had made up his mind that he would not be taken. 
 
 Montana, that was the place. If he could but 
 get to Montana ! 
 
 "You fellows goin' to Kansas City ?" inquired Tracy. 
 
 "Not me/' said Mike. "A fren' of mine down dere 
 insisted on me goin' ter der country yesterday an' I 
 ducked. All Y' makin' a gate way?" 
 
 Tracy did not understand the tramps slang but the 
 manner of his question conveyed its meaning. 
 
 "I'm goin' to get some other clothes and another 
 kind of gun/' he said. 
 
 The tramps looked at each other. Then one nodded, 
 "Tell him, Willie," he said. 
 
 "Ar'y' game to go an' get some glad rags if I puts 
 youse next?" he asked. 
 
 "I don't think you're very game yourself," said 
 Tracy, laughing. "But what is it?" 
 
 "Well las' night we runs across a camp dat a lot 
 of swells has got up 'round de nex' bend in de river. 
 Dere's four of dem an' dey got two tents an' a launch 
 an' nuttin' but clo's an grub." Tracy's eyes closed to 
 a slit. He thought a moment then said : 
 
 "Can either of you run a launch?" 
 
 "I used ter fire on a boat," said Mike. 
 
 "Till yer got fired off de boat, eh?" said Willie. 
 
 "Come on then," said Tracy, standing up. 
 
TRACY, THE BANDIT. 17 
 
 "What's doin'?" asked Mike. 
 
 "I'm goin' up and capture that camp," said Tracy, 
 "and if you fellows want some clothes and a sail up 
 the Missouri you can come along/' The tramps got 
 up and followed him without a word. 
 
 The "swells" had just breakfasted. They had struck 
 their tents and the canvas was stowed in a handsome 
 launch that lay at anchor a few yards out in the 
 stream. There were three young fellows and an 
 elderly man in the party. They were smoking and 
 discussing where they should make their next stop 
 when a man strode out of the timber and threw a 
 shotgun up to his shoulder : 
 
 "Throw up your hands/ 1 he commanded. The 
 elderly man threw up his hands, the others hesitated 
 until the order was repeated, and in such a tone that 
 they nearly dislocated their shoulders obeying it. 
 
 "Now take off your clothes and hand them to 
 these two gentlemen," indicating the two grinning 
 tramps standing behind him. 
 
 "You know there is no chance of your getting away 
 if you rob in this way," said the elderly man. "I am 
 willing to give up some money." 
 
 "Well I may take that, too," said Tracy, "but what 
 I need most is clothes and yachts, hurry." 
 
 Even at that time there was an air of the desperado 
 about him that made it clear to the men that argu- 
 ment would be vain and might provoke the bandit to 
 violence. The campers wore yachting trousers and 
 fancy silk skirts. The tramps grinned with enjoy- 
 
18 TRACY, THE BANDIT. 
 
 ment for which they afterwards paid dearly as they 
 helped the men strip to their underwear. 
 
 Tracy stood on an eminence overlooking the camp, 
 which was in a hollow. When the men were disrobed 
 he ordered them to stand up in a line, and backed 
 down to the water's edge with the tramps. 
 
 "You don't intend to takei the boat ?" said the elderly 
 man. The others were still paralyzed under shotgun 
 influence. 
 
 "Don't I?" said Tracy. "Well you watch me. I 
 may send it back some day." He backed into the 
 water and stood guard over the protesting victims 
 of the outrage while the tramps -clambered into the 
 boat. It was a naphtha launch and was ready to start 
 in a minute. Tracy climbed over the side. 
 
 "Now get out of here," he ordered. He cut the 
 anchor rope and the bpat fell off down stream. The 
 tramps knew enough about machinery but they pres- 
 ently found that they could make no headway against 
 the current. Tracy had not thought of this. His 
 idea had been to run the boat up the river. He acted 
 at once with that decision which afterwards got him 
 out of many tight places. 
 
 "Let's go down stream, then," he said. 
 
 An hour later he ran the launch ashore on the Kansas 
 side of the river at Kansas City. The tramps had 
 found a jug of whiskey and were stupidly drunk, 
 already. They had dressed themselves in the white 
 trousers and fancy shirts, taken from the victims of 
 the robbery. Tracy, with the cunning of the criminal 
 who has an eye to escape, searched the lockers of the 
 
TRACY, THE BANDIT. 19 
 
 boat and found a blue flannel suit that fitted him 
 fairly well. In the pockets of the clothing taken from 
 the campers there were found four watches and near 
 two hundred dollars. This had been divided between 
 the three of them. 
 
 "It's no use wasting money on hoboes like these," 
 said Tracy, and he robbed the other robbers. 
 
 Two hours later Tracy got off a train that stopped 
 at a little station on the Kansas prairie. He walked 
 north three miles and got board for a week at a farm 
 house owned by a deaf widower named Wallin. 
 
 About the time he was arranging for his board the 
 tramps were arrested, weeping drunk, and they never 
 saw Tracy again, being compelled to serve a sentence 
 is the penitentiary for robbery from the person and 
 stealing a boat, 
 
20 TRACY/ THE BANDIT. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 TRACY AS A CATTLE RUSTLER. 
 
 Nature in a wild mood, laid out that tremendous ex- 
 panse of rough territory, which is generally described 
 by Western men as the "Foothills of the Rockies." 
 
 Mountain fastnesses,, in which armies might be 
 hidden, open onto beautiful valleys, filled with lush 
 pasturage. Thousands of head of sleek cattle browse 
 on the unlimited range in these rich valleys, which 
 extend for a thousand miles on the Wyoming grazing 
 country and well up into the British possessions. 
 
 This territory was, a few years ago, the paradise of 
 the cattle rustler. Knowing that it was impossible for 
 the ranchman to control easily the wandering of their 
 countless herds, horse thieves, who had found the 
 confines of civilization too hot for them; cowboys, 
 " compelled by crime or licentious lives to forsake the 
 cattle outfits doing a legitimate business; the skum 
 of the mining camps, soldiers of fortune enlisted in 
 the armies of adversity such men as these formed 
 themselves into small bands for the purpose of prey- 
 ing on the unprotected herds. 
 
 Having their retreats in the mountain fastnesses, 
 they would swoop down on a herd at night and "cut 
 out" as many head of cattle as the extent of their out- 
 fit would permit, drive them into the upper valleys, 
 
TRACY, THE BANDIT 21 
 
 where they were practically immune from pursuit, 
 there brand the cattle over again and find a market 
 for then} as opportunity presented, or herd them 
 across the international boundary. 
 
 In the summer of 1895, Harry Tracy beaten about 
 by fortune, found himself a member of one of these 
 lawless bands in southwestern Montana. 
 
 Two years had passed since the time of the first 
 exploit on the banks of the Missouri river. There is 
 no record of his movements during this time. He ap- 
 pears to have drifted readily into that mode of life to 
 which his vicious and daring nature best fitted him. 
 
 Consorting with thieves at Omaha, fleeing before 
 the approach of officers of the law, finding his com- 
 panionship among cheap gamblers and grafters that 
 class of men which finds means to subsist on, taking 
 the fewest possible chances with the law, in the small 
 towns of the frontier. 
 
 -That he had developed criminal instincts in a marked 
 degree is demonstrated by the fragmentary stories told 
 of his career at that time. It is known that while he 
 was dealing stud poker at Billings, Mont., in the fall 
 of '93 he took offense at an accusation aimed at him 
 by one of the players and deliberately shot the man 
 through the eye. His gambling companions helped 
 him to escape punishment for this offense, but the 
 pursuit drove him to the cattle rustlers' country. 
 
 There the men he met with were, like himself, 
 fugitives from justice. They recognized in him a 
 congenial spirit. His fine physique, daring bravado, 
 utter recklessness in the face of danger and ready wit 
 
22 TRACY. THE BANDIT. 
 
 
 made him in a few months a leader in the notorious 
 John Shortall's band. 
 
 There were several men in the Shortall gang and 
 Tracy soon found that Shortall was merely the leader 
 by reason of his seniority in crime. 
 
 The band had its headquarters a few miles north 
 of the Shoshone Indian reservation, to which the 
 gang was in the habit of resorting when pursued by the 
 cattle men's organizations. Shortall had Indian blood 
 in his veins and this, together with his familiarity 
 with the Shoshone patois made him a valuable mem- 
 ber of the band. 
 
 On one of their numerous excursions into the reser- 
 vation Shortall had taken to himself a wife, in the 
 daughter of a minor chief. The girl was good to look 
 at and in that country, where femininity is rare, was 
 reckoned as a beauty. 
 
 His later career shows that Tracy never altogether 
 forgot 'Genie Carter, but it is certain that when the 
 young wife of Shortall made him a favorite among 
 her admirers, he made no strenuous objections. 
 
 The event which led to Tracy being driven out of the 
 cattle country, took place one night when the stores of 
 the outfit had been recently replenished with bad 
 whiskey from some post trader's magazine. The band 
 was at the home rendezvous at the end of a little 
 valley in the mountains. It was a clear and beautiful 
 night, the lambent beams of the full moon, lighting 
 up the beautiful landscape and showing nature in 
 serene repose. 
 
TRACY, THE BANDIT. 23 
 
 The loveliness of the night was lost on the imbruted 
 men who, given ovet to a wild debauch, such as is 
 only possible to these wild natures without the tram- 
 mels of civilization, made night hideous with shrieking 
 and cursing. 
 
 Shortall led the rest in drunkenness. Tracy, always 
 self-contained, did not unbridle his appetite for drink. 
 
 He was comparatively sober when he met Shortall's 
 wife at the end of the corral. His horse stood there, 
 saddled and bridled ; his rifle leaned against the corral 
 fence. About his waist were strapped the two re- 
 volvers which he never permitted himself to become 
 separated from even at that early day in his career. 
 
 Whether the woman intended to elope with Tracy 
 was never known. They were talking quietly enough, 
 when Shortall, with a wild scream of Indian rage 
 dashed around the corner of the corral and found 
 them together. 
 
 Both men reached for their weapons at once, but 
 Tracy's revolver spoke first. Shortall was ten paces 
 away but the bullet from the Colt's found its billet 
 fairly between the gleaming eyes of the quarter breed. 
 
 The scream of rage died on his* lips. The man 
 threw up his arms, turned half around and fell on 
 his face in the corral litter. Even as Tracy shot, two 
 other men of the band, old companions of Shortall, 
 came around the end of the corral. 
 
 There was no hesitation in Tracy's action. Even 
 while the smoke from his pistol still hung in the air 
 he threw himself into the saddle, reached down and 
 caught up the woman, who clung to him madly. As 
 
24 TRACY, THE BANDIT. 
 
 he dug the spurs into the horse the drunken rustlers 
 saw the body of their leader and opened fire on the 
 fleeing man and woman, but their bullets went wide. 
 
 When not more than a mile away, the horse, stagger- 
 ing under its double burden, slipped and fell. When 
 Tracy tried to force the brute to its feet the animal 
 screamed with pain. 
 
 "Curse it," said the rustler, "now there must be a 
 fight." 
 
 Already the sounds of pursuit were audible, and two 
 mounted men might be discerned in the moonlight, 
 following the trail the. flying couple had taken. Just 
 of? the trail a little pile of rocks formed a natural 
 barricade. 
 
 To this barricade Tracy led the squaw, and both 
 crouched to await the approach of the pursuers. 
 
 Blind with rage and drink the men only halted when 
 they were almost upon the disabled horse. 
 
 "They've taken to the hills afoot, I reckon," said 
 one of them. 
 
 "Well, well follow," said the other. "That cur 
 Tracy is too handy with his gun to be let loose with 
 a squaw to steal ammunition for him." 
 
 What restrained Tracy from killing them both, as 
 he might have done where they stood, the desperado 
 could never tell, but he did not shoot. The men went 
 on up into the hills. 
 
 As soon as the sound of their hoof beats became 
 faint Tracy took the woman by the hand and led 
 her back in the direction of the camp. All was silent 
 there. Overcome by the potent liquor they had been 
 
TRACY, THE BANDIT. 25 
 
 indulging in, the other members of the band had lapsed 
 into drunken stupor. Shortall's body lay where he 
 had fallen. 
 
 Tracy stepped over the dead man, vaulted the corral 
 fence, and in a few minutes led forth two horses, 
 saddled and bridled. The rifle he had left leaning 
 against the corral he picked up and the oddly assorted 
 couple, turning their horses to the south, made off in 
 the direction of the reservation. 
 
 The time consumed in getting the horse proved fatal 
 for one of the escaping pair. The men who had gone 
 into the hills looking for them, returning through a 
 narrow defile, suddenly turned a spur in the hill and 
 found themselves within a dozen paces of Tracy and 
 the woman. 
 
 The three shots that rang out were almost simul- 
 taneous. The woman threw up her hands, screamed, 
 and fell heavily from her horse. Even before he 
 heard the thud of her body striking the earth Tracy 
 was busy with a revolver in each hand. One of his 
 opponents swayed in his saddle and fell on his horses 
 neck. The other turned tail and dashed up the defile, 
 from which the two had emerged. 
 
 Tracy waited a moment, reloaded his guns, looked 
 carelessly at the prone form of the dead woman, then 
 rode away to the south at a hand gallop. 
 
 His career as a cattle rustler was closed. 
 
26 TRACY, THE BANDIT. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 BEHIND PRISON BARS 'GENIE CARTBl. 
 
 Tracy appeared in Cripple Creek several months 
 after this flight from Montana. He was known as 
 Harry Ward. There was in his appearance no indica- 
 tion of the frontier cow rustler who had killed Shortall. 
 
 He was a well-appearing, quiet, unassuming fellow, 
 such as may be seen in groups hanging about the 
 gambling rooms of mining towns. 
 
 Cripple Creek had not yet worn off the rough 
 edges which chafed tender-feet when it was the great- 
 est mining camp on earth. Cheap, unpainted lumber 
 shacks stood cheek by jowl beside handsome business 
 blocks. The streets were filled night and day with a 
 motley crowd, assembled from all parts of the earth, 
 all intent uon the pursuit of the dollar and most 
 of them not caring much how they got it. In those 
 days there were no questions asked about previous 
 records in case the owner of the record appeared to 
 behave himself within the lines of those canons laid 
 down for the policing of the camp. 
 
 Tracy was no more noticed than any other of the 
 members of what appeared to be his profession. Os- 
 tensibly he was a gambler. He had all the qualities 
 necessary to preside at a roulette wheel, a chuck-a- 
 luck board or a hazard table. There was a gleam in 
 
TRACY, THE BANDIT. 27! 
 
 his eye that warned the disputatious worshipper at 
 the shrine of Fortune who was inclined to argue that 
 he had won a bet after the dealer declared that he had 
 lost. 
 
 After the fashion of his profession, Tracy, or Ward, 
 as he was known, was in the habit of wooing the 
 fickle goddess himself at times, and he did not scruple 
 to use any advantage known to the trade in the 
 pursuit of fortune; "suckers" being plenty, he gener- 
 ally had money, and his clothes were made in Denver. 
 
 It is still remembered of Him that he was regarded 
 as a man who might take a desperate chance but who 
 would not go out of his way to seek a quarrel. He 
 might even have drifted into the manner of life of 
 the short-card gambler, who is satisfied with his ad- 
 vantage and not worried by moral scruples. 
 
 But the fate that led him on to his ultimate destiny^ 
 and branded his name with the infamy of atrocious 
 . crime did not let him rest. And the machinery of 
 fate took its usual form the woman in the case ap- 
 peared. 
 
 What correspondence, if any, Tracy had maintained 
 with the girl to whom he said farewell near the old 
 home in the Ozarks, when his soul was yet unstained 
 with crime, does not appear. But one day he appeared 
 on the street with a girl whose fresh beauty would 
 have appealed to men less accustomed to female loveli- 
 ness than the denizens of Cripple Creek in that day. 
 
 She was tall and fair without the insipidity of the 
 blonde. She was dressed modestly, but in good taste, 
 and carried herself with an air of distinction that 
 
28 TRACY, THE BANDIT. 
 
 
 must have come rather from her free life in the moun- 
 tains and intuitive good taste than from any training 
 she had enjoyed. What the manner of 'Genie Carter's 
 life had been from the time she disappeared from her 
 mountain home, a few months after Harry Tracy left, 
 cannot be told. But there was that about the girl 
 which made her quite safe, generally, from the com- 
 ment's of Tracy's friends. Perhaps, too, Tracy's 
 friends knew him well enough to refrain from com- 
 ment of any sort. 
 
 Mrs. Ward, as she was known, kept aloof from the 
 only society in which she might have moved. The 
 girl was a great deal alone, but was rarely seen in 
 public without Tracy. Had the couple observed that 
 rule of always going out together the end of Tracy's 
 career might not have been written in blood. 
 
 But there came a night when 'Genie ventured into 
 the street alone. While she was passing through a 
 crowd of men, one, a low-browed fellow with hair oiled 
 and moustache dyed, who posed as a "bad man," had 
 the temerity to make a light remark. The girl looked 
 at him disdainfully, and was about to pass on when he 
 stepped up beside her and said something. 
 
 'Genie slapped his face. The man, astonished by 
 the stinging blow and enraged by the jeers of the 
 crowd slunk into a saloon. Three hours later he 
 stood at the bar, telling what he proposed to do to 
 that "Dude," Harry Ward. The fellow had acquired 
 a reputation for being quick to shoot. He had been 
 a deputy marshal in Leadville in the early days, and 
 it was known that there were notches on his gun. 
 
TRACY, THE BANDIT. 29 
 
 An associate of Tracy looked him up and told him 
 to keep out of the way of Luke Theron if he wanted 
 to avoid a fight. Tracy inquired the animus of 
 Theron's threats and was told the story of how the 
 man had his face slapped. 
 
 Tracy walked directly over to the Senate saloon, 
 where Theron was still voicing his threats, walked up 
 to the man, who did not observe his approach, laid his 
 hand on his shoulder and said : 
 
 "Theron, if you're sober enough to go to hell in 
 the morning I'll kill you." 
 
 Theron reached for his gun, but bystanders inter- 
 fered and disarmed him. Tracy turned around and 
 walked out of the place. 
 
 The sun was just climbing over the hills that form a 
 wall about Cripple Creek the next morning when Ward 
 appeared, walking nonchalantly down the main 
 thoroughfare. He was directly, opposite the Senate 
 saloon when his eye caught the shadow of a man 
 coming out of the doorway. 
 
 It was said afterwards that he had been strolling 
 along with his hand on his pistol. In any event his 
 right arm straightened out. There was a report and 
 Luke Theron pitched forward on his face dead, his 
 right hand clutching his weapon. Tracy made no 
 attempt to escape, but surrendered and was locked up 
 in the make-shift jail. 
 
 At the preliminary hearing it was shown that Tracy, 
 or Ward had specifically threatened to take Theron's 
 life, and in spite of the evidence given, showing that 
 Theron had first made threats, Tracy was held for 
 
30 TRACY, THE BANDIT. 
 
 murder. It was openly said at the time that the dead 
 man's friends had exerted their influence to keep 
 Tracy in prison. 
 
 For two weeks Tracy was held behind the bars and 
 during every moment of that time, when the rules 
 permitted, 'Genie was with him. On the fourteenth 
 night of his imprisonment Tracy pushed his way 
 through the bars of his cell door. They had been 
 sawn through during the days when 'Genie's skirts 
 hid the cell door from the jailer's eyes. The first 
 the jailer knew of an attempt to escape was when 
 Tracy thrust the muzzle of a gun just behind his ear 
 and said quietly : 
 
 "Now you just be good. There isn't anything going 
 id happen to you." 
 
 He disarmed the man, fastened his hands behind 
 him with a pair of hand-cuffs, which he took from a 
 hook in the wall, fitted a handy pair of leg-irons on 
 him, slipped a stick of wood in his mouth for a gag 
 and let himself out of the jail. 
 
 A few blocks down the steep street stood two horses A 
 held by a slight figure enveloped in ft raincoat, the 
 clumsy garment only partly serving to hide the swell- 
 ing lines of 'Genie Carter's form. As Tracy ap- 
 proached she called : 
 
 "Harry." 
 
 He strode up and kissed her. 
 
 "Good girl," he said. 
 
 An instant later the rattle of their horses' hoofs was 
 ringing Harry Tracy's farewell to and defiance of 
 Cripple Creek. 
 
TRACY, THE BANDIT. 31 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 TRAPPED BY THE MORMONS. 
 
 'Genie Carter suffered apparently gladly the fright- 
 ful hardships that became a part of Tracy's desperate 
 methods of life in eluding pursuit after the couple 
 had left Cripple Creek. For months the pair wan- 
 dered through the mountain defiles, Tracy making his 
 way steadily to the west. The country through which 
 the pair traveled is the most frightfully forbidding 
 on the continent. 
 
 For the weeks they wandered aimlessly through 
 canons, following little streams and rivers, climbing 
 mountains, seldom seeing a human habitation or the 
 face of man. The horses were sold before they left 
 the confines of civilization and most of the journey to 
 the Green river country was made on foot. Some 
 touch of the desperation that marked the character of 
 Tracy must have entered into the composition of the 
 girl, for she was never a burden to him, though the 
 hardships they endured must have borne heavily on 
 her. 
 
 The man avoided all the traveled routes. Whether 
 he feared the pursuit of the law, or chose rather the 
 companionship of his wife to the certainty of giving 
 her up had they appeared in town, is not clear. It 
 may be that she entered into the spirit that controlled 
 
32 TRACY, THE BANDIT. 
 
 him, for she appears to have taken a part in certair 
 desperate ventures he engaged in when they arrived 
 in the Green river country. 
 
 On the fourth of November of that year a mule 
 train taking provisions and machinery to the Yellow 
 Lode mine was stopped in a narrow pass in the moun- 
 tains by a man who held the driver and guard at the 
 point of a rifle, while a boyish-looking fellow searched 
 them and the baggage for money. The man was Tracy. 
 The hold up was performed with that reckless in- 
 difference to danger and masterfulness, which after- 
 ward became so characteristic of the bandit. 
 
 He sat on a jutting point of rock within full view 
 of the teamster and guard and waited for the outfit 
 to approach. It did not occur to the men that a 
 robber would so recklessly expose himself and they 
 were within a dozen paces of him, thinking him a 
 harmless wayfarer, when he threw up two revolvers 
 and sung out in a tone that showed he meant business : 
 
 "Hold up there ; get down and let's see what you've 
 got." 
 
 There was no chance for an argument Peter 
 Morson* the driver, and Mart Willis, the guard, were 
 men of tried courage. Morson had driven stage coach 
 in the mountains in those days when the command to 
 halt was a rather usual incident of the trip. Willis, 
 the guard, had been Marshall of Hayes City, and 
 had a wide reputation as a man who could shoot quick 
 and straight. 
 
 Upon receiving the command to halt Willis in- 
 
TRACY, THE BANDIT. 33 
 
 stinctively reached for his gun. A revolver bullet 
 shattered his elbow joint. 
 
 "Another move like that and I won't wing you. 
 Now leave your guns alone and get down." This 
 in a hard, metallic tone from the robber on the rock. 
 The men jumped down, holding their hands high in 
 the air. Then the slight, boyish-looking fellow step- 
 ped out from behind the rock. He was unarmed, a 
 handkerchief concealed the lower part of his features. 
 Stepping up to the men he very^deliberately disarmed 
 them, then quite as coolly searched them. 
 
 "This is tough on an old-timer, to be frisked by a 
 kid," said Willis. 
 
 "That may tie pard," said the younger robber in a 
 piping voice, "but ain't I doing* a good job?" 
 
 "There hain't no kick on the job," rejoined Willis, 
 but I hope to have a chance to frisk you some day." 
 
 "I hope not," said the young fellow, and Willis de- 
 clared afterward that he saw the boy blush. 
 
 The smaller bandit, under the direction of the 
 other, and while Tracy kept up a running fire of jok- 
 ing comment, searched the wagon, taking $1,200 in 
 bills, which had been intended for the pay roll at the 
 Yellow Lode mine, from a pouch beneath the seat. 
 Then, still by Tracy's direction, a side of bacon and 
 some other provisions were taken from the wagon and 
 put into a sack, the mule traces cut, the men tied hand 
 and foot with straps made from the reins and the 
 robbers disappeared down the mountain. Tracy hurl- 
 ing back the jeering remark : 
 
 "I hope you fellers won't catch cold tonight." 
 
34 TRACY., THE BANDIT. 
 
 There is no doubt that the young "fellow" who as- 
 sisted in the robbery was 'Genie Carter, though five 
 days later, when Tracy walked boldly into Provost, 
 Utah, he was alone. A few weeks later a woman, 
 bronzed by exposure to the weather, made her ap- 
 pearance in Denver. Her clothing suggested primi- 
 tive methods of dress-making, but was soon replaced 
 by more fashionable garments. She had plenty of 
 money and was later quite fully identified as Mrs. 
 Ward, who had lived for a short time in Cripple 
 Creek. 
 
 Tracy's bravado, in showing himself in Provost so 
 soon after the hold up, came very near being his un- 
 doing. 
 
 Willis, the guard, chagrined beyond measure, at 
 having submitted to a hold up, no sooner had his shat- 
 tered arm repaired than he betook himself to Provost 
 with a view to drowning his sorrow in drink. In 
 spite of the store clothes that Tracy wore and the 
 clean shave that changed his appearance materially, 
 Willis recognized the robber. Tracy was himself 
 drinking more deeply th^n was his custom and seems 
 to have been taken unawares, for when a posse, pressed 
 into service by the sheriff, stopped him that night on 
 the street with an order to throw up his hands he was 
 slower than ordinary in reaching his weapon. 
 
 Two of the deputies shot at him, and a bullet strik- 
 ing a glancing blow on the head, stunned him. When 
 he came to he was in jail. 
 
 The bandit got a short shift at the hands of a Mor- 
 mon judge and was sentenced to ten years in the 
 penitentiary. 
 
TRACY, THE BANDIT. 35 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 A CHAINED TIGER. 
 
 The rigor of prison discipline very nearly broke the 
 spirit of this man of blood. 
 
 Here, for the first time in his life, the man who had 
 hitherto known no master, was subjected to the orders 
 and commands of petty public servitors clothed in a 
 ittle brief authority, upon whom in the days of free- 
 dom he would not have wasted a bullet. 
 
 The lion heart of the man rebelled. His first breach 
 of discipline occurred within an hour after the peniten- 
 iary's gates clanged behind him. 
 
 One of the prison officials approached him and or- 
 dered him in a brutal tone to hold up his head, while 
 le hung about his neck the insignia of his degradation 
 a plate bearing his prison number, 1313. 
 
 As Tracy's eye fell upon the fateful figures, fateful 
 at least from the standpoint of a border gambler, such 
 as he was, Tracy's usually calm expression gave way to 
 one of ferocity. He grabbed the tag from the man's 
 hand, dashed it to the ground and spat upon it. 
 
 An instant later he lay unconscious upon the stone 
 floor, striken from behind by clubs in the hands of the 
 guards. 
 
 From that time forth he was branded as a dangerous 
 and desperate man and not an official of the institution 
 
36 TRACY, THE BANDIT. 
 
 but would have visited the most extreme punishmerr 
 upon him with slight provocation. 
 
 This feeling on the part of the officials was enhancec 
 as they gained more knowledge of the ferocious cun- 
 ning of the man. 
 
 "Shoot him in his tracks/' was the order given b> 
 the warden, in the event that Tracy should give an> 
 evidence of making a break for liberty. Appreciating 
 the character of the man, he was kept much alone b> 
 the authorities. Especial precautions were taken tc 
 keep him from communicating with other prisoners, as 
 it was feared that his influence might lead to an at- 
 tempted outbreak. 
 
 Two years of this sort of treatment and his constant 
 rebellion against it left Tracy the most feared as he 
 was the most hated man in the prison. And it pre- 
 pared him for the desperate venture that at last gave 
 him his liberty. 
 
 One day, bleeding and torn from a battle with the 
 guards, he was thrust into the dungeon. His temper 
 had overcome him and he had attempted to strike a 
 guard who addressed a brutal epithet to him. It was 
 no new experience for him, this sentence to the dark 
 cells. And the heart of the murderer was bitter be- 
 yond anything he had felt before. 
 
 It was when his evening portion of bread and water 
 was thrust into the cell that he heard a word that gave 
 him hope for the first time since his incarceration. He 
 heard a guarded "Hist" at the hole in the door of his 
 cell. 
 
TRACY, THE BANDIT. 37 
 
 Eagerly he bent his head to the door. Someone 
 whispered : 
 
 "Behave yourself and get out of this. I have a note 
 for you." 
 
 And he lived on that during the ten days of his 
 confinement in darkness. The day he was returned to 
 the light cells, he found this note in the dish containing 
 his food. . 
 
 "Dear: Did you think I would forget? I have 
 some hope. Do nothing rash. I have secured a friend 
 who is close to you. Be ready to'take your chance 
 5 when it comes and trust the man who gives you this. 
 Expect a visitor on Thursday next. Destroy this. 
 
 "'Genie/' 
 
 It was characteristic of the man that he " did not 
 destroy the note. It was found on him when he was 
 arrested years after in Portland, Ore. 
 
 The woman who asked to see the desperate No. 
 1313 the following Thursday was dressed handsome- 
 ly, but in deepest black. There was little danger that 
 she would be recognized as the desperate young fel- 
 low who had helped Tracy to rob the mine wagon. 
 
 But she had no chance to do anything more than to 
 encourage him by her looks the guards were too fear- 
 ful of their prisoner to give him a chance to secure a 
 weapon from his visitor. 
 
 As she bade him goodbye he looked steadily into 
 the woman's eyes and she as steadily into his and 
 Tracy knew that the day of his liberation was at hand. 
 
 On the morning of the third day following the visit 
 of the woman the warden of the penitentiary was 
 
38 TRACY, THE BANDIT. 
 
 served with a writ of habeas corpus requiring him to 
 produce Harry Tracy in court at Provost. 
 
 An error in the indictment upon which the man had 
 been convicted was alleged as the basis for an inquiry 
 by the court, 
 
 The papers were served on the warden by a sheriff 
 from Provo. 
 
 "I don't propose that you take any chances on tak- 
 ing this man alone," said the warden. 
 
 The sheriff, a big man with a reputation for bravery 
 that bordered on hardihood, grinned, produced a pair 
 of leg-irons and hand-cuffs and pushed back his cc 
 far enough to show a pair of guns of formidable size. 
 
 "I think they'll hold him for a while," he said. 
 
 The warden insisted on sending" a guard. Trac 
 was brought into the warden's office and told that he 
 was to be again taken to court. Forewarned by the 
 interview with 'Genie that something was about to 
 happen the convict made no sign. He put on the cheap 
 gray suit that the sheriff had brought with him. 
 
 There was some delay in waiting for a train, and it 
 was night when the prisoner was put into a wagon. 
 He was hand cuffed and as soon as he was seated the 
 sheriff snapped the leg-irons on him. These irons were 
 not taken off and the prisoner hobbled across the plat- 
 form to the train when they arrived at the station. He 
 was taken into a day coach which was deserted, but for 
 a sleeping drummer at one end. 
 
 Immediately after the sheriff and his prisoner board- 
 ed the train a man and woman entered the car from 
 a forward coach. 
 
TRACY, THE BANDIT. 39 
 
 The sheriff seated his prisoner beside the window 
 and sat on the seat beside him. The guard, John 
 Vairo, sat on the seat facing them. 
 
 The woman who came in seated herself behind the 
 
 fheriff, the man behind the guard. 
 The woman leaned over to the sheriff and said: 
 "Is the poor man insane ?" 
 
 "No, marm," grinned the sheriff, "but I shouldn't 
 wonder if he was a bit mad/' 
 
 'A prisoner, I suppose/' said the woman looking 
 with interest at the ironed man, who had closed his 
 eyes. 
 
 "Yep, an' a tough one." 
 
 "Dear me," said the woman, and she shrank back. 
 The sheriff was not averse to a conversation with a 
 pretty woman and she did not repulse him. The 
 prisoner paid no heed. The guard answered a few 
 questions asked by the man who sat behind him. Then 
 the party became quiet and the only sound in the coach 
 was that made by the roaring of the train wheels. 
 
 A stop had just been made when the woman looked 
 intently at the man sitting behind the guard. At the 
 same instant the two bent forward but not in a manner 
 ko attract attention. The woman rested her hand on 
 khe back of the seat in which the sheriff sat, but on 
 khe outside. There was a handkerchief in her hand. 
 tin the hand of the man, which rested within ten inches 
 of the face of the somnolent guard a handkerchief was 
 clutched. 
 
 In a moment a sickly pungent odor reached Tracy's 
 Inostrils. His senses were keenly alert since 'Genie 
 
 
40 TRACY, THE BANDIT. 
 
 for it was she had begun talking to the sheriff and he 
 knew that something was about to happen. He turned 
 his face to the window. 
 
 Neither the sheriff nor the guard paid any attention 
 to the odor and made no attempt to throw off their 
 drowsy feeling that crept over them. The handker- 
 chiefs were advanced closer to the faces of the two 
 men, and suddenly their faces were clasped by the 
 hands holding the handkerchiefs. 
 
 They were too far gone to resist the fumes of the 
 chloroform contained in the sponges concealed by the 
 handkerchiefs. They became unconscious. 
 
 The man behind the guard changed his seat to bring 
 himself into a position facing the sheriff. His long, 
 slender fingers were not three seconds locating the 
 sheriff's keys. In a half minute the ornaments had 
 fallen from Tracy's wrists. 
 
 The door opened and the party fell into easy posi- 
 tions as the brakeman shouted "Taraum Junction" in 
 that fashion that is peculiar to some of them. He 
 closed the door. Jack bent over and the irons fell 
 from Tracy's feet. 
 
 With the coolness that has always distinguished him 
 the released prisoner picked up the irons and snapped 
 them on the legs of the sheriff. "Jack" clasped the 
 hand-cuffs on the wrists of the unconscious guard. 
 The woman leaned over and kissed Tracy affectionate- 
 ly as the train began to slow up. 
 
 "I'll take the rear platform; you get over in front 
 where the brakeman is," said Tracy, with ready wit. 
 
TRACY, THE BANDIT. 
 
 41 
 
 The man and woman went down the aisle to the door 
 that the brakeman threw open. 
 
 Under cover of their forms Tracy got up and walked 
 to the rear door. As the man and woman stepped off 
 the platform on to the strip of plank that ran along 
 the front of the little station the train started and a 
 figure dropped lightly from the rear steps. 
 
 Harry Tracy was free again. 
 
TRACY, THE BANDIT. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 WHAT A WOMAN DARES. 
 
 "We will go somewhere and begin all over, dear." 
 
 "I'll do anything you say. I don't believe there was 
 ever a man who owed so much to a woman and who 
 did so little for her/' 
 
 "But that trouble at Cripple Creek was all on my 
 account. It might have been avoided if you had not 
 been mixed with those gamblers, or if they had known 
 that we were married at Leadville. Now, Harry, 
 we'll put it all behind us and start life in a new land on 
 the coast." The man kissed her fondly. 
 
 "I must get to work/' he said. 
 
 "That won't be necessary, Harry," she said. "I did 
 not go broke getting that writ of habeas corpus." She 
 laughed. 
 
 "You must be rich," he said. 
 
 It was at Carson, Nevada, a month after the escape 
 from the Utah sheriff on the train. Harry Tracy and 
 'Genie had just met again. 
 
 After the escape they had separated. The woman 
 going to the east, Tracy and Jack Rawlins, the assist- 
 ant in the escape, taking to the mountains. They had 
 agreed to meet at Carson as soon as Tracy thought it 
 safe to approach a railroad. Rawlins had left Tracy 
 and gone north, intending to make his way into Mon- 
 
TRACY, THE BANDIT. 43 
 
 tana. Tracy had chanced death in the Utah desert 
 but had gotten through. He was a week later than 
 'Genie in reaching Carson but she had waited full of 
 confidence. 
 
 She had the confidence of the wife. She knew 
 Tracy's nature and that it was quite possible that he 
 might give her up if he were not "dependent on her. 
 She knew that the marriage that he had proposed 
 when she followed him to Cripple Creek was the out- 
 come of a burst of real feeling, such as the man was 
 capable of at times, but it quite satisfied her. 
 ' At Carson she had registered at a hotel as Mrs. 
 Warren, and watched every train. This morning he 
 came" in. He was well, if not handsomely dressed, 
 his hair had lost the prison style, his moustache and 
 beard were growing. He looked healthy, and the two 
 terrible years in prison had neither bowed his form 
 nor taken the elasticity out of his step. 
 
 Under his eyes there were lines that gave his face a 
 harsh appearance at times. His hands were knotted 
 and calloused from the hard labor of the prison. 
 
 She was so heartily and soulfully glad to see him 
 she cried over him and caressed him. And he was 
 nearer to an honest, tender affection than he had been ' 
 since they parted that night so many ages ago, it 
 seemed in the Ozarks. 
 
 She was handsome, as a happy and pretty woman 
 only can be. She had improved wonderfully with the 
 years and was fit for any society, so far as appearance 
 and manner went. 
 
 "Tell me what you've been doing and how you 
 
44 TRACY, THE BANDIT. 
 
 managed to get me out of that hell-hole." His face 
 darkened as he thought of the prison. 
 
 "Well/' she said, caressing his roughened hand, 
 "I'll go back to the beginning. 
 
 "When I went to Denver as you directed, I thought 
 to find something to do where I could make some 
 money, and as I had a little capital I was looking for 
 a little business. It is hard, how hard no one knows 
 better than I, for a woman without training to find an 
 opening. I have some natural taste in millinery and 
 I found a place that was for sale. I bought it, though 
 it took half of the thousand dollars, and then I sat 
 down and waited for customers and you. 
 
 "The customers came, but no word from you. I 
 watched the papers but saw nothing. If there was 
 anything I didn't recognize you under the name you 
 gave. It was heart-breaking. A thousand times I 
 was on the eve of giving up and going over into 
 Utah, but I knew if you were free you would not be 
 there. I did not dare to hire"anybody to inquire for 
 me. 
 
 "In the meantime I made a friend. It was a Mrs. 
 Watson, a widow who came as a customer. I pleased 
 her and we became friends. She was rich and had 
 money in mining investments that were making her 
 richer. She induced me to give her what money I 
 had saved. This was almost a year after I left you 
 alone. 
 
 "Our salvation came out of Cripple Creek, Harry, 
 for she invested my money in some mine up there and 
 one day told me I was worth $6,000. Then I decided 
 
 
TRACY, THE BANDIT. 45 
 
 that I would look for you. I was certain that you had 
 not been in Denver, for there was a letter at the gen- 
 eral delivery, sent regularly every week, and I saw 
 they were always advertised. 
 
 "One day my luck came to me. I saw Jack Rawlins 
 on the street. I knew you had helped him out in 
 Cripple Creek. He looked as though he was down on 
 his luck and I trusted" him. I was safe enough. He 
 was willing to befriend you, and he needed money. 
 
 "He went to Provo and in a week I knew what your 
 awful fate had been. 
 
 "It took months to reach you. My letters were sent 
 back to Rawlins, and he was told that such a refractory 
 prisoner as you were had no privileges. 
 
 "I made up my mind to try myself. I had made 
 more money than it had cost to provide for Jack's 
 work. There is no use going over all the heart-break- 
 ing rebuffs I met with. It seemed that an escape was 
 out of the question. Then I had an inspiration. I 
 knew that if once you could get outside of those walls 
 you could contrive or we would for you to keep 
 you out. 
 
 "I sent Rawlins to the best lawyer to be found, 
 gave him a big retainer and told him to go into the 
 case. 
 
 "He said that in their hurry to get you into the 
 penitentiary they had found you guilty of a crime of 
 greater degree than that for which you were indicted, 
 and he had no doubt that you could be got out on a 
 writ of habeas corpus but that the prospects of your 
 going back were great. 
 
46 
 
 TRACY, THE BANDIT. 
 
 rds, 
 
 * 
 
 "I sent Rawlins to negotiate with one of your guards, 
 for I wanted to warn you. I got a request from a high 
 official to permit me to see you. 
 
 "And now you know the rest." 
 
 "You're a wonder, 'Genie," he said. 'Til devote 
 my life to repaying you." 
 
 "I am repaid now, dear," she said, simply. "And 
 I paid one debt for you. I sent back the money we 
 took from the Yellow Lode wagon. I wanted to get 
 that hold-up off my conscience." She blushed and 
 smiled. 
 
TRACY, THE BANDIT. 4Z 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 RESPECTABILITY EVIL ASSOCIATES ANOTHER REFORM. 
 
 Tracy had here arrived at the turning point of his 
 career. But on his soul there was the stain of blood, 
 and he must have found it hard to avoid the pursuit 
 of conscience though it does not appear that he was 
 troubled much by scruples. 
 
 The movements of the couple after leaving Carson 
 City are not clearly defined. Some few months after- 
 wards Tracy appeared for the first time in Portland, 
 Ore. They had been moving from place to place 
 about the coast in an apparently aimless way. 
 
 Tracy was unfitted for any regular respectable oc- 
 cupation, both by early training and the life he had 
 pursued since leaving the paternal home. The transi- 
 tion from the condition of a boy whose moral training 
 had been neglected no less than other schooling which 
 makes a man dependent upon himself and equips him 
 for the battle of life. 
 
 Lacking moral courage he had chosen to run away 
 rather than face the accusation which confronted him 
 in Missouri. Naturally embittered he roamed about 
 avoiding pursuit that might have been merely 
 imaginary. 
 
 It was a spirit of desperation that nerved him for his 
 first crime when lie robbed the campers on the banks 
 
TRACY, THE BANDIT. 49 
 
 of the Missouri. His easy escape from punishment for 
 that offense prepared him to live by preying on his 
 fellows. It might not be just to say that he deliberate- 
 ly sought a life of crime at that time, but it is very 
 certain that he might have found opportunity to gain 
 an honest livelihood had he the inclination. 
 
 Consorting with men whose object in life was to 
 get a living by their wits, if possible, by violence if 
 necessary, he had attained to that state of mind in 
 which the moral sense is entirely lost. 
 
 There was no element of cupidity in the acts of vio- 
 lence which he had committed at the expense of human 
 life. Still, he had tasted blood, had been rendered 
 ferociously desperate by the punishment which society 
 meted to him, and this was his condition of mind 
 when he and 'Genie found themselves in a state of 
 comparative affluence, and well able to make an effort 
 to realize her woman's dream of a better life. 
 
 They lived upon the border land of respectability, 
 but he had no capacity to turn his undoubted energy to 
 account in a legitimate field. In Portland he was soon 
 seen in company with those men who ask no questions 
 of their fellows and require no vouchers for morality. 
 
 He spent his nights largely in gambling. His days 
 in recuperating the energies wasted at the gaming 
 table. 'Genie found herself alone and much neg- 
 lected, but his obligations to her were apparently 
 lost sight of in the face of the attraction he found 
 among his new associates. As their money began 
 to dwindle 'Genie's complaints against his manner of 
 life and demands that he make good his promise of 
 
50 TRACY, THE BANDIT. 
 
 reform and occupy himself in some business had sotitt 
 effect and he proposed that they try farming anf 
 ranching in the Wyoming mountains. 
 
 The woman would have been delighted to spend 
 her life in the wilderness with him and gladly con 
 sented that he should go into the new undertaking 
 They still had some money when they made thei: 
 way into the mountains again and crossed to Spokane 
 
 The original plan for going into the ranching 
 business was abandoned here under the influence ofj 
 some associates of Tracy, who told him how money 
 might be made easily 4n the mining camps along the 
 Kootenai river north of the American boundary. 
 
 Shortly afterwards he had a saloon in a camp onj 
 boundary creek. The place was filled with a rougnj 
 class of miners who had plenty of money, an unquench-j| 
 able thirst and an appetite for gambling. 'Genie was;] 
 the only woman in the place, and she protested sc|!| 
 vigorously against the manner of life to which shdjj 
 was condemned that he sent her to Spokane with a 1 
 promise to follow her as soon as he could get rid OE| 
 his saloon. 
 
 How well this promise of another reform wag] 
 kept is shown by the fact that he was driven out o|| 
 the British possessions by a posse of miners whoj 
 were desirous of hanging him. His particular offense! 
 is not known but it was charged that he was the di-' 
 rector of a band of ruffians who held up and looted! 
 a barge upon which some returning prospectors werej 
 bringing back from the mines on Lake Kootenai the; 
 dust they had accumulated. 
 
TRACY, THE BANDIT. 
 
 51 
 
 One night Tracy, who was sleeping in the loft above 
 ic saloon, was aroused by the clamors of an angry 
 lob in front of the log structure in which the saloon 
 as located. He called out through a crack, inquiring : 
 "What's the matter with you fellows?" 
 "Come out and we'll show you," shouted half a 
 ozen men in chorus. 
 
 "If you don't get a move on you," returned Tracy, 
 there'll be some shooting down here." 
 The reply was a fusillade of shots; the bullets speed- 
 ig harmlessly, but with vicious notes against the log 
 alls of the shanty. The fire was returned by Tracy 
 ind at least one man who was with him and two of 
 he crowd of miners were wounded. 
 
 This was one of the rare occasions when the des- 
 perado thought discretion to be the better part of valor 
 md while the mob in front conferred as to the best 
 cans for dislodging him and his party, Tracy made 
 is escape from the rear and got clear across the 
 undary, 
 
52 TRACY, THE BANDIT. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THE HORSE THIEVES' RENDEZVOUS. 
 
 Tracy's stay in Spokane was very brief. It may have 
 been that he had a wholesome horror of Canadian 
 justice. But whatever the inspiring cause he took av 
 camp equipment, a team of horses and a wagon and' 
 started alone with 'Genie to the southeast. 
 
 Their journey lay through a frightfully wild 
 country, but some weeks later they reached Lewis- 
 ton, Idaho. That they had been in sore straits was 
 evidenced by the condition of their horses and 'Genie's 
 state of health. Hardships and the constant wearing 
 on her spirit, had broken down her vigor. They 
 did not remain in Lewiston and it was thought by 
 those who afterwards recalled the appearance of the 
 man and woman that they might have been fleeing 
 from some pursuit. 
 
 They went over into the Snake river country and 
 there settled upon a ranch that had been abandoned. 
 The place was in a valley and on the north and south 
 a rich farming and grazing country spread out. Tracy 
 was soon followed to the ranch by a number of men 
 who were strangers in the country. Neither 'Genie 
 nor Tracy sought any acquaintance among the settlers 
 in the neighborhood and they and their associates 
 were natural objects of suspicion when it became 
 
TRACY, THE BANDIT. 53 
 
 evident that an organized band of horse thieves was 
 Derating in the country north of Walla Walla. 
 
 The farmers and ranchmen organized a vigilance 
 |committee to search for the horse thieves and the 
 [suspicions of the members of this committee were at 
 (once fixed upon the ranch occupied by Tracy and 
 (made a rendezvous by his strange visitors. 
 
 The vigilance committee sent word to the Tracy 
 farm that it might be to the interest of the occupants 
 [to find a fresh fielgl for their endeavors. No notice 
 was taken of this and Tracy constantly appeared in 
 the little towns in the Snake river valley, sometimes 
 alone, again accompanied by Mike Morgan and Sam 
 Wallace, both of whom were reputed horse thieves at 
 that time and who are now serving sentences in the 
 Idaho penitentiary. 
 
 Whether alone or in company, Tracy was rarely 
 molested when he apepared in public and he went 
 about with absolute impunity, until the depredations of 
 the gang with which he was associated compelled the 
 farmers and horse owners to act in force. The de- 
 serted ranch which they had taken up appears to 
 have been an ideal situation for the headquarters of 
 a gang of horse thieves. It was located at the east 
 end of a long and lonely valky, lying between pre- 
 cipitous hills that were threaded by defiles leading 
 over into Idaho. The house, a long, low log building, 
 was divided into four rooms, its rear end resting 
 against an overhanging wall of rock that was alto- 
 gether inaccessible. 
 The house was surrounded by a sort of stockade, 
 
54 TRACY, THE BANDIT. 
 
 which had been build for a corral, and out of this le 
 a path through a ravine running down to the Snak 
 river. The place could only be approached from i: 
 front. 
 
 Stolen horses had been clearly traced to the ren 
 dezvous and their owners in following them hac 
 occasionally caught a glimpse of a woman about th 
 house. On the fourth of September, 1896, the vigi 
 ance committee came to the conclusion that it was tim 
 to find out just what was hidden behind the stockac 
 surrounding the Tracy house though it is possib 
 that Morgan and Wallace might have been mor 
 properly regarded as occupants of the place. If the 
 did occupy it first, certain it is that Tracy asserted th 
 rights of leadership soon after his arrival. 
 
 It was near noon when four men rode up the valle 
 and stopped at the barred entrance to the corral. Jame 
 McEwen, who was at the head of the group of horse 
 men, called out to the people in the house. There 
 was no person in sight, but a dozen horses were gath- 
 ered in one corner of the yard. 
 
 In response to McEwen's shout, a man Wallace 
 appeared on the door step and asked what was wanted. 
 
 "We'd like to have a look at that bunch of horses/' 
 said McEwen. 
 
 "Well, if you think you can jump that fence and 
 get away again, you're welcome to have a look," said 
 Wallace, "but I'd advise you to keep off my place." 
 
 For answer McEwen dismounted and proceeded to 
 take down the corral bars. Wallace stepped back into 
 
TRACY, THE BANDIT. 55 
 
 ie house and presently reappeared with a rifle in his 
 land. He pointed the gun at McEwen and said : 
 "If you fellows are out of shooting distance in two 
 linutes you won't get hurt. Now get/' 
 Behind him could be seen the forms of two men and 
 woman, who appeared to be pleading with them. 
 McEwen and his companions had no arms but 
 ivolvers and one shot gun. They made no parley, but 
 [cEwen, jumping on his horse, led the way down the 
 ralley. 
 
 Wallace, in recounting what took place that day and 
 light, said that Tracy's wife pleaded and begged with 
 them all day to leave the place. Both Wallace and 
 Morgan wanted to take the horses and make a run for 
 it. 
 
 "The jig's up," said Morgan. "Those fellows will 
 get a gang and clean us out any way." 
 
 Tracy was- stubborn and swore a horrible oath that 
 he could kill all the farmers who could crowd into 
 the valley before the house. He repulsed' 'Genie 
 rudely when she pleaded with him and told her there 
 was no danger that she would get into trouble at 
 any event. 
 
 "She was sick at the time," said Wallace afterwards, 
 "and if I didn't think she'd try to revenge it on me 
 I'd have taken a shot at Tracy myself and made a 
 getaway." 
 
 Toward evening the desperado got into a better 
 frame of mind and preparations were made to leave 
 the place that night. Before the preparations were 
 completed, Morgan happened to look down the valley 
 
56 TRACY, THE BANDIT. 
 
 and saw a party of a dozen mounted men riding up 
 towards the house. 
 
 "It's too late now, anyway," said Tracy, and he 
 began to lay cartridges out where they would be handy. 
 
 Tracy wanted to take a shot at the approaching band 
 of horsemen before there was any parley, but from 
 this he was dissuaded by his companions, though his 
 rejoinder to their arguments was : 
 
 "Lemme take a few shots and there won't be so 
 many of them left for the rag-chewin' match." 
 
 McEwen was at the head of the posse. He appears 
 to have been an entirely fearless man, for while his 
 followers dismounted and were protected by the corral 
 fence, he rode straight up to the bars and shouted: 
 
 "If you fellows will come out and surrender you'll 
 be treated square and it'll save trouble for somebody." 
 
 For answer Tracy pushed the muzzle of his rifle 
 through a window and shot the horse from under 
 him. 
 
TRACY, THE BANDIT. 57 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 THE BATTLE GENIE S DEATH. 
 
 When the members of the posse saw McEwen fall 
 with his horse they concluded that their leader had 
 been shot. Eleven rifles and shotguns were thrust 
 through the corral fence and a hail of bullets pattered 
 against the walls of the house,, doing no damage, 
 however. 
 
 The occupants of the house retired to the second 
 room at the rear and shot from that point of vantage 
 at the men outside. The shots were aimed through 
 the windows and struck harmless against the fence 
 generally. The return fire was quite as ineffectual 
 and was altogether at random, as the members of the 
 posse were generally peaceable farmers not much used 
 to firearms. 
 
 Tracy amused himself by picking off the horses. 
 When one threw its head up above the cover of the 
 corral stockade it fell a victim to that unerring aim 
 which rarely failed of hitting a mark. 
 
 The men retired with their horses and placed the 
 animals in safety in one of the defiles leading out of 
 the valley. 
 
 Then they crawled back and prepared for a siege. 
 There were a number of shots exchanged and two 
 men, Morris and McGrath, of the posse were wounded. 
 
58 TRACY, THE BANDIT. 
 
 When darkness descended on the scene the valley 
 was quite peaceful and both sides were waiting de- 
 velopments. 
 
 The horse thieves were prepared for flight. They 
 were quite aware of the fact that the members of 
 the posse were ignorant of the means of egress from 
 the stockade by the side of the houses and through 
 the hills to the banks of the Snake river. 
 
 'Genie, who had been very quiet since the first shot 
 was fired, went about the house, making up bundles 
 of food and clothing. More than once Tracy, whose 
 mood had changed, spoke to her affectionately and 
 offered a caress, to which she submitted without re- 
 sponse. 
 
 Fortune had favored the outlaws in that when the 
 firing begun the horses had stampeded from the open 
 corral and were grouped in the defile alongside of the 
 house. 
 
 It was dark but for the shimmering radiance of a 
 moon which hung too low in the sky to cast much 
 light. There had been no stir in the house. Not a 
 shot had been fired for a half hour, when, of a sudden, 
 the quiet of the night was shattered by a discharge that 
 was so rapid and well sustained that it sounded like 
 a fire of a company of men. The windows of the 
 house blazed with flashes from the guns and pistols 
 of the men within. Then after a few scattering shots 
 from the posse it was still again. 
 
 A movement among the horses in the defile at- 
 tracted the attention of the members of the posse. 
 McEwen suspected that a sortie might be attempted 
 
TRACY, THE BANDIT. 59 
 
 but he did nothing but warn the men to be on the 
 lookout. 
 
 The horse thieves were saddling their horses. When 
 they were saddled Wallace undertook to lead them 
 quietly through the defile; they were to mount when 
 they were on better footing. 
 
 Tracy and 'Genie were the last to leave the house. 
 
 He was between her and the front of the stockade 
 and they were both well out of range when the 
 horses, which remained unsaddled, became frightened 
 and dashed into the open. 
 
 Instantly the men on watch in front fired a volley. 
 
 'Genie trembled and became a dead weight on 
 Tracy's arm. A bullet had found its billet in her back, 
 cutting through Harry's clothing'* and striking her 
 under the left shoulder. 
 
 She recovered and threw her arm over Tracy's neck. 
 
 "Are you hurt?" he asked. 
 
 "I'm afraid so," she said. 
 
 "May God forgive me and help me if anything hap- 
 pens to you," said the man. 
 
 He picked her up and ran lightly along the defile. 
 After a few yards he stopped and laid her down gently. 
 The savage and revengeful side of his nature over- 
 came in that moment when he was more deeply touched 
 than ever in his life perhaps. 
 
 He rushed back into the open and emptied his re- 
 volvers in the direction of the men who lay behind the 
 fence. McEwen who had stood up to see what was 
 going on was shot through the left shoulder. 
 
 When he went back to 'Genie she was lying very 
 
60 TRACY, THE BANDIT. 
 
 still. The other two men stood by the horses a few 
 feet away. 
 
 "I can't see, Harry," she said. 
 
 He picked her up very gently and carried her to 
 the mouth of the defile, where the frowning walls 
 could not altogether shut out the faint light. 
 
 "Can you bear to lie in my arms and ride?" he 
 asked. 
 
 She smiled and shook her head. He put her on the 
 turf and folded his coat under her head. 
 
 Her eyes closed and he thought she was dead. 
 
 " 'Genie," he whispered, kissing her cheek. The 
 "chill of it shocked him. 
 
 She suddenly looked up at him. 
 
 "I know you'll be sorry now," she said. "I mean 
 because I am gone. Kiss me." 
 
 He bent over her. She tried to reach his face with 
 her hand but had not the strength. A shudder went 
 through her, the blood gushed from her mouth in a 
 torrent. She was dead. 
 
 "You might as well come on," said Wallace after a 
 few minutes; "We can't do any good now." Tracy 
 looked at him- for a moment as though he was minded 
 to take his revenge then. But he only replied : 
 
 "Leave me a horse and you two get out of here." 
 
 And they left him with the dead woman who had 
 given up her life and all that a woman holds de*ar to 
 him. 
 
 Perhaps he wept there alone with the dead. Perhaps 
 he was made the worse man by reason of what hap- 
 pened that night.' 
 
TRACY, THE BANDIT. 
 
 61 
 
 It was near morning when he carried her back 
 through the defile and laid her in the empty house. 
 Then he went out and rode away. 
 
62 
 
 TRACY, THE BANDIT. 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 THE "DOUBLE CROSS" THE DUEL. 
 
 If 'Genie in her life had not been able to exert 
 much influence for good over Tracy, her death seems 
 to have removed the last restraint that was imposed 
 upon him. 
 
 He was not a man to parade his feelings under any 
 circumstances, and when he appeared in Lewiston with 
 Wallace and Morgan he gave no evidence of the scene 
 he had passed through the night of his wife's death. 
 
 He was never much given to drink up to that time, 
 but their arrival in the Idaho town was followed by a 
 debauch that at first amused, then astonished, and 
 finally drove that portion of the population with which 
 they came in contact to desperation. 
 
 Lewiston at that time had got past the stage wh 
 it was permitted to the rough element from the su 
 .rounding country to ride in and shoot "up the town. 
 The horse thieves seem to have been under no appr 
 hension with regard to pursuit. They were all in f un 
 and all proceeded to fill themselves with that sort o 
 liquor which would "soonest bring the drunk" 
 
 The second night after their arrival they initiated 
 the exploit that resulted in Tracy being driven out of 
 town and the capture of Wallace and Morgan. An 
 army paymaster, traveling with an escort of two men, 
 
TRACY, THE BANDIT. 63 
 
 was regaling himself in a saloon, up to which the 
 three men rode just after dark. 
 
 The place was one of those peculiar to western 
 towns. It was in one of the row of single story build- 
 ings, bunched close together, as though land were not 
 the cheapest commodity in the country. The place 
 might have been one hundred feet deep. Along one 
 side, for forty feet inside the door, ran the bar a 
 glittering line of crystal and polished wood. The 
 rear end of the room was lined along all three walls 
 by tables, at which those games of chance in which 
 the westerner most rejoices when he is taking his 
 recreation, were being played. When Tracy and his 
 friends entered the place the man of war was discussing 
 his tenth cocktail. He had gotten to that stage when 
 what he most desired, aside from more cocktails, was 
 listeners, and to the end that this want of his might 
 be satisfied he had invited several of the hangers-on 
 about the place, including a couple of "busted" gamb- 
 lers, to join him. Tracy's companions were boisterous. 
 Tracy himself, gravely drunk. 
 
 "Whoop-ee !" shrieked Wallace. 
 
 "Whoop !" echoed Morgan. 
 
 "You fellows shut up and come have a drink," in- 
 terposed Tracy. "Give everybody a drink." 
 
 The army man remarked that he was buying a drink 
 and wanted to know if the trio wouldn't join him. 
 Tracy, with drunken gravity and politeness, amiably 
 insisted that the pleasure must be his. The man of 
 war, quite as politely and in language quite as fervent, 
 
TRACY, THE BANDIT. 65 
 
 insisted that the pleasure must be his. Tracy gave 
 way and the paymaster bought the drink. 
 
 Tracy and the army officer entered into an amiable 
 conversation. In the course of an hour both were 
 quite mellow. At the expiration of the same period 
 Wallace and Morgan were extremely drunk. They 
 wandered out of the place, forgetting Tracy. He had 
 alien into a conversation with one of the gamblers 
 who had been drinking with the "Colonel/' as they 
 dubbed the officer. 
 
 Standing close to Tracy's' ear, the gambler said 
 [uietly : 
 
 "You seem to have him hooked on, all right. Pro- 
 ose a game of pitch and then I'll cut it up with you." 
 
 Tracy looked at the man and then nodded silently. 
 r ive minutes later they were sitting at a round table 
 n the lower corner of the room and the "Colonel" 
 vas dealing in a three-iianded game of pitch for "Five 
 lollars a corner and five dollar set ups." Tracy grew 
 teadily sober and the "Colonel" more complacently 
 Irunk. In three hours' play the "Colonel" was the 
 oser of $400 and the party moved back to the bar. 
 The gambler had the money and whispered to Tracy : 
 
 "I'll cut it up with you when we get a chance." 
 
 Tracy nodded and shortly afterwards went out to 
 ielp his friend the "Colonel" to a hotel. 
 
 Tracy returned alone presently, went to the bar and 
 odded to "Shang" Warfield, the gambler, who had 
 ssisted in the plucking of the "Colonel." Warfield 
 aid no attention to the nod and Tracy walked to 
 vhere he was standing. 
 
66 TRACY, THE BANDIT. 
 
 "Isn't it time for you and I to do some business ?*| 
 the bar-tender heard him say. 
 
 "I don't know what you mean," said the gamble^ 
 
 Tracy's face turned purple with rage and h| 
 reached for a weapon, with the remark: "Then I'll 
 show you." 
 
 At the same instant Warfield reached for his gun 
 and dodged down behind the end of the bar, 'nea 
 which he was standing. As Tracy drew his weapon 
 he sprang back, then fired through the woodwork oi 
 the bar. The shot rang simultaneously with the cry 
 of the bar-keeper : "Heads," and he dodged for cove! 
 himself. 
 
 The fifty or more men playing at the tables in thi 
 rear split checks, cards and layouts in a scramble to 
 get out of range. Tracy had backed very nearly to 
 the door, when Warfield suddenly straightened ulj 
 and fired five shots as fast as he could pull the trig^ 
 ger, at Tracy, who stood quite unmoved until the 
 other's weapon was empty, when he fired deliberateljj 
 and shot the gambler through the throat. 
 
 It all took place so quickly that there had been nl 
 time for a crowd to gather at the door and Tract 
 walked out unhindered, mounted his horse and Lewis 
 ton saw him no more. 
 
 When the the city marshal had been quite satisfielj 
 that Warfield was killed in a manner which migh|| 
 have been justifiable it occurred to him that it might 1 
 as well to look up Tracy's companions. 
 
 When Morgan and Wallace recovered from the 
 
TRACY, THE BANDIT. 57 
 
 Debauch they found themselves in the calaboose, and a 
 :ouple of days later were identified as the horse 
 hieves who were wanted in the Walla Walla country. 
 There were warrants for horse stealing against them in 
 various parts* of Idaho. They were sentenced to 
 erms of ten years each and sent to the penitentiary. 
 
68 TRACY, THE BANDIT. 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 HUNTED BY ARAPAHOES. 
 
 Leaving behind him a trail of crime, made lurid 
 here and there by bloodshed, Tracy made his waj 
 during the next year through Idaho, into Oregon and 
 back across Idaho and Wyoming to the Wind river 
 mountains, where he arrived and went into camp with 
 a band of men, hunted and outlawed like himself, in 
 the fall of 1897. 
 
 There is little record of this era of his career. No 
 deed of sufficient magnitude nor of impressive vio- 
 lence to gain a place in history is recorded against 
 him. Consorting sometimes with thieves, posing at 
 all times as a gambler, drinking more than at any 
 other period in his life, he led a vagabond existence 
 not unlike that of the other men with whom he asso- 
 ciated except that it is not known of him that he 
 worked anywhere at any time. 
 
 It was with a company of men, desperate like him- 
 self, though differing from the dregs of the border 
 town with which he had been mixed, that he went into 
 camp in the Arapahoe country that fall. There were 
 five in the party. Two had lived in the same lo- 
 cality some two years before and told alluring stories 
 of the easy life they had le'd and the money that 
 
TRACY, THE BANBIT. 69, 
 
 might be made preying on the riches of the Arapahoes 
 and Shoshones in cattle and horses. 
 
 Perhaps the most alluring feature of the country, 
 and that which most appealed to Tracy was the safety 
 that was guaranteed from pursuit by officers of the 
 law. It does not seem that the men had formed a 
 band for horse and cattle thieving purposes, particu- 
 larly, but while there was no specific agreement it was 
 generally understood that they would not waste their 
 time in case opportunity presented itself for running 
 off horse flesh. 
 
 The experience gained during that fall and winter 
 contributed to make Tracy the dead shot that he was at 
 the close of his career with rifle and revolver. He 
 hunted much and it was said of him that he could kill 
 a squirrel at fifty yards by cutting the creature's throat 
 with a rifle bullet. He lived a wild-fire life out of 
 doors, and being deprived of the indulgences of the 
 border towns, he became the perfect physical animal 
 that he remained until the end. 
 
 He is described by Samuel W. Allis, of Rawlins, who 
 saw him in the winter of '97-'98, as a fine looking man, 
 apparently well under thirty, though he must have 
 been at least that age. 
 
 "When I met Tracy, it was at the Arapahoe agency 
 in the winter of 1898," said Allis. "He was a tall, 
 well proportioned, fresh looking young man of 27 or 
 thereabouts. He and three other men had come down 
 from the north across the reservation with some In- 
 dians to get supplies at the trader's} store. They 
 seemed to be on excellent terms with the Arapahoes. 
 
70 TRACY, THE BANDIT. 
 
 "Tracy, who was variously called by that name and 
 Warren, was full of spirits and on one occasion was 
 quite full of strong spirits, but he did not appear in the 
 least quarrelsome. I was astonished at the stories that 
 his companion told of his wild life and the ferocity of 
 his nature, when he was aroused. That he was utterly 
 unscrupulous I was made to see by the manner in 
 which he would fleece the Indians in trading and in 
 taking advantage of their gambling games; but up to 
 that time he had done no harm on the reservation, and 
 it was thought better to leave him and his friends alone 
 than to attempt to drive them off. There was little 
 use attempting to curb the rustlers, leaving that to the 
 Indians themselves." 
 
 The "excellent terms" upon which Tracy and hisl 
 friends stood with the Indians, when Mr. Allis met 
 him, did not continue through the winter. 
 
 In the Tracy gang there was a quarter-breed who 
 rejoiced in the odd name, for one having Indian blood, 
 of Ryan. He it was who first taught the Arapahoes 
 the delights of "monte" and they were quite as keen at 
 the game, when they were again introduced to the> 
 white man's methods of dealing it by Tracy, as they 
 were when first introduced into its mysteries. 
 
 Bucks who had proved their prowess by taking their 
 blankets and ponies from their less sagacious brethren' 
 made regular trips across the reservation to wager 
 those same ponies against the whiskey and ammunition 
 of the white man. 
 
 They lost so persistently, they drove so many ponies 
 into the corral the rustlers had built by fencing a 
 
 
TRACY, THE BANDIT. 71 
 
 ravine with a narrow mouth, and in which there was 
 winter feeding, that they became exasperated. Some 
 of the most enterprising of them made sorties into 
 that portion of "the reservation which had been set 
 apart for the Shoshones and brought back more 
 Iponies, which they lost in due time. 
 
 In the early months of 1898, when their cattle were 
 ithin and rations running low, the Arapahoes, or some 
 few of them, made up their mind that what they had 
 lost by gambling they might recover by stealth. 
 
 The snow was disappearing from the valleys and 
 the time was ripe for a raid. They knew that the 
 government would hardly interfere with them for 
 taking what was really their own from reservation and 
 cattle rustlers. 
 
 The cabin in which Tracy and his friends had spent 
 the winter was built on a side hill overlooking the 
 ravine in which their ponies and cattle were corraled. 
 The house was sheltered, but offered opportunity for 
 a proper lookout. The men knew what might be ex- 
 pected from the Indians and were prepared to strike 
 a trail to the northern grazing lands, where they might 
 find market for their stock as soon as the snow would 
 permit them to move. 
 
 One night, early in March they were prepared to 
 leave next day Ryan, who was keeping a very wary 
 eye to the south, saw some figures moving about at 
 the mouth of the corral. 
 
 He woke up the others and told them the Indians 
 had arrived. He was quite convinced they would not 
 fight when they found that their attempt at a stampede 
 
72 TRACY, THE BANDIT. 
 
 would be futile. Tracy was for teaching them a 
 lesson. 
 
 "There are more of them on the reservation/ 1 said 
 Ryan, sententiously. They went out, greeted the Ara- 
 pahoes as though they supposed they were come on a 
 friendly visit. There were not more than a dozen 
 bucks in the raiding party. They made the best of the 
 situation, accepted the courtesies of the white men in 
 the iform of a drink of fire-water apiece and rode 
 away. 
 
 They had no sooner disappeared than Tracy and his 
 friends broke camp and started to the northeast. They 
 drove nearly five hundred ponies. The marauders of 
 the previous night, knowing what would probably oc- 
 cur, had gathered a score of their friends. They were 
 on their trail before noon and caught up with them 
 near the Warm Springs mountains. 
 
 Tracy and his friends had little hope of saving both 
 themselves and the ponies. Again Tracy was for hav- 
 ing a fight with the Arapahoes, he and three others to 
 remain behind for this purpose, while the fifth should 
 drive on with the band of ponies. The plan was agreed 
 to. A Frenchman, named Moreau, was elected to go 
 on with the ponies while the others remained to delay 
 the Indians. 
 
 The four men entrenched themselves behind a num- 
 ber of boulders lying along the side of a ravine through 
 which the trail led. 
 
 They halted the Indians and there was a brief parley. 
 Nothing would do the Arapahoes but the return of 
 
TRACY, THE BANDIT. 73 
 
 their stock. Tracy told them that they might get them 
 if they could. 
 
 They proposed to take half of the herd of ponies 
 and let the white men go with the remainder. The 
 leader pointed out that if they reported the matter to 
 the military authorities the soldiers would certainly 
 get all the ponies back. 
 
 Tracy's temper, or his rashness, cost his party the 
 band of ponies and very nearly cost him his life. 
 He declared the parley over and ordered the Indians 
 back out of the canon. 
 
 The Arapahoes scattered for cover at once and 
 Tracy began firing. His companions were compelled to 
 follow suit. The Indians were badly armed but they 
 were numerous and could afford to wait. 
 
 Before dark Ryan had been killed and another of 
 the whites wounded. That Tracy had killed more 
 than one of the Indians was quite certain. In the 
 cover of the night the intemperate desperado concluded 
 that it would be suicide to remain there for daylight 
 arid Indian reinforcements. 
 
 The same cowardly trait of his character which 
 later led him to kill Dave Merrill cropped out that 
 night in the Warm Springs mountains. He sneaked off 
 up the mountain side, leaving the two men, who were 
 still living, without intimating his intention. 
 
 The two men were killed the next day, Moreau and 
 the ponies were brought back and the Frenchman 
 turned over to the military authorities charged with 
 having attempted to steal the Indians' ponies. The 
 

 74 
 
 TRACY, THE BANDIT. 
 
 Arapahoes quite forgot to look for Tracy until it was 
 too late. 
 
 He made his way south by a detour and was seen in| 
 Rawlins before the end of March. He declared to Mn 
 Allis that he proposed going to^the coast, and added : 
 
 "I hope I will be shot if I ever get away from pavedf 
 streets again." 
 
TRACY, THE BANDIT. 75 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 AT THE GOLDEN GATE A WATER RAT. 
 
 When Tracy vowed that he had had enough of life 
 in the fastnesses of the mountains and plains of the 
 mountain states, he was evidently sincere, for he ap- 
 peared in San Francisco some time about the first of 
 May, 1898. 
 
 That he was in hard luck was plainly shown from his 
 appearance. He had discarded, so far as his apparel 
 was concerned, all outer evidences of the "Wild West" 
 desperado. But in the disappearance of the picturesque 
 from his make-up no improvement in the man was 
 brought about. 
 
 When he made his debut in the purlieu of Kearney 
 street he was habited like any one of a thousand of 
 the hangers-on in the saloons and dives of the neigh- 
 borhood. His broad shoulders were made broader by 
 a close fitting, short, double-breasted coat, trousers 
 that had no acquaintance with the tailor's goose, a 
 round soft hat, tipped well forward over his eyes and 
 a slouching gait, that was characteristic of the kind 
 of companions he immediately fell in with. 
 
 He wore a moustache. His skin was dark but clean, 
 his eye bright and keen, but wore habitually the furtive 
 look of the man who is always looking for the un- 
 expected to happen and is making ready for it. 
 
76 TRACY, THE BANDIT. 
 
 It might have been the death of 'Genie that had 
 brought about this change in his appearance which 
 marked the transit from the desperado of the moun- 
 tains and plains to the typical loafer, thief and cheap 
 gambler. 
 
 He had no particular pal. His appearance indicated 
 that he was not in funds and at that time he lived 
 along from hand to mouth, perhaps prospecting the 
 country. He made a saloon in an alley off Kearney 
 street his principal loafing place and at night he 
 prowled about and undoubtedly secured the means to 
 procure the necessaries of life by holding up drunken 
 sailors and other bibulous worthies who roamed about 
 the neighborhood in search of such pleasures as the 
 night side of life in San Francisco afford. 
 
 One night Tracy sat in this saloon, which was kept 
 by a man named Olson, waiting for something to turn 
 up. He leaned back against the wall in a chair, his 
 feet gathered under him, his hat drawn over his eyes 
 and about his face were lines which indicated that he 
 had been on a debauch. At the bar stood two men, 
 one of them a rough-looking young fellow, something 
 of Tracy's own class, the other a sailor. 
 
 The mariner was under the influence of liquor, and 
 a moment before, when he came into the place, the 
 young fellow with whom he was now engaged in 
 conversation had sung out : 
 
 "Strike up the band, here comes a sailor," and the 
 sailor, good humoredly drunk, was rather tickled by the 
 salutation. 
 
 "Yes, and if he ain't just off a whakr, he's willin' 
 
TRACY, THE BANDIT. 77 
 
 to buy a drink." He laughed foolishly and shook hands 
 with the singer. As the latter stood at the bar with 
 him he picked up the sailor's change abstractedly. 
 
 "You took my change," said the sailor man. 
 
 "That your change?" said the other. 
 
 "Yes and you knew it," said the sailor, as quick to 
 propose a fight as he had been to show his amiability. 
 The young fellow protested that he meant no harm. 
 The sailor was insistently pugnacious, and as he ap- 
 plied an epithet to the other the young fellow struck 
 him. 
 
 Instantly the sailor, who was a brawny chap, pulled 
 
 sheath knife and made a lunge at the other. He, un- 
 armed, backed away, the sailor pursuing him and 
 | lunging viciously. Tracy, whose attention had been 
 attracted by the row, was not a man ordinarily to take 
 up another's quarrels, but fate was at work again. 
 
 He stood up and in the act reached back and picked 
 
 up the chair upon which he had been sitting. The 
 
 sailor man was within handy reach and as the chair 
 
 ! crashed down and broke over his head he collapsed 
 
 and the knife went spinning from his hand. 
 
 The young fellow who had been in such imminent 
 danger said to his rescuer rather sheepishly: 
 
 "Much obliged, Pal." 
 
 Then he turned his attention to the unconscious 
 sailor, who was thrown out of the door and robbed 
 of his money before he had fairly landed in the gut- 
 ter of the dirty alley outside. 
 
 Then the young fellow bought a drink and invited 
 Tracy. He even bought another drink and with the 
 remark: 
 
78 TRACY, THE BANDIT. 
 
 "You're a kind of a hit with me," he asked the 
 other's name. 
 
 "You seem to be all right," said the desperado, "and 
 I don't mind telling you that my name is Tracy." 
 
 "Mine's Dave Merrill," said the other, and he shook 
 the hand that was to deal him death in so dastardly a 
 manner. 
 
 Tracy and Merrill were seen much together. The 
 younger man had but recently arrived from Portland, 
 Ore., where he was already well known to the police 
 and it had required but the guidance of a more intrepid 
 mind, like that of Tracy, to bring out the more daring 
 qualities that were latent in him. 
 
 Together they drifted to the delectable land known 
 as the Barbary Coast, and one night had a windfall in 
 the shape of a drunken sea captain, recently arrived 
 from a foreign port with a pocket full of money, who 
 proved an easy victim when dragged into a doorway 
 and choked into insensibility. 
 
 Tracy inspired Merrill with larger views of a life 
 of thievery by telling him of his own exploits, and 
 Merrill, who was better acquainted with the ways of 
 a seaport town than the other man, imparted his ideas 
 of how wealth might be secured at little risk along 
 the water front. 
 
 Their first effort to procure wealth from the means 
 nearest at hand was thought of by Merrill and carried 
 out by the cool nerve of Tracy. 
 
 A ship from Japan, the "Carrie Chapman," was un- 
 loading a cargo of Oriental merchandise, consisting 
 largely of silks, at a warehouse, and the goods, being 
 
TRACY, THE BANDIT. 79 
 
 consigned largely to a great importing house in the 
 east, were being transferred by day to the freight yards 
 of the Southern Pacific. 
 
 The freight was being transferred by a line of drays 
 and Merrill had observed that the draymen were identi- 
 fied rather by their conveyances than by their personal- 
 ity. The two thieves found it easy enough to make the 
 acquaintance of one. of the drivers, whose haunts 
 they located in the evening. When they put them- 
 selves in his way the next day, he did not require 
 much urging to get off his empty dray and take a 
 drink. He was a big fellow and wise in his generation, 
 but his bullet head was not proof against the "knock- 
 out" drops that Tracy insinuated into his liquor. 
 
 He was dragged into a back room, divested of his 
 jumper and overalls, and when a few minutes later 
 Tracy mounted the dray, only an acquaintance of the 
 real driver would have noticed-the difference between 
 him and the drugged man. 
 
 "It was no trick at all," said Tracy to Merrill, as the 
 other clambered up on the dray three quarters of an 
 hour afterwards and they started on the drive across 
 town. The dray was loaded with bales of silk. 
 
 "I just backed up and helped them dump the stuff 
 into the wagon. Nobody said a word and I just signed 
 a receipt. Now for the dough." 
 
 Within an hour they had disposed of the plunder 
 to a "fence," left the dray standing on a busy street 
 and had $400 to divide. 
 
80 TRACY, THE BANDIT, 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 HOLDING UP AN AUTOMOBILE PARTY. 
 
 "I tell you, it's up to us to get out of here/' 
 
 "Don't be a chump," said Tracy, "would anybody 
 identify us with the two tramps who went after thai 
 dray man?" 
 
 "That's all right," said Merrill, "but you must r# 
 member that we've been attracting some attention 
 and I don't want any fly bob sneaking up to me and 
 telling me that the 'Captain wants to see me.' * 
 
 "Yes, but what's the chance," said Tracy, "Here 
 we are wearing diamonds and good togs and the worst 
 they can say of us is that we don't ask what the limit 
 is when we hit a faro game." 
 
 Merrill was not satisfied. The weakness of the thief 
 was in his conscience, and his idea of safety was in 
 putting distance between himself and the scene of his 
 crime. The two men were flush. They had been 
 "against the bank" and had had an unusual amount of 
 luck. With a couple of thousand dollars in hand, plenty 
 of flashy clothes and some diamonds, Tracy had the 
 conviction that he could not be identified with the 
 "Water Rat" who had stolen a dray-load of silks, and 
 he gave no thought for the morrow. For two weeks 
 they haunted the gilded palaces where men of their 
 
TRACY, THE BANDIT. 81 
 
 iort sought pleasure and the means of spending their 
 sy-gotten money. 
 
 But the luck turned. Tracy got drunk and reek- 
 ess. The money disappeared first, then the diamonds, 
 Mid they went out one night looking for a victim. 
 
 Tracy's desperation led him to attempt to hold up a 
 richly dressed Chinaman. The Mongolian, frightened 
 
 t of his wits, fled, in spite of the gun that was aimed 
 it him, and the shot that Tracy fired brought a 
 iundred infuriated Chinamen on the scene. 
 
 The bandits ran, were pursued, sought cover in the 
 railroad yards, finally clambered on a moving freight 
 ;rain and were carried out of town. 
 
 It was without design that the pair found them- 
 selves in Pasadena, for they had clambered into a car 
 md when the door was locked they found it impossible 
 ;o get out until the "side-door Pullman," as their con- 
 veyance was jocularly alluded to by Tracy, was 
 rfiunted onto a side track 'at the pretty town. 
 
 They were without money, hungry and sober. Both 
 men wore their guns and Merrill was for going into 
 he town and selling one of his for the sake of a meal. 
 
 "Never do that/' said Tracy. "A man might better 
 >ell his clothes, anything. There is no sense in selling 
 the tools of your trade." 
 
 "But how about eating?" said Merrill. 
 
 "We'll fix that," answered the other, and he led the 
 way out of town in the direction of the orange or- 
 chards. They lay in the shade of a clump of trees 
 waiting for dark and discussing plans for the future. 
 (From where they lay they had a view up a mile of 
 iroadway. 
 
82 TRACY, THE BANDIT. 
 
 It was a glorious day and in the brilliant herbage o 
 that delightful country there was that to lead the sense 
 of man to thoughts other than those coupled witl 
 brigandage. 
 
 The surroundings were altogether lost on Tracy. H 
 did observe that oranges were within reach and h 
 growled some curses because they were not fit to eai 
 He had been lying prone, his chin on his hands, lookin 
 up the road when he gave vent to a profane ejaculatio 
 and sprang up, then sank down out of sight in th 
 shrubbery. 
 
 "By ," he said, "There is an automobile comin 
 
 down the road and I am going to stick it up." 
 
 Merrill looked startled. 
 
 "You'll get us pinched," he said. "They'll get int 
 town in three minutes and have all the coppers in th 
 world on our trail." 
 
 "Will they?" rejoined Tracy. "Well you watc 
 me." He looked at his weapons, then moved closer t 
 the roadside and took a position where he could fac 
 the machine that was coming leisurely along. Th 
 grade was rather steep for scorching. In the seat wit 
 the chaff eur sat a young and pretty woman, in th 
 rear seat was another couple. Tracy hastily wound 
 handkerchief around the lower part of his face. 
 
 "Hold up, there," he cofnmanded, stepping into vie^ 
 as the machine approached within twenty feet of hirr 
 The women screamed, the driver, startled out of hi 
 wits, turned the lever and stopped the machine. 
 
 "You'll have to excuse me, ladies," said Tracy, "bu 
 I really need the money. Put up your hands, in cas 
 
TRACY, THE BANDIT. 83 
 
 anybody should get foolish. Now my friend will see 
 what you've got." 
 
 Merrill strode over to the machine. He was slow 
 and Tracy ordered him to hurry up. Then he had an 
 idea. 
 
 "Get out of that thing/' he roared in a tone that 
 startled the tourists again. They descended precipi- 
 tately, the women weeping and the men obviously 
 scared. Merrill took a revolver from one of the men. 
 It was a small affair and Tracy laughed contemptuously 
 when he saw it. 
 
 One of the men yielded, and groaned as it was taken, 
 a big roll of money. They all had watches and the 
 women some valuable rings. 
 
 "Pleasant country for automobiling," said Tracy to 
 one of the women/ She faltered something about 
 going to faint and Tracy said nothing more. He 
 examined the machine after the party had been 
 searched. 
 
 "I don't like the looks of it but I think I could run 
 it on a straight road," he said, and he ordered the 
 party to walk into the grove beside the roadway: 
 
 "What the are you going to do?" asked Merrill. 
 
 "Watch me," returned the other. Under his direc- 
 tion Merrill tied the men and women to trees by the 
 simple process of putting their arms around the trees 
 and behind them. The men's scarfs and the women's 
 torn drapery furnished thongs. 
 
 "You'll get away by night, I hope," said Tracy. "I 
 wouldn't inconvenience you for, the world but my 
 
84 TRACY., THE BANDIT. 
 
 friend and I left our auto in the stable and we are 
 compelled to borrow yours." 
 
 The bandits clambered into the car and Tracy too! 
 the lever. A couple of trials showed how the machine 
 might be stopped and started, and as there was a; 
 straight road leading north from the direction in which? 
 Pasadena lay he was not worried about turning around j 
 The machine started. Tracy waved his hand in the 
 direction of the trees to which their victims were tied r | 
 One of the men called out : 
 
 "You dirty blackguard, I'll see you punished for 
 this." Tracy laughed. 
 
 The bandits could not increase or regulate the speed 
 of the machine and Merrill was for abandoning it and 
 taking to the open country. Whet^ie auto stopped be^' 
 cause it had run out of power they jumped out and 
 made for a little town visible some miles away near 
 the railroad track. 
 
 The auto party was not released until a passing! 
 farmer heard their cries during the night. By that 
 time Jracy and Merrill were on their way north, having 
 
 " another freight, 
 
TRACY, THE BANDIT. 85 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 ROBBING A BANK. 
 
 On June 12 Tracy, Merrill and a burly, red-headed 
 I man whom they had picked up on the road, rode into 
 i the little town of Sutter. It was no unusual sight to 
 I the people of the town to see mcfUnted men and there 
 was nothing in the appearance of this trio to attract 
 more than passing comment as they rode up to the 
 hotel, dismounted and wandered into the bar. Both 
 Tracy and Merrill retained some part of the wardrobe 
 they had purchased with the money taken from the 
 automobilists and they wore no guns in sight. 
 
 The red man was bearded, wore a canvas coat, and 
 his trousers were thrust into his boots. He was, in 
 fact, a retired knight of the road, his retirement hav- 
 ing come about through want of opportunity to pur- 
 sue his favorite calling. He it was who had directed 
 their attention to the possibility of making a haul at 
 Sutter without taking very long chances. 
 
 "It's easy enough," he said to Tracy, "the bank is in 
 a building by itself and I could push it over if it was 
 necessary. The place is small and there is a beautiful 
 chance to get away. If I had a horse I'd take a chance 
 on it myself." 
 
 This advice it was that led Tracy and Merrill to 
 make their first attempt at robbing a bank. They 
 
86 TRACY, THE BANDIT. 
 
 had no very defined plans for each one of them hacl 
 declined a proposition to go into the town single- 1 
 handed and reconnoiter. It was Tracy's boldness that I 
 led them into the place, leaving the plan to shape itself . I 
 
 "We'll ride in, take a drink or two, have a look at 
 the bank, and if there's any of the long green in sight 3 
 go and get it," he said. 
 
 They had several drinks at the bar, then wandered 
 out into the village street and walked in the direction 
 of the bank, leaving their horses in front of the hotel. 
 Tracy went into the bank and had a fifty dollar bill 
 changed. He stopped in sight and hearing of the 
 cashier and gave each of his companions a ten dollar 
 bill, at the same tim^ making a remark as though he 
 were paying debts, this with a view to misleading the 
 cashier. In plain sight of the men and just within a 
 wire screen which might easily have been broken down, 
 lay a considerable amount of money. 
 
 At the rear end of the room sat a clerk. He looked 
 harmless enough a young fellow whose father, prob- 
 ably the owner of the bank, had sent him to the "wild 
 west" to get him "licked into shape." Incidentally 
 he had apparently taken upon himself the mission of 
 enlightening the natives in the matter of raiment. He 
 wore white flannel trousers, a gorgeous "blazer" and 
 had on what was undoubtedly the only high collar in 
 town. 
 
 The cashier, an elderly man with long beard, un- 
 doubtedly shrewd enough in dealing with farmers and 
 discounting notes, had never contemplated the pos 
 sibility of a hold-up. All the money in the bank 
 
TRACY, THE BANDIT. 
 
 ept in sight with a view to impressing customers with 
 ie resources of the institution. 
 
 There were two entrances to the bank building, that 
 irough which the bandits entered, another in the 
 ear, close beside the desk occupied by the mold of 
 iashion who kept the bank's books. 
 
 As the three men left the bank the cashier looked 
 lip at the clock and remarked : 
 
 "Might as well shut up, Jim, I guess. There isn't 
 toing to be any more business today." 
 f "Suits me," said Jim, "and I could spend the after- 
 iioon up in the mountains very handy." 
 1 While these remarks were being exchanged Tracy 
 find his companions had passed a few steps up the 
 Jtreet. Then Tracy made up his mind. 
 
 The street was deserted. The place was taking its 
 afternoon nap. Up and down the length of the dusty 
 main street there was nonliving thing in sight but the 
 :hree horses tied in front of the hotel and a panting 
 log lying in front of them. 
 
 "It looks pretty good to me," said Tracy. "Dave, 
 you go up and get the horses. By the time you get 
 here, we ought to be ready. And let me warn you, 
 Red," turning to the other man, "that gun shots wake 
 a town up. We ought to turn this trick without firing 
 i shot. I'll take care of the men you get the money." 
 
 Merrill went up the street and the two desperadoes 
 stepped into the bank. As their shadows fell on the 
 {floor the cashier turned away from the vault, with 
 [several packages of money in his hands. He had been 
 
88 TRACY, THE BANDIT. 
 
 just about to put away a portion of the resources that 
 had lain in sight. 
 
 "Throw up your hands," 'shouted Tracy, presenting 
 two guns at the astonished banker. 
 
 The young fellow near the door gave vent to 
 howl and tried to dodge out. "Red" forgot his in- 
 structions, pulled a revolver and fired one shot at the 
 clerk. 
 
 "You d fool/' shouted Tracy, "you've spoilee 
 
 the game." At the same instant he kicked open the 
 wire door of the bank cage and called out again to the 
 clerk, who had fallen on the floor, but was uninjured. 
 
 "Shut up, you bloody idiot or I'll blow your heac 
 off." 
 
 The command, uttered in the ferocious tone that 
 Tracy could use on occasion, had a sedative effective 
 The youngster shut up and "Red," who had followec 
 Tracy into the enclosure, snatched the money from the 
 cashier, at the same time felling him with a blow from 
 the butt of his gun. The ruffian thrust the money into 
 his pockets, seized what he could get handily on the 
 counter and the two men ran out as Merrill arrived in 
 front of the bank with the horses. 
 
 In an instant they were in the saddle. The aroused 
 inhabitants were inquiring the cause of the gunshot 
 by this time, and when the/ saw the men mounting 
 appreciated what had happened. Not a shot was fired 
 however until the bandits were well out of range climb- 
 ing one of the hills up which the road led to the north. 
 
 As they rode Tracy growled at the red bearded mar 
 
 "If you hadn't fired that shot we would have tie 
 
TRACY, THE BANDIT. 89 
 
 hose two chumps up and got an hour's start/' he said. 
 
 ed" chafed under the reprimand. He said nothing, 
 le had the money and perhaps he had a scheme of 
 lis own. 
 
 From a point on the trail overlooking the town they 
 
 topped to look down for pursuit. A little knot of men, 
 
 some of them mounted, others in buggies, was gathered 
 
 iabout the front of the bank. The young fellow in the 
 
 jblazer could be easily distinguished, seated in a buggy. 
 
 "They're reckoning that we'll stick to the road," 
 feaid Red, "let's fool 'em." 
 
 After crossing another narrow valley Red led the 
 (way up a rocky canyon where the nature of the ground 
 jpermitted no imprint of the horses' hoofs. 
 
 "I think we can get through here," said Red, "cut 
 (down another valley where the horses can get a run 
 (if necessary afid fool that outfit." 
 
 Their progress was slow and there was great danger 
 that the horses might break their legs, a menace that 
 was realized as they turned a bend in the canyon, for 
 the horse ridden by Merrill suddenly gave a scream of 
 pain and went down in a heap, carrying his rider with 
 Ihim and falling on Dave's left leg in such a manner as 
 jto put walking out of the question for him. They 
 [lifted the horse and removed Merrill, who groaned and 
 then fainted from the pain. 
 
 "We're in a h of a fix," snarled Tracy. 
 
 "I guess we'd better take care of ourselves/' said 
 "Red." 
 
 It was possible the spirit of contrariness in Tracy 
 that made him decline the proposition, or it may have 
 
90 TRACY, THE BANDIT. 
 
 been the weaving of fate's thread which bound his 
 destiny to that of the man alone and insensible on the 
 rocks. 
 
 "No we won't," he said. "We'll stick by the kid/' I 
 
 Making "Red" dismount first he told him to hoist 
 the unconscious man to a place on his horse in front 
 of him. The horse that had fallen was so injured 
 that it could not put its hoof on the ground and had 
 to be abandoned. 
 
 "Better shoot it," said Tracy. 
 
 "And notify that gang where we are, I suppose," 
 said the other. 
 
 "Better a dead horse than a live one limping about," 
 said Tracy, and putting his pistol to the animal's head 
 he killed brute. They made their way slowly to where 
 the canyon opened into a park-like bit of country in 
 the heart of the mountains. 
 
 "I think we might plant somewhere about here," 
 said Red. "I've had occasion to keep a few horses in 
 here when their owners might be looking for them 
 and the place hasn't many visitors." 
 
 It was like a cup, with a velvety bottom, this break 
 in the rugged face of the mountains. Its precipitous 
 sides were covered with a scrubby growth of .timber. 
 Down through the grassy heart of it ran a little 
 stream. As far as could be seen there was no outlet 
 from the place except that through which they had 
 entered. Tracy's sharp eye noted this. 
 
 "How are we going to get away, if necessary," he 
 said, "down back through Sutter?" 
 
 "Leave that to me," said "Red." "It used to be 
 
 
TRACY, THE BANDIT. 91 
 
 iccessaty to take horses out of here, as well as bring 
 fhem in." 
 
 They laid Merrill on the bank of the little stream 
 rhere he presently recovered consciousness. Tracy 
 examined Dave's foot and leg and found that no bones 
 /'ere broken. When he tried to stand on it, however, 
 le found it useless. 
 
 "Stick it in cold water," advised "Red." "That'll 
 ix it. 
 
 While Dave lay moaning with his ankle in the water 
 they counted and divided the money. There was $850 
 apiece. 
 
 "Not bad," said Tracy. "If ," and he looked 
 
 anxiously towards the defile through which they had ' 
 entered the little valley. As he glanced he suddenly 
 threw himself flat on the ground. 
 
 "Down," he hissed. 
 
 "Red" obeyed precipitately. Merrill was already 
 down. 
 
 "Trouble's going to start," said Tracy. "They're 
 comin'," and he drew his weapons. 
 
 "Red" craned his neck in the direction in which 
 Tracy pointed and then suddenly stood up and waved 
 his hat. 
 
 "It's all right," he said. 
 
 The ejaculation saved him. Tracy, on the lookout 
 for treachery, had been within a second of killing the 
 man. 
 
 "It's some of my pals," said "Red." 
 
 Down the side of the mountain three horses bearing 
 
; l 
 
 92 
 
 TRACY, THE BANDIT. 
 
 men scrambled in the wake of a dozen riderles 
 animals. 
 
 "Who are they ?" demanded Tracy. ' 
 
 "Friends of mine who use this place as I told ypu,1 
 answered "Red," "now we can stand off that bunch 
 from Sutter." 
 
TRACY, THE BANDIT. 93 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 TREACHERY A FIGHT FOR LIFE TRACY IS WOUNDED. 
 
 Tracy did not receive the new comers with very good 
 grace. Naturally suspicious, never willing to divide his 
 Dooty or increase his chances of capture or defeat, 
 sven with his friends, he resented the coming of the 
 lorse-thieves as a possible menace. 
 
 He was not altogether satisfied with the actions of 
 ed." This man, whose name is said to have been 
 Cosgriff, he had picked up in that off-hand way in 
 which outlaws make their friends. The freemasonry 
 :hat appears to exist among all men who live without 
 the pale of the law had put Tracy and Merrill on a 
 )lane of seeming friendship with "Red," but as yet 
 nothing had transpired to assure Tracy that the man 
 might be reckoned a friend as well as a companion in 
 crime. 
 
 The new comers were not calculated to inspire con- 
 fidence in one even less suspicious than Tracy had 
 Decome by reason of his hardening career. They were 
 melted and booted, dirty, unkempt and unshaven inci- 
 dentals that might not have militated against them in 
 the mind of so thorough-going a rascal as Tracy, but 
 they did not help even with him. 
 
 The man who apepared to be the leader of the trio 
 and who greeted "Red" with a surly "Hello, 'Red' " 
 
94 TRACY, THE BANDIT. 
 
 and in a manner that showed they were on excellent 
 terms, was a tall, ferocious-looking brigand, with a 
 repulsive countenance and having but one eye. The I 
 others were but little better favored than he and 
 Tracy was not the more pleased to see that they all' 
 shook hands with Cosgriff. 
 
 "Been havin' a mix?" inquired he of the one eye,] 
 glancing at Merrill. 
 
 "Not much. Fell off his boss," replied "Red." 
 
 "Are ye under cover ?" asked the new comer. 
 
 Tracy warned "Red" with a glance which he 
 heeded and remarked: 
 
 "Just for a day of two." 
 
 If the horse thieves were not to be commended for 
 their looks they were hospitable after their kind. One 
 of the number was sent to keep a lookout. The other 
 two produced provisions of various kinds, which they 
 had obviously not come by honestly, being mostly in 
 the form of unplucked fowls and freshly killed sheep, 
 and the meal that was gotten ready presently was de- 
 voured voraciously by the crowd. 
 
 Darkness was now settling fast in the wooded glen, 
 and the night threatened to be cold, a common co- 
 idtion after dark at that altitude. The obvious danger 
 of starting a fire in the dark put that proceeding out 
 of the question. 
 
 Tracy observed that the one-eyed man had called 
 "Red" to one side and had a conversation with him. 
 The desperado knew no fear, but he did know the kind 
 of man he was dealing with. The proverbial "honor 
 among thieves" had never appealed to him and he was 
 
TRACY, THE BANDIT. 95 
 
 skeptical of the verity of it. He dropped along side 
 of Merrill and whispered : 
 
 "Are you fit for a mix ?" 
 
 "I'm game/' said Merrill. 
 
 All night the two men remained together, Tracy, 
 with his weapons ready and Merrill dozing most of 
 the time. Nothing occurred until after breakfast in 
 the morning when a man who had been sent up the 
 hillside was seen to make a signal which drove them 
 all to cover in the scrubby timber on the opposite side 
 of the valley through which they had entered. The 
 signalling must have been preconcerted, for Tracy, 
 walking with Merrill, whose foot was practically all 
 right, was allowed to go in advance of the others sev- 
 eral paces. His quick ear observed in a moment that 
 the horse-thieves and "Red" were not following. He 
 laid his hands on his guns and turned swiftly. 
 
 As he turned Cosgriff and the one-eyed man were 
 standing together some twenty feet away. Both had 
 their weapons drawn and in that attitude the two 
 parties stood for an instant. Then the one-eyed man 
 spoke : 
 
 "We've talked it over," he said, "and the best 
 thing you young fellers can do is to tote your traps 
 out o' this. You see," he continued, "we're kind o* 
 peaceable here and we'll be better off if the folks 
 from Sutter should drop in not to have you two here. 
 And perhaps," he added with a grin, "it'd be better if 
 your clothes wasn't stickin' out with money, so you'd 
 better hand over that dough." 
 
 Why,, Tracy had permitted this harangue he could 
 
96 TRACY, THE BANDIT. 
 
 not tell, rie may have been reckoning the odds, 
 he had he must have decided that four to two 
 not too long a chance, for even as the speaker 
 eluded a shot rang out and the one-eyed man drop 
 in his tracks. With that marvelous dexterity and 
 tainty of aim which distinguished him, Tracy h; 
 fired holding his pistol at his side and the cham 
 now were but three to two. This he reckoned in a 
 flash, for even as the one-eyed horse-thief dropped, 
 Tracy and Merrill covered the red-bearded man and 
 his companion with their guns. Tracy and Merrill 
 both shot and the two fell, wounded. 
 
 At that moment the man who had been on lookout 
 came running out of the timber, firing as he ran. 
 Tracy turned to return his fire and as he did so his 
 attention was distracted from' "Red/* who, rolling 
 over on his elbow, aimed steadily at Harry, and as his 
 weapon spoke Tracy's left arm dropped to his side. 
 
 With a frightful oath Tracy and Merrill both shot 
 at Cosgriff and he moved no more. Fifty yards away 
 the man who had been on lookout was prone on the 
 ground. 
 
 "Now," said Tracy, "I guess, Dave, it's time for us 
 to duck." 
 
 They looked at the prostrate men. Neither the one* r 
 eyed man nor "Red" would ever again look over a 
 gun or steal a horse. One of the other was shot 
 through the shoulder and the fourth man had a shat- 
 tered leg. Tracy relieved the living men of their 
 weapons and left them lying as they were. Then he 
 turned to Merrill and said: 
 
 "You had better tie a rag around that wing o 
 
TRACY, THE BANDIT. 97 
 
 mine and well take that dead dog's advice and get 
 out of this." 
 
 The wound in his arm was painful but the bone 
 did not appear to be shattered and Tracy made light 
 of it, leaving Merrill to saddle the horses the bandit 
 strode up the hillside in the direction from which the 
 horse rustlers had come. 
 
 Presently he called to Dave that it was all right, 
 to come on. Throwing the captured pistols and some 
 i provisions into a couple of bags, Merrill swung them 
 over his horse's back, then walked over to the body 
 of "Red" Cosgriff and abstracted the roll which con- 
 tained that robber's share of the previous day's en- 
 terprise. 
 
 For two days the men wandered about in the moun- 
 tainous country, losing their pursuers, perhaps the 
 more thoroughly in that they lost themselves. 
 
 At noon of 'the third day they came upon a farm- 
 liouse occupied by an elderly couple. Tracy, worn by 
 his wound, which had- become feverish and was 
 troubling him, and Merrill, still able to use his foot 
 only with great pain, concluded to take chances on 
 getting out of the country. The old backwoodsman, 
 induced by the offer of the bandits to give him their 
 horses if he would transport them in a wagon to a 
 railroad point, piled the wagon box with hay and 
 the bandits lay in it and got away to the coast. 
 
 At Humboldt they bargained with the captain of 
 a lumber schooner to take them off and were landed 
 in Portland, where they were to begin their career of 
 desperate criminality which landed them in thfc peni- 
 jtentiary, and finally led to the death of both. 
 
98 TRACY, THE BANDIT. 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 THE BEGINNING OF THE END TRACY BECOMES A 
 
 BURGLAR PORTLAND IS ASTONISHED BY THE 
 
 CRIMES OF TWO MEN. 
 
 David Merrill's family, his mother and half sister, 
 lived in Portland, Oregon. It was the homing in- 
 stinct, as strong in criminals as in those whose, lives 
 run in different channels, that led Dave to select Port- 
 land as a place of shelter. The fact that they found 
 passage direct from Humboldt to the Oregon city was 
 merely an incident the two intended to make for thatj 
 point when they had made California too hot to hold 
 them. 
 
 The Merrills came from Vancouver, British Colum- 
 bia. Even while they lived on the Canadian side of 
 the line Dave had developed traits of toughness. He 
 had made many excursions into the interior and to the 
 north. When the Klondike craze broke out he started 
 for the new gold country but got no farther than] 
 Skaguay. There he had been identified with the thug^ ) 
 and gamblers who preyed, upon the gold seekers inll 
 tending to make the trip over the Chilkoot Pass. 
 
 He was known as a dangerous man, ready with his 
 gun and not above using it when necessary to carry 
 on his nefarious business of holding up tenderfeet or 
 to "make good" in a gun fight. 
 
TRACY, THE BANDIT. 99 
 
 He was driven out of the place when the condi- 
 
 ions became unbearable and the decent citizens rose 
 up and notified the toughs that they must get out or 
 
 ake chances on frontier justice. 
 
 While he was absent in the north his mother and 
 sister, respectable people to whom the boy was the 
 cause of much sorrow, had removed from Vancouver 
 
 ;o Portland, and with them he sought shelter while 
 recuperating and making ready to start forth again. 
 
 Even the presence of his family exercised no re- 
 straint upon Merrill for while he was living at home 
 
 le engaged in so many exploits, petty hold-ups and 
 other robberies that the police made the place too hot 
 
 : or him and he was given his choice of going to jail 
 or getting out of Portland. He did not hesitate he 
 preferred exile and freedom to a prison cell and made 
 
 lis way down the coast. This flitting led to the meet- 
 ing with Tracy. 
 
 When he returned home he brought with him the 
 desperado with whom he was associated and who was 
 to be his executioner. 
 
 The two men appear to have been received hospi- 
 tably Merrill even affectionately by Dave's mother 
 and sister. In spite of Tracy's sinister record and his 
 
 Joodthirsty character his personality was not un- 
 
 )leasing when he desired to make himself agreeable 
 and he was cheerful, almost entertaining, when he 
 exerted himself to please a woman. 
 
 That 'Genie was the one woman to whom he gave 
 any large, share of affection is very certain, but it is 
 also certain that he had met, at various periods of his 
 
100 
 
 TRACY, THE BANDIT. 
 
 career, other women who would not have been dis 
 pleased to be on better terms with the good lookir 
 and daring outlaw. 
 
 It is not surprising that Mary Merrill should have 
 been pleased with the bandit. He was genial, he 
 looked fearlessly at everyone with whom he was 
 brought into contact and there is no doubt that tr 
 girl knew something of his romantically stirring past 
 Of its bloody ferocity she was probably unawar 
 though it must be admitted that even such a pas 
 would not preclude the possibility of a good womar 
 making the man the object of her affections. 
 
 In all ages good women have sacrificed themselves 
 for men who had the instincts of ruffians. 
 
 Thrown much into the company of Tracy whe 
 with Dave remained quietly at the Merrill home for 
 some weeks, Mary Merrill probably lost her heart tc 
 her brother's partner in crime. In any event they be 
 came engaged, according to common rumor. 
 
 That her influence and association with her made 
 for the taming of the bandit is inferred from the fac 
 he refrained for some time from deeds of violence 
 Then there was another reason why he might ref rair 
 from crime he was in funds. 
 
 He went about with the Merrills and met their 
 friends. He was popular with the people whom he 
 met who were not likely to be of a class to ask ques- 
 tions about the past of a man who had money that 
 he was willing to spend and was good company. 
 
 But both he and Dave spent the money they had 
 brought with them lavishly. In a few weeks they wer 
 
TRACY, THE BANDIT. 101 
 
 broke. Then it occurred to Merrill that they would 
 be more certain of protection if they "operated" in 
 and about Portland and made his, mother's home a 
 hiding place. The attention of the; ppScp : had not yet 
 been directed to his return. Tra.oy the police of Port- 
 land knew nothing of, except, by\cpmmoil -re^Git: 
 They assuredly had no idea that he was m the city. 
 
 Six weeks after their advent in Portland the men 
 were broke. They had been out late one night, gamb- 
 ling. They were on their way home cursing their luck. 
 
 "Say, Harry," said Merrill, "it wouldn't be much 
 of a trick to get away with a bundle of money in 
 that gambling joint/' 
 
 "I was thinking of that when I saw old Amos put- 
 ting away that bank roll to-night. There must have 
 been three or four thousand in it." Tracy's mind was 
 running with that of his companion. 
 
 "You could cut a hole in that safe just like it was 
 paper," said Merrill. "Let's go -back and crack it." 
 
 "Do you know the building?" 
 
 "Backwards. I've slept in that room many a night 
 when I went broke. There is a fire escape up the back 
 way. I can get into the box by listening to the 
 tumblers." 
 
 The trick did not take them a half hour. They got 
 $1,100 but they got drunk and talked. The conse- 
 quence of their talkativeness was that Amos got them 
 in such a tight corner that they gave back $600 of the 
 money two days afterward with the understanding 
 that they should not be prosecuted an arrangement 
 
102 TRACY, THE BANDIT. 
 
 altogether satisfactory to the gambler who did nc 
 want his business exploited too much. 
 
 "No more secpnd story work for me," said Tracy, 
 /'I'd sooner take ajonger chance and not have to give 
 up any of the goods/' 
 . Two days later they went into the office of a coal 
 deafer. It was Saturday, and just about dark. They 
 had calculated that the dealer might have money to 
 pay off his drivers, and there would certainly be the 1 1 
 receipts since banking hours. 
 
 "I want you to send me a ton of coal," said Merrill, 
 showing a bill. He gave a fictitious name and address. 
 When the man bent over the book to enter the order, 
 Tracy hit him with a blackjack, felling^him. The coal! 
 dealer very nearly made another victim on Tracy's 
 list by dying. The *saf e was locked and there was no 
 opportunity of blowing it open. The robbers got only 
 what was in the till, a few dollars. They got off with- 
 out trouble. 
 
 Within a week three men were held up and robbed i 
 within three blocks in 'a rich residence district. The 
 last victim, a real estate man, who had grown up with 
 the country and who was not frightened by the guns 
 of the robbers, made an argument in order to get a 
 look at his assailants. He was knocked down and 
 his valuables taken. He recovered before the men 
 got out of sight and started in pursuit of them, shout- 
 ing. He was joined by a number of belated citizens. 
 Tracy turned around and fired a few shots at the pur- 
 surers but it was too dark to see what he was shoot- 
 ing at. 
 
TRACY, THE BANDIT. 103 
 
 The robbers crossed a suburban car line just as a 
 fast-running trolley car arrived. They jumped aboard 
 the car. Tracy held a gun to the motorman's head and 
 told him to "let 'er go." 
 
 Dave took care of the conductor. They distanced 
 pursuit in a dozen blocks and took to the dark side 
 streets. 
 
 A few nights later, Tracy, half drunk and wholly 
 reckless, got aboard that same car. He happened to 
 recognize the motorman and conductor. He was the 
 only passenger. 
 
 He talked to the conductor, who recognized him as 
 one of the hold-up men he had been compelled to carry. 
 
 "I'm not in such a hurry to-night," said Tracy, 
 laughing. He appeared to be drunker than he was. 
 It entered the conductor's head that he might do a 
 stroke of business by capturing a bandit. 
 
 He looked ahead and saw a policeman's star glisten- 
 ing under an electric light. Tracy saw the star too. 
 The conductor reached for the bell cord. 
 
 "Leave it alone/' ordered the bandit, and he pressed 
 a revolver hard against the conductor's ribs. The car 
 did not stop. A block farther on Tracy took all the 
 money the conductor had, including the pennies, hit 
 the man wantonly over the head with the butt of his 
 revolver, and escaped from the car. 
 
104 TRACY, THE BANDIT. 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 CARNIVAL OF CRIME POLICE DESPERATE MERRILL 
 
 TRAPPED TRACY CAPTURES A TRAIN FELLED 
 
 BY A BUTCHER PRISON. 
 
 Tracy and Merrill indulged in a carnival of crime in 
 the closing months of 1898 and January 1899. They 
 terrorized the streets of Portland. The citizen who had 
 the temerity to carry valuables and attempt to make his 
 way home after dark was in a very fair way to be 
 held up and he generally was. 
 
 Neither Tracy nor Merrill made any particular at- 
 tempt to cover their tracks. The very boldness of 
 their exploits and the daring they exhibited in stand- 
 ing off pursuers made for their safety. 
 
 The men had several rooms to which they resorted as 
 occasion required. At times both of them stopped at 
 the Merrill home. 
 
 The police were nonplussed and rendered desperate 
 by the complaints of the people and the comments of 
 the newspapers. 
 
 They were morally certain that Tracy and Merrill 
 were the men responsible for the holdups and rob- 
 beries but it seemed impossible to take them. There 
 was a conference of the police in February. The chief 
 announced that the two men must be taken alive if pos- 
 sible or brought in dead. 
 
TRACY, THE BANDIT. 105 
 
 A detective named Weiner had been following the 
 men and knew their haunts. He advised that the 
 Merrill house be watched constantly. 
 
 For five days detectives watched all the doors but 
 Tracy and Merrill were warned and kept away from 
 the house. The watch was abandoned, the police 
 being assured that the only way to trap the men was 
 by raiding the house. 
 
 On the night of February 8th, a boy ran into police 
 headquarters and said he had seen Harry Tracy and 
 Dave Merrill enter Mrs. Merrill's home. 
 
 A dozen men, policemen and detectives, were sent 
 out at once. 
 
 There was a wagon-load of them. The wagon was 
 stopped a block away. The house was covered from 
 front and rear. It was a two story affair and the 
 police, from constant watching, knew every detail of 
 its arrangement. A cordon of men stood about with 
 drawn revolvers, and orders to shoot in case anybody 
 attempted to get out. 
 
 Three men, with Weiner and a captain at their 
 head, knocked at the front door. Mrs. Merrill came 
 to the door in response to the knock. Just behind her 
 was Mary Merrill. 
 
 "Is Dave Merrill here?" asked Weiner, putting his 
 f dot inside of the door. As he spoke Mary Merrill 
 disappeared. 
 
 "He isn't here," faltered the mother. 
 
 At the same instant the policemen at the back door, 
 saw it open and a head was pushed out. Three re- 
 
106 TRACY, THE BANDIT. 
 
 volvers were presented at the head, and the door 
 slammed to again. 
 
 Hearing the slamming of the door the captain and 
 Weiner pressed in through the front door, drawn re- 
 volvers in hand. If Tracy had been in the house they 
 would surely have paid for their temerity with their 
 lives. Merrill, lacking the cool determination of his 
 pal, permitted his mother and sister to secrete him. 
 
 The police filled the house and made a systematic 
 search of it. Room by room they progressed and 
 when they returned to the lower floor they had not 
 found Dave. 
 
 "He could not get up a chimney, there is no way 
 out to the roof. The man must be in the house," 
 said the captain. "Search the drawers and closets." 
 
 Mrs. Merrill, in her anxiety, told the detectives 
 where to search. She remained in her own bedroom. 
 Along one side of the room there was a big old- 
 fashioned bureau. In the lower drawer there was 
 room for a man, but the policeman who opened it was 
 looking for hidden plunder rather than for the quarry. 
 He reached into the drawer, then threw himself down 
 into it. 
 
 "Dave isn't here I tell you/' Mrs. Merrill was scream- 
 ing. The girl looked on scornfully until the detec- 
 tive threw hiniself down on the drawer. Then she 
 screamed and the police thought she called : 
 
 "Shoot, Dave!" 
 
 A half dozen men crowded around the bureau. 
 
 Merrill, swathed about with his mother's dresses, 
 lay in the drawer ; the clothing encumbered his move- 
 
 
TRACY, THE BANDIT. 107 
 
 tnents. He could not shoot and was disarmed and 
 arrested. 
 
 "My boy is not to be blamed. Tracy did it all/' 
 cried the distracted mother. 
 
 "Shut up, mother," cried the girl, pressing her hand 
 over her mother's mouth. The poor woman, despair- 
 ing as well as enraged, would not be quiet. She 
 screamed out the address at which Tracy might be 
 found. 
 
 Giving Mary Merrill no chance to communicate with- 
 Tracy, the police held her in the house while Weiner 
 sent a decoy note to the bandit, signing Merrill's name 
 and asking for a meeting and naming a lumber yard 
 near the Northern Pacific railroad tracks. 
 
 All his after life Tracy had a lurking suspicion 
 that Dave sent the note himself, though there was no 
 foundation for the suspicion. The signature was 
 cleverly forged by the detective. 
 
 Weiner met Tracy alone. It was known that the 
 bandit was too shrewd to approach the place if there 
 were many there and Weiner took the chance, a squad 
 of officers being concealed, down the tracks. 
 
 "Dave wants to see you, Harry," called out the 
 detective, as Tracy approached, cautiously. 
 
 "Who are you?" demanded the robber, his hand 
 on his gun. 
 
 "Well, if I wasn't right Dave wouldn't put me in it, 
 would he?" said the detective. "He had to duck in 
 a hurry and is down the track. He was afraid to 
 show here and sent me down." 
 
 They started along the track together and Tracy 
 
108 TRACY, THE BANDIT. 
 
 became suspicious of the answers made by Weiner. A 
 switch engine passed slowly and just then Weiner ? 
 gave what Harry thought was a signal. Weiner says ;, 
 he made no sign, that the ambush was two hundred! 
 yards further on. But on the instant, as the engine 
 passed, Tracy put out his hand and caught the railing 
 of the cab. 
 
 Swinging himself on to the step with one hand he 
 took a shot at Weiner, who was only a few feet away. ? 
 The man fell. 
 
 The bandit was in the cab before the detective! 
 reached the ground. Putting his revolver to the head,, 
 of the astonished engineer, Tracy said: 
 
 "I'm going to take this train. Just pull open the 
 throttle/' 
 
 Being a sensible as well as a brave man the engi- 
 neer obeyed promptly and the locomotive leaped for-; 
 ward, dashing past the ambushed police before they 
 realized what had happened. 
 
 It was impossible to keep up the speed in the yards 
 and Tracy permitted the engineer to slow up. Two 
 miles out he prepared to leave the engine, the pace 
 didn't suit him. 
 
 The police had telephoned ahead and when he de-f 
 scended from the engine a couple of policemen and 
 a mob surrounded him before he could make off. 
 
 He drew both his guns and said quietly : 
 
 "Now you people get out of the way and there'll be 
 no trouble. If you don't make way I'll begin shoe 
 ing and when I shoot it means something." 
 
 As he stopped speaking a man wearing a butcher 
 
TRACY, THE BANDIT. 109 
 
 apron, who had come out of a nearby shop hit him 
 on the head with the flat side of a cleaver. 
 
 Tracy dropped and the police pounced on him. Be- 
 fore he came to, he was disarmed and secured. 
 
 He was tried with Merrill. They were both charged 
 with highway robbery and in Tracy's case it was 
 shown that he assaulted an officer with intent to kill. 
 
 He was given twenty years in the penitentiary at 
 Salem and Merrill was sentenced for thirteen years. 
 
 The day before the men were removed to Salem, 
 Tracy was visited in the county jail at Portland by 
 Mary Merrill. When she left he had a revolver. 
 
 The next day, when his cell door was opened he 
 presented a revolver at the head of the jailer and 
 marched him to the outer door. 
 
 "Unlock it," commanded the prisoner. The key was 
 turned in the lock and Tracy was on the threshold of 
 freedom when two clubs fell on his unprotected head 
 from behind. 
 
 Two guards had observed what was going on, had 
 removed their shoes and crept up behind the man. 
 
 The next day the prisoners were received at Salem 
 and the warden was warned that they were desperate 
 men, 
 
110 TRACY, THE BANDIT. 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 THE PATH TO FREEDOM BLAZED WITH BLOOD. 
 
 The night of June 8, 1902, was dark and stormy. 
 The guards traveling the broad walls surrounding the 
 Oregon penitentiary, at Salem, struggled against the 
 fierce blast that swept the country. The lightning 
 played on fhe barrels of their rifles. Thunder pealed 
 and reverberated incessantly up to ten o'clock and the 
 prisoners within felt the horror of being cooped up 
 in narrow spaces while the elements battled in wild 
 freedom. 
 
 When the rain had passed at ten o'clock the wind 
 still blew and the lightning, though vivid, did not 
 come in sheets. The walls could guard themselves on 
 such a night. 
 
 It was near eleven when a single horse, attached to 
 a buggy, was driven up to within a hundred yards of 
 the prison walls. From the buggy a woman descended 
 bearing a burden. 
 
 She gazed long and anxiously at the walls and the 
 little sentry boxes in which the guards had taker 
 refuge. Then she walked fearlessly to a section of 
 the walls above which peeped the roof of a building- 
 the stove foundry of the prison. She deposited her 
 burden at the foot of the wall and returned to the 
 buggy. From the back of the vehicle she pulled out 
 
TRACY, THE BANDIT. Ill 
 
 an extension ladder that had projected some feet from 
 the rear of the box. This she carried to the wall. 
 
 Quite deliberately she drew out the extension of the 
 ladder, then laid it against the wall. The masonry 
 stood up about sixteen feet sheer from the ground. 
 She knew that it was twenty feet from the top of 
 the wall to the ground on the inside. The ladder 
 reached to within three feet of the top of the wall. 
 
 Stooping over the burden she had first carried to 
 the foot of the wall the woman busied herself for a 
 moment, then she straightened up and climbed the 
 ladder laboriously carrying two rifles. Attached to 
 the weapons was a slight string. 
 
 Peering along the wall, stooping when the now 
 feeble flashes of lightning lit up the surroundings, she 
 thrust the rifles over the top of the masonry and 
 lowered them by the attached string until it was held 
 loosely in her hand and she knew the weapons lay 
 on the ground, just beside the foundry house. 
 
 Breaking the string the weight of the rifles snapped 
 the end of the cord over the wall. 
 
 The woman descended, took away the ladder, put 
 it in tHe buggy, climbed in herself and drove away. 
 
 "Did you hear a noise, Bill?" asked one of the 
 guards of another as they met on the wall top twenty 
 minutes later. 
 
 "I thought I did but it was a passerby, I guess/' 
 
 replied "Bill." 
 
 * * * 
 
 At eight o'clock the next morning the doors of the 
 prison dormitory swung open into the yard and a little 
 
112 TRACY, THE BANDIT. 
 
 band of men in striped suits marched into the brilliant 
 light of the early day. Besides the half dozen men 
 marched Guard F. B. Farrell. He was on the inner 
 side of the file. 
 
 At the head of the file marched Dave Merrill with 
 another man. Just behind Merrill Tracy walked, keep- 
 ing the prison step. They filed along the "dead line" 
 thirty feet from the prison wall. To step over that 
 line meant to invite death from the rifles of one of 
 tihe three men on the walls. 
 
 Straight for the foundry door marched the squad. 
 When within ten feet of the door of the workshop 
 Tracy spoke in a low tone. 
 
 Instantly Merrill sprang out of the ranks, Tracy 
 beside him. In three bounds they reached the wall and" 
 seized the two rifles lying there. 
 
 The four remaining prisoners scattered, and Guard 
 Farrell, who had been stunned by the suddenness of 
 the movements of the convicts presented his rifle at 
 them. 
 
 Before he could pull the trigger Tracy had fired a 
 shot and the guard fell dead. 
 
 Shouting in a manner to create consternation and 
 disconcert the guards, the two men ran quickly to 
 center of the prison yard. In the magazine of 
 rifle there were sixteen shots to start. The men be 
 firing at the guards on the wall and they returne 
 the fire. 
 
 At Tracy's second shot Guard S. R. T. Jones, sta- 
 tioned on the wall threw up his hands and dropped 
 dead into the vard. 
 
TRACY, THE BANDIT. 113 
 
 An old convict named Ingraham got in the way of 
 the desperate bandits as they ran back to the wall. 
 He was shot down he afterwards died. 
 
 Beside the foundry was a ladder. Merrill picked 
 it up and placed it against the wall. The prison yard 
 was clear at this time but Tracy stood waiting for 
 somebody or something to shoot at. Consternation 
 filled guards and convicts and the men started to 
 climb the ladders. The guards on the opposite wall 
 fired at them as they climbed. Tracy stopped de- 
 liberately and shot back. 
 
 They reached the top of the wall unharmed, threw 
 their rifles clear of the mud in the ditch below and 
 jumped. 
 
 They landed in the mud, uninjured. 
 
 "Across the fields for cover/' shouted Merrill. 
 
 "Stop you idiot," yelled Tracy. "They'll pot you 
 in a second." 
 
 He ran along under cover of the wall to the main 
 gate. As he arrived with Merrill at his heels two 
 guards ran out. Before they saw the prisoners Tracy 
 had them covered and made them throw their rifles 
 away. 
 
 "Now march that way," said Tracy, pointing across 
 the fields to cover. The guards, Tiffany and Ross 
 started to walk between the two men, the rifles of 
 Tracy and Merrill pointed at their heads. Presently 
 Tracy stopped and called out to a guard on the wall. 
 
 "You fire a shot and we'll blow the heads off these 
 two." 
 
114 
 
 TRACY, THE BANDIT. 
 
 The man on the wall fired a shot, when the med 
 were a hundred yards away. He missed. 
 
 Tracy shot Tiffany dead, Merrill shot at Ross and 
 the man dropped, feigning death. The convicts broke 
 into a run and in three minutes were under cover and 
 well way before pursuit could be organized. 
 
 "That looks like a good getaway, Dave," said Tracy. 
 "And if they are wise they won't get too close to us." 
 
TRACY, THE BANDIT. 115 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 IN THE DEEP TIMBER DISCARDING THE STRIPES TWO 
 SHERIFFS HELD UP. 
 
 The penitentiary at Salem is built close to the banks 
 of the Willamette river. The country is thickly tim- 
 bered, the virgin growth still standing, except for the 
 clearings that are occupied by farmers. Salem is but 
 forty-five miles from Portland and in the midst of a 
 comparatively populous country. The escape of the 
 men created a tremendous sensation throughout the 
 State, and the governor, within a few hours had 
 offered a reward of $2,000 for the apprehension of 
 the convicts. 
 
 Within a few hours the warden of the prison, co- 
 operating with the sheriff of the county, had organized 
 a posse of twenty men and started them in pursuit of 
 Tracy and his companion. 
 
 They, in the meantime had taken to the timber, 
 which is very dense. The men were hilarious over 
 their escape. No tremor of remorse at the lives they 
 had taken in effecting their escape, affected them. 
 They were in excellent health and those with whom 
 they were brought in contact soon said they appeared 
 to be in the best of spirits. 
 
 They were a desperate looking pair. Three years 
 they had spent in the prison, nearly all of the time 
 
116 TRACY, THE BANDIT. 
 
 working at the more laborious part of the duties per- 
 formed in the stove foundry. Merrill had even grown 
 more rugged during the period of his confinement. 
 They had both received fairly good treatment, though 
 rigorously watched. 
 
 Tracy, taking a lesson from his former prison ex- 
 perience, had systematically obeyed the rules and reg- 
 ulations of the prison. Having constant communica- 
 tion with the outside, he had always, hoped for an 
 opportunity to escape, and his constant ambition was 
 to so impress his guards that he might be considered 
 trustworthy. Only the desperate reputation of the 
 men had kept them at hard labor in the foundry, for 
 they had by their behavior earned the consideration 
 of the prison officials. 
 
 By whait means the plot was arranged whereby they 
 were furnished with arms will probably never be 
 known. Tracy himself said that the rifles were fur-^ 
 nished by a woman whom he had some day expected 
 to recompense. 
 
 At noon of the day of their escape the two men ap-- 
 peared in the yard of a farmhouse, situated in a clear- 
 ing in the woods within three miles of the prison. An 
 old woman was alone at the door when they approached 
 and she screaming, fled into the house. 
 
 The men were bare-Jieaded. Through their closely 
 clipped hair the skull shone. Their faces were grimy, 
 their clothing covered with mud and torn, making the 
 stripes which were a badge of disgrace even more 
 hideous. In their black and knotted hands, each of 
 the men carried a rifle. But it was the ferocity of 
 
 
TRACY, THE BANDIT. 117 
 
 their countenances, rather than their general appear- 
 ance that drove the old woman screaming into the 
 house. 
 
 Tracy followed her in, laughing. 
 
 "Don't be afraid, mother," he said. "We're not 
 going to eat you. We've had tough fare enough." 
 
 The woman crouched terrified on the bed while 
 Tracy looked about the single room of the house. 
 
 He found a loaf of bread and went out. In the 
 meantime Merrill had knocked over a couple of chick- 
 ens. The convicts went a mile back in the timber, 
 cooked the chickens and lay there during the afternoon, 
 discussing their plans. 
 
 At ten o'clock that night they held up J. W. Stewart 
 of South Salem on the highway near his home. They 
 made him disrobe and divided his garments amongst 
 them. Then, making him swear that he would not tell 
 that he had seen them, and threatening dire vengeance 
 if he broke his oath, they let the man go. He kept 
 quiet. 
 
 A few minutes later an expressman was held up in 
 the outskirts of Salem and from him Tracy and Merrill 
 secured clothing enough to finally discard their prison 
 raiment. Entering a stable within a few yards of where 
 they held the expressman up they took two horses 
 and started north toward the Washington state line. 
 They pressed on through the night until their horses 
 were worn out, when they turned them loose. 
 
 In the forenoon of the next day, two deputy sheriffs 
 riding in a buggy, returning from a trip to the north 
 in search of the escaped prisoners, were held up as 
 
118 TRACY, THE BANDIT. 
 
 they were passing through a strip of timber, twenty 
 miles north and west of Salem. Tracy stepped boldly 
 out of the timber, caught them unawares and wit 
 pointed rifle shouted: 
 
 "Hold up !" They stopped. "Now, throw up you 
 hands." 
 
 Merrill went to the horse's head and holding his 
 rifle pointed at them, compelled the men to jump out 
 of the buggy, their hands still in the air. Tracy 
 stepped over and searched the sheriffs. He found two 
 revolvers strapped on to each of the men. These he 
 confiscated. 
 
 Standing behind one of the men he pulled back his 
 coat and Merrill saw the star on his vest. 
 
 "Hello," said Dave, "that's a copper, Harry, let 
 me take a shot at him." 
 
 "Maybe the other one is too," said 'Harry, and he 
 pulled back his coat. 
 
 "Yes, there's two of 'em." 
 
 "Looking for us, I suppose," said Harry, pleasantly. 
 
 "Not in particular," answered one of the men, but 
 both he and his companion expected nothing better 
 than to be shot to death. Tracy took their stars and 
 what money and papers they had, and said: 
 
 "We'll just turn you fellows loose so you can tell the 
 rest of them what happened and if they follow too 
 close that they won't get the chance you had." 
 
 The robbers watched the men walk down the road 
 some distance, then jumped into the buggy themselves 
 and drove north. 
 
TRACY, THE BANDIT. 119 
 
 CHAPTER XXL 
 
 TRACY AND MERRILL AMBUSH A POSSE EIGHT THOU- 
 SAND DOLLARS REWARD THE MILITIA 
 A PURSUIT. 
 
 "There's a gang of men coming up the road there, 
 Harry, and I guess they're looking for us." 
 
 Dave Merrill was standing at the edge of the timber 
 on the brow of a hill, looking back down the road 
 which the bandits had climbed within the past couple 
 of hours. It was near noon, of June 11. In the early 
 morning they had driven the sheriff's horse and buggy 
 into a farmer's yard, with a proposition to trade 
 horses. The place was deserted but for a boy and 
 a young girl. Their intention had been to trade the 
 horse and buggy for a couple of horses and saddles. 
 
 The girl explained that her father had gone out with 
 the team, looking for Harry Tracy. 
 
 "Well, you tell him when he comes back/' said 
 Tracy, laughing, "that he might better be at home, 
 trading horses. I'm Harry Tracy." The girl shrank 
 in fright. "Oh, you needn't be alarmed," said Harry, 
 "I'm not going to bite you, but you might get us some- 
 thing to eat and we'll pay for it." 
 
 He joked with the trembling girl while she prepared 
 them the meal until her confidence was restored. He 
 gave her two dollars and he and Merrill left afoot, 
 
120 TRACY, THE BANDIT. 
 
 the sheriff's horse being worn out. It was several 
 hours after this that Merrill saw the crowd of men 
 riding after them up the roadway. 
 
 Tracy looked earnestly down the trail and counted 
 eight men. 
 
 "We might do some business with those fellows," 
 he said, "and we need some horses anyway. Let's 
 shoot 'em up a bit." 
 
 Merrill demurred. 
 
 "I don't like so much mixing up," he said, "Let's 
 get north of here." 
 
 "You stick to me, young fellow," said Tracy, grimly. 
 
 They picked out a position behind some fallen tim- 
 ber at a bend from which they commanded the road 
 without being seen. 
 
 The posse was composed of farmers and citizens 
 of the nearby town of Gervais. Inspired by the vari- 
 ous rewards which at this time amounted to $8,000, 
 the men had organized themselves for a man hunt. 
 
 They had stopped at the farmhouse at which Tracy 
 and Merrill had breakfasted and knew that the bandits 
 could not be far away if they stuck to the road. If 
 they had known the men they were pursuing they 
 would not have ridden along in the compact body they 
 now formed as they came up the hill. They were 
 armed with shotguns and rifles, to which they were 
 obviously unused. 
 
 The men were laughing and talking as they stopped 
 to breathe their horses on reaching the brow of the 
 hill. Several of them were in the act of filling their 
 pipes, when a terrific i 7 ^ice, within a few feet of them, 
 roared : 
 
TRACY, THE BANDIT. 121 
 
 "Throw up your hands!" 
 
 Instinctively they glanced in the direction of the 
 voice. Harry Tracy, standing on a log, held two re- 
 volvers pointed at the group. Beside him was Merrill, 
 his cheek laid against the stock of a Winchester, his 
 beady eyes gleaming along the barrel. 
 
 At the word of command, three of the men dropped 
 their guns. They all put their hands up to the limit. 
 
 "You fellows are looking for Harry Tracy and 
 Dave Merrill, I suppose," said Tracy. "Well you've 
 found 'em," he continued, "and I don't see that it 
 has done you much good. We'd ought to blow your 
 heads off but the country needs you on your farms. 
 Throw those guns across the road there," he com- 
 manded the men, who still held their weapons in the 
 air. "Now dismount and get off on this side of your 
 horses." The men obeyed. 
 
 "Now march off back down the road there and 
 keep going." 
 
 Without a word of protest the posse took the back 
 track, Tracy and Merrill stepping into the road and 
 keeping them covered. When the men of the posse 
 had proceeded a few hundred yards, Tracy and Merrill 
 picked up the discarded guns, each clambered on a 
 horse and, leading the other animals, they rode down 
 to where a bridge crossed a small stream. 
 
 Tracy dismounted, threw the captured guns into 
 the water, unsaddled the led horses, drove them into 
 the nearby timber and rode off along the trail. 
 
 "Wasn't that better than to let those suckers go 
 
122 TRACY, THE BANDIT. 
 
 chasing 'round with firearms until they hurt them- 
 selves or somebody else?" Tracy asked Merrill. 
 
 "I guess it was," said Dave, "but I don't like monkey- 
 ing around in this country. I'm going to quit 
 go north." 
 
 Tracy looked at him curiously, but said nothing. 
 Merrill appeared to be depressed, but in Tracy's man- 
 ner, careless, even jocular, as it were, there was noth- 
 ing to show that he was aware of the fact that the 
 people of the state were aroused and in pursuit of 
 him. 
 
 Public sentiment had inspired the Governor of 
 Oregon to take drastic steps to effect the capture of 
 Tracy and his companion. He ordered the state militia 
 officers to respond to calls for aid from the sheriff of 
 any county who required it. 
 
 The warden of the penitentiary had offered a per- 
 sonal reward for the capture of the men. The county 
 commissioners at Salem had added to this reward. 
 These special offers, added to the state reward, made 
 the capture of the men an inducement that was not 
 likely to be overlooked. They were worth $8,000 dead 
 or alive to their captors. 
 
 They became aware of their value when they were 
 drawing to the town of Gervais. They met a farmer 
 driving slowly along reading a newspaper. Tracy 
 stopped him and took the paper, saying jokingly: 
 
 "My subscription ran out a few years ago and I 
 have to get my papers the best way I can." 
 
 The pair turned up a cross road and pulled up in 
 the shade while Tracy read. 
 
 
TRACY, THE BANDIT. 123 
 
 'They're getting after us good, Dave," he said, "the 
 militia's been ordered out." 
 
 That night they stopped at a farmhouse within two 
 miles of Gervais. The farmer and his wife they drove 
 into the loft over the living room of the house, from 
 which there was no egress except by a stairway, and 
 slept in apparent security in "the farmer's bed. 
 
 They were astir early in the morning and after 
 demanding and securing a good breakfast, started to 
 the north. 
 
 Soon after daybreak they met a young fellow com- 
 ing from town and stopped to inquire the news. He 
 took them to be members of the posse and startled 
 them with his information. 
 
 "They're going to get Tracy and Merrill this morn- 
 ing," he said. "They got a bunch of soldiers at Gervais 
 last night and they're scattered all along north of 
 here. 
 
 "If them fellers run into the soldiers they won't last 
 long," he added. 
 
 "I told you we'd hang around here considerable too 
 late," growled Merrill. 
 
 "Oh, shut up and come along with me," was Tracy's 
 rejoiner. 
 
 A few minutes later the elder of the bandits climbed 
 an eminence that gave him a view of the little town of 
 Gervais and the country to the north. Here and there 
 he could see the reflection of the morning sun gleam- 
 ing from a rifle barrel or some bright portion of a 
 soldier's accoutrements. The line of miltiamen ap- 
 peared to extend for a couple of miles east and west 
 
124 TRACY, THE BANDIT. 
 
 across the track which it was to be expected he and 
 his companion would follow when going north. 
 
 "Why, we can ride through them without taking 
 chance on a shot," he said. 
 
 Merrill was too anxious to get into the state of| 
 Washington to demur to any plan that involved mov- 
 ing to the north. 
 
 "I'm ready," he said. 
 
 They were within a mile or less of the line of sol- 
 diers. From where they stood a road ran directly, 
 north. 
 
 They rode quietly at a foot pace for almost a mile 
 without challenge. Both carried their rifles lying 
 handily across their saddles before them, and were on 
 the qui vive for a challenge. The challenge came. 
 
 The command rang out sharp and clear from a 
 soldier who stood not a dozen paces away at the edge- 
 of the road. For answer both men brought their rifle 
 barrels down sharply on their horses flanks. The 
 animals sprang forward and Tracy and Merrill began 
 firing rapidly and at random, after the first shot at 
 the soldier in front of them, who was knocked down 
 by Tracy's horse before he could fire. 
 
 Shooting and howling madly, the men dashed along 
 the road, and presently from the right and left began 
 a desultory fire from the militiamen. 
 
 A depression * in the road saved them from the 
 militiamen's bullets, and a half hour afterwards they 
 were trotting calmly along as though they had not 
 just run the gauntlet of a cordon of 250 soldiers. 
 
TRACY, THE BANDIT. 125 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 ON TO WASHINGTON CROSSING THE COLUMBIA AN 
 ASTONISHED JAP. 
 
 On the morning of June 14, there arrived at Oregon 
 City, on the Columbia river, a quietly but well dressed 
 woman, who on getting off the train asked the station 
 agent where she could find a livery stable. 
 
 She was a blonde, her language and manner indi- 
 cated refinement. She was dressed entirely in black, 
 and in good taste. The station agent offered to send 
 for the liveryman and talked with the woman while 
 she was waiting. 
 
 "Has there been anything heard of Tracy or Merrill 
 about here?" she asked. "I have to drive a few miles 
 into the country and would not care to meet them." 
 
 The station agent, large and important, said the 
 men were in the neighborhood but there were posses 
 out who would soon stop them and the country was 
 quite quiet. The woman told the livery-man that she 
 wanted a single horse and buggy. 
 
 She drove to the southeast. Four miles from 
 Oregon City she stopped the horse, looked at her 
 watch, then, seeing some little distance ahead a spot 
 in the road that was shaded by trees, she drove on and 
 halted again. This time her manner showed that she 
 was ready to wait. For a half hour the woman sat 
 

 126 TRACY, THE BANDIT. 
 
 quietly in the buggy. At the end of that time she was 
 aroused by a sharp whistle coming from the woods 
 on her right. She stood up and looked in the direc- 
 tion from which the sound came, then waved her hand 
 and waited. 
 
 Presently two men appeared at the edge of the 
 timber. The woman sprang from the buggy and 
 greeted them both, the one with, "Oh, Dave, I'm glad 
 to see you/' then she turned and was clasped in the 
 arms of the tall man. 
 
 The horse was led into the timber a short distance 
 and the three sat down and talked earnestly. They 
 were seen by a farmer's boy who passed. Before noon 
 the woman returned to Oregon City and took the next 
 train to Portland. 
 
 Just after dinner the same day two men appeared 
 at the door of the house belonging to the family whose 
 boy had seen the woman and two men a mile south 
 on the road and asked for something to eat. 
 
 Kelso, the farmer, asked them roughly if they could 
 pay for it and the older and larger man of the two 
 said: 
 
 "Don't you worry about that. Get out the grub." 
 
 "I reckon you're some o' the men that's lookin' for 
 Tracy" said the farmer. 
 
 "Not exactly," said the man whom he had addressed, 
 "because I happen to be Tracy myself." 
 
 The farmer made what apologies he could. Tracy 
 was not as good natured as he was ordinarily in deal- 
 ing with the farming people. He gruffly ordered the 
 man to hurry with the meal. 
 
TRACY, THE BANDIT. 127 
 
 When they had eaten, Tracy picked up his rifle 
 Merrill did not carry one now and said to Kelso : 
 
 "I expect we'll Have to borrow a couple of horses 
 from you." 
 
 Kelso turned pale. He had but the two horses. 
 
 "I'm only a poor man " be began. 
 
 "D you, get out the horses/' roared Tracy, 
 
 turning the gun on the man. 
 
 The unfortunate farmer led them to the stable and 
 led out a couple, of horses. Merrill threw a couple of 
 saddles that hung on a peg over the animals' backs. 
 As the bandits mounted Kelso made a despairing ges- 
 ture. Tracy pointed his gun at him but something 
 stayed the finger that rested on the trigger. Kelso 
 shrank back and threw up one hand. His wife, stand- 
 ing at the back door of the house, screamed. 
 
 Tracy and Merrill rode away. They had not pro- 
 ceeded a hundred yards when Tracy pulled up and 
 said : 
 
 "What's the use of taking these old skates from that 
 fellow ?" referring to the horses. 
 
 "I was thinking about that," replied Dave. 
 
 The two turned around, rode back into the farm- 
 yard, got off the horses and turned them loose. Kelso 
 had betaken himself to the woods when he saw the 
 bandits returning, thinking they purposed killing him. 
 Tracy laughed good naturedly as he noticed the man 
 running. The woman came out and tried to thank 
 them. 
 
 "That's all right," said Tracy, "we can't lose any- 
 way." 
 
TRACY, THE BANDIT. 129 
 
 A mile farther north on the road the men saw a 
 man driving a team attached to a buggy toward them. 
 
 'This looks pretty good," remarked Tracy. With- 
 out further words they stationed themselves beside the 
 road. 
 
 In the buggy was a rotund and rosy old man, well 
 mown in the country for the extent of his wealth and 
 the number of farms and acres of timber he owned. 
 The bandits did not know the man nor did they know 
 anything about his wealth. They had been cursing 
 ;hemselves for fools in giving up the horses they took 
 from Kelso and there was little chance of another 
 victim meeting with any consideration at their hands. 
 
 "Halt, and don't choke." The latter part of the 
 command was not uncalled for. At the word of 
 command uttered in the tone of ferocity that Tracy 
 habitually used, old man Martin had turned purple. 
 But at the sight of Tracy's rifle and the two guns 
 in the hands of the other bandit he instinctively pulled 
 up the horses. The spirited animals swerved at the 
 sight of the man and were very near upsetting the 
 DUggy. Tracy caught the nigh horse by the bridle. 
 
 "It's a shame to make an old fellow like you walk," 
 said Tracy, "but you look as though some exercise 
 might do you good. Just jump out." He made a 
 motion with his rifle and Martin obeyed the command 
 with some alacrity. 
 
 'It's too bad you're not going in our direction, we 
 might give you a lift," said Tracy, "but it looks as 
 though it was up to you to walk." 
 
130 TRACY, THE BANDIT. 
 
 "You're Tracy," said Martin, who recovered his 
 breath as he viewed the prospect of losing his blooded 
 team. 
 
 "Yes I'm Tracy, let me introduce my friend Mr. 
 Merrill/' Dave bowed with mock solemnity. 
 
 "Well now, you seem to have some sense," said 
 Martin, "and I'll make a deal with you. You send 
 that team back when you get to the river I suppose 
 that's where you're heading for and I'll send you a 
 check." 
 
 Tracy and Merrill were astonished by, the proposal 
 tion. 
 
 "Well, you've got nerve," said Merrill. 
 
 "Oh, I've been stuck up before." 
 
 "Well this is going to be a new experience for you 
 anyway," said Tracy. "How much have you got on 
 you?" 
 
 ' 'Bout seventy-five dollars," said Martin. 
 
 "Watch any good?" 
 
 "Not much," said Martin producing a silver watch. 
 
 "I'll tell you what I'll do," said Tracy, "I'll let you 
 drive the hottest pair of young fellows in these parts 
 to the Columbia river and only charge you seventy- 
 five for the privilege and you can have your team." 
 
 "It's a go," replied Martin promptly. 
 
 "And if you happen to bat an eye when we pass a 
 house remember that your slats are not bullet proof 
 and both Dave and I will plug you." 
 
 "I'm old enough to have sense," returned Martin. 
 He handed over the money. The bandits stepped into 
 the buggy, he climbed in and forced himself into a 
 
TRACY, THE BANDIT. 131 
 
 seat between them, and in this fashion the ill-assorted 
 trio reached the banks of the Columbia river in the 
 early evening. Tracy kept his word and sent old 
 Martin away safe with his horses. 
 
 'There's God's country over there," said Merrill, 
 pointing to the Washington bank of the river, just 
 visible in the gloom. 
 
 "If it is I don't see what you and I want over 
 there," said Tracy. 
 
 In the gathering darkness they wandered along the 
 bank of the river, keeping a sharp lookout. The wind 
 was blowing a gale and there was the promise of an 
 ugly night in the sky. In the timber on the river bank 
 they came upon a little cabin. Fastened to a little 
 wharf extending into the water was a yawl boat in 
 which a mast had been stopped. 
 
 'Tut there for us to take us to God's country/' 
 said Tracy pointing to the boat. 
 
 The waves were rolling high on the river. Neither 
 of the men knew anything about handling a boat. 
 
 "Maybe there's somebody in the house," said Merrill. 
 
 Without waiting to knock, Tracy beat the crazy 
 door of the shanty in with the butt of his rifle. A 
 frightened cry announced that the place was occupied 
 and presently they made out that somebody was beg- 
 ging for his life in totally unintelligible English. 
 Merrill struck a light. 
 
 Crouched in the middle of the room was a little 
 Japanese in a ludicrous costume. He had tumbled out 
 of bed and only desired that he might be spared by the 
 very excellent gentlemen who had honored his 
 
132 TRACY, THE BANDIT. 
 
 wretched abode. Tracy kicked him into an upright 
 position and made the Jap understand that no ham 
 would come to him if he would take the honorable 
 gentlemen across the river and do it in a hurry. The 
 Jap looked out and protested that it was impossible. 
 
 "Stop chinning, and hurry/' said Tracy. At the 
 moment he caught sight of a bottle of Canadian stand- 
 ing upon a shelf. Intemperance made no part of 
 Tracy's faults ordinarily, but he was in an ugly mood. 
 He knocked the neck off the bottle and poured out 
 a cupful of the liquor. 
 
 "Have a drink," he said to Merrill. Dave refused. 
 
 "There's something the matter with you," remarked 
 Tracy in an ugly tone, "and you had better get over 
 it." Merrill made no reply and Tracy drank again. 
 
 He compelled the Japanese, who was frightened 
 speechless by the terrifying figure and ferocious tone 
 of the man, to hoist the sail of his little fishing boat. 
 Tracy took the helm, Merrill crouched in the bow and 
 the fisherman the only one of the three who knew 
 anything of the management of a boat, sat on a thwart 
 amid ship. 
 
 And in this fashion they crossed the Columbia. A 
 hundred times the little craft was almost swamped 
 and the appeals of the Jap brought on him threats of 
 instant death from Tracy if he did not shut up. 
 
 Merrill sat gloomily silent in the bow of the boat. 
 Perhaps he hoped that the boat might founder and end 
 his miserable existence. 
 
TRACY, THE BANDIT. 
 
 133 
 
 While death was in the air and the waves dashed 
 over them, Tracy sat at the tiller and joked. That 
 they finally were thrown out on the Washington shore 
 was due solely to the fact that the wind blew in that 
 direction 
 
134 TRACY, THE BANDIT. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 IN WASHINGTON BLOODHOUNDS AT FAULT SHERIFF 
 BERT BLESCHER IS SHOT. 
 
 Merrill was filled with the idea that they would 
 have less trouble in getting away from pursuit in the 
 country near Vancouver because he knew it all. 
 
 Tracy was for turning west and making for the 
 wilderness at the foot of the Cascades where it was 
 almost certain they might defy the officers of the law. 
 The men quarrelled about this repeatedly that Sun- 
 day, their first day in the northern state. 
 
 "This country is as thick with men as Portland is.. 
 Let's duck for the timber/' said Tracy. 
 
 "Come with me," insisted Merrill, "or let me go. I 
 have friends here." 
 
 "No, you can't lose me/' returned Tracy viciously. 
 "You and I are going to travel together, and we're 
 going to travel on the square." He was afraid that 
 Merrill might compound with the authorities and give 
 him up. 
 
 If Merrill had the impression that it was going to 
 be easier traveling for them in Washington he was 
 mistaken. The border counties of the state were 
 aroused. The rewards held good in Washington, it 
 was supposed, and every man who had nerve, or 
 thought he had nerve, was engaged in the man hunt. 
 
TRACY, THE BANDIT. 135 
 
 Before they had been on the Washington side of the 
 river three hours their presence was known. Sun- 
 day morning they arrived at a farmhouse while the 
 people were away at church. They leisurely cooked 
 some food, ransacked the place, found some money 
 and clothing, bathed and shaved themselves and made 
 off unmolested. 
 
 They stopped at another farmhouse, also unoccupied, 
 but did not enter the dwelling. In the stable they 
 found a couple of horses, but only one saddle. They 
 mounted and made off, keeping to' the country road. 
 
 About a mile from the house they met a man and 
 woman with their two children walking. The woman 
 and children fled at sight of the bandits, the man stood 
 his ground. 
 
 "I suppose you know that they're my horses," he 
 said, pointing to their steeds. 
 
 "I didn't know/' said Tracy. "They might have 
 been, but they are ours now." 
 
 "You might have helped yourself to somebody else's 
 stock. I can't spare them." 
 
 "Only horses you've got?" asked Merrill. 
 
 "Yes. I wanted to let them rest and we walked to 
 church." 
 
 "I guess we can get along without them, Dave," 
 said Tracy. They ""dismounted and handed over the 
 horses. 
 
 "Tell the kids Harry Tracy and Dave Merrill don't 
 want to eat them," said Tracy, pointing to the timber 
 where the little ones could be seen peering out. 
 
 The man mounted one of the horses and rode about 
 
136 TRACY, THE BANDIT. 
 
 alarming the country and sending word of the arrival 
 of the bandits to the sheriff. 
 
 Posses in the form of neighborhood clubs had al- 
 ready been formed in anticipation of the coming of the 
 bandits. Farmers and the men living in little towns 
 had formed syndicates with the object of hunting the 
 bandits and dividing the rewards in case of their cap- 
 ture. 
 
 That same afternoon one enterprising native, who 
 had a couple of hounds, took his dogs out and put 
 them on the track of the bandits at the point where 
 they gave up the stolen horses. It was a fortunate 
 thing for the pursued and possibly for the pursuers 
 that Tracy and Merrill were on foot. 
 
 The dogs were followed by a numerous party of 
 well-armed men. The men were lying under some 
 trees on a knoll that afternoon late when they heard 
 the baying of hounds, Tracy had heard the sound be- 
 fore. 
 
 "Bloodhounds/' he ejaculated, "by G ." They soon 
 descried a dozen mounted men following the hounds 
 along the road they had followed. 
 
 Without hurrying they would not have moved at 
 all but stopped and gave battle to the pursuers if Tracy 
 could have had his way they crossed the high ground 
 to where a slough or swamp filled with rushes could 
 be made out in a valley. 
 
 Tracy waded into the slough, Merrill following. 
 The pursuers were in sight and Tracy wanted to take 
 a shot at them but Merrill dissuaded him. 
 
 Steping from one peaty hummock in the swamp to 
 
TRACY, THE BANDIT. 137 
 
 another they made their way along for a mile. Then 
 wading to the shore on a log they caught the branches 
 of a tree, swung themselves into it and dropped on 
 dry land, having first taken off their shoes. 
 
 The hounds lost the scent in the water and that 
 party lost all chance of fingering the reward. 
 
 The following Tuesday the fugitives though their 
 progress was rather leisurely to admit of that descrip- 
 tion being applied to them were lying beside a de- 
 serted log house sleeping when they had a narrow 
 escape from being surprised. 
 
 Tracy's cat-like senses saved them. < He sat bolt 
 upright as the sound of hoof beats came to them. 
 
 The place they had chosen to rest in was at the end 
 of an almost obliterated trail at the top of a little val- 
 ley. They had taken some chickens from a farmyard a 
 few hours earlier and had cooked and eaten them. 
 They had made no attempt to hide their trail and when 
 Sheriff Bert Blescher and four other mounted men 
 followed them it was not difficult to trace the bandits. 
 Had the pursuers taken the necessary precautions for 
 a quiet approach they might have escaped the ambus- 
 cade that Tracy prepared. 
 
 As it was the bandits were hidden by the side of the 
 log house and quite ready when the party arrived 
 within a hundred yards. Tracy allowed the party to 
 approach within fifty yards. The trail was rugged 
 and narrow and the men were riding three abreast, 
 Blescher in the middle of the front rank. 
 
 "I'll take the fellow in the middle, you get the one on 
 
138 
 
 TRACY, THE BANDIT. 
 
 the right/' remarked the elder bandit, as coolly as 
 though he were ordering a meal. 
 
 "Hail 'em first/' said Dave. 
 
 "Your liver is bleaching/' said Tracy with a sneer, 
 btu he stood up and shouted : 
 
 "Halt." 
 
 At the command the horses of the members of the 
 posse reared and turned. The men were rattled. As 
 they turned Tracy lost command of himself and fired. 
 They could not see Tracy, even if he had been facing 
 them. At the first shot Bles,cher fell and at the same 
 instant his horse stumbled. 
 
 There was a hail of shot and the four members of 
 the posse could not, or did not try to control their 
 horses. They raced back down the trail leaving 
 Blescher. 
 
 The timber was heavy and Tracy did not try to see 
 what the effect of his work was but, urged by Merrill, 
 turned and made off in the timber. 
 
 Blescher was picked up later by his own party. 
 His wound put him out of the hunt. 
 
TRACY, THE BANDIT. 139 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 IN SOCIETY A CHESTERFIELDIAN HORSETHIEI^ REST- 
 ING OUTWITTING A POSSE. 
 
 "Good evening, ladies." 
 
 Two women, one elderly, the other young and good- 
 looking, turned sharply at the salutation. They were 
 sitting on the porch of a farmhouse near Ridgefield and 
 had not noticed the approach of any one. As they 
 turned they saw a tall, well built man, dressed in a 
 short coat, negligee shirt and wearing his trousers 
 tucked into his boots. A short moustache of but a few 
 days' growth shaded his upper lip. His eyes were 
 clear and laughing. His hair was just long enough to 
 wave slightly but was unkempt. He held a broad 
 brimmed hat in his- hand. There was nothing in the 
 man's appearance to inspire terror except for the fact 
 that he carried a Winchester in his left hand and two 
 revolver butts peeped from his belt. The women arose 
 hurriedly. 
 
 "Good evening," said the younger one. 
 
 "My friend and I he is bashful and staid out back 
 of the house thought perhaps you would be good 
 enough to give us a meal. We are travelers." 
 
 "You are Harry Tracy," said the younger of the two 
 women. 
 
 "I don't know whether to feel flattered or not, but 
 
140 TRACY, THE BANDIT. 
 
 I could not tell you a lie," he bowed awkwardly, "I 
 Tracy." 
 
 "O-o-o-h," shrieked the elder woman. 
 
 "Keep still mother, he won't hurt us," said the girl 
 Tracy laughed. 
 
 "I must have an awful reputation if the sight of m< 
 is enough to send your mother into hysterics. Let 
 be comfortable for once and then when we are gon< 
 you can send your pa after us." 
 
 "We are not policemen," said the girl, throwing u 
 her head. 
 
 "I beg your pardon," rejoined the bandit. "I wa 
 only joking and was very sure that I need fear nothin 
 from you. And now are we to have that invitation t 
 supper or will that bashful friend of mine be compel! 
 to go and rob a hen roost ?" 
 
 "Certainly, sir," said the trembling elderly woman. 
 She went into the house to prepare a meal and found 
 Merrill sitting moodily in the kitchen. He answered 
 roughly when she spoke to him and the woman went 
 quietly at work getting the meal. 
 
 Tracy was almost merry as they sat at the table. 
 They ate ravenously as a matter, of course, even 
 Tracy's assumed good manners could not restrai 
 them. The mother called the girl out of the nxx 
 presently and Merrill said : 
 
 "You'd better watch your friends, they've probably 
 gone out to get help." 
 
 "They'd have to get a whole lot of help to drive 
 me away from this," answered Tracy. "Besides, that 
 girl wouldn't move a step to have us taken at least 
 to have me taken. I don't think she's struck on you." 
 
 en 
 
 : 
 
 
TRACY, THE BANDIT. 141 
 
 "There's a couple of good horses in the stable and 
 some saddles," remarked Dave. "I suppose your good 
 manners will not allow you to take them/' 
 
 "I'll pay for them," said Harry. 
 
 "Now, Miss E-r-r what is your name?" Harry said 
 to the girl, who stood outside. 
 
 "Walters," she replied. 
 
 "Well, Miss Walters, I want to thank you for that 
 excellent meal but I'm afraid you won't think me 
 sincere when I tell you that my friend here insists on 
 borrowing a couple of your father's horses." 
 
 "A horse thief, too," said the girl boldly. 
 
 "Well I might be if necessary but I'm going to leave 
 a deposit with you for the return of the horses." He 
 took a small roll of bills from his pocket, part of 
 what they had taken from Martin and drew out a ten 
 dollar bill. "I won't take the horses far and they will 
 be returned to you I give you my word." 
 
 "I don't know about your word," said the girl. 
 
 "Then I'm afraid the money will have to speak for 
 me," said Tracy. Merrill led the horses out saddled. 
 The elderly woman began crying. 
 
 "I wouldn't take the horses but I can't help it," said 
 Tracy, "but I'll see that they come back if I have to 
 bring them myself." They jumped into the saddles, 
 Tracy raised his hat, Dave sat unmoved. 
 
 "Good evening," said the desperado. "I'm sorry I 
 can't leave you with a better impression of us/' The 
 girl turned away without answering. 
 
 "Seems good to be decent, once in a while, don't it 
 
142 TRACY, THE BANDIT. 
 
 Dave," said Tracy, presently. Merrill grunted. Tracy 
 looked hard at him. 
 
 "I think," he said slowly, that you and I are going to 
 have trouble, Dave/' he said after a while. The other 
 made no response. 
 
 They rode the horses hard all that night. The next 
 morning they left them tied by the roadside and on the 
 saddle of one was this note : 
 
 "Return these horses to Walters' place, near Ridge- 
 field, and receive ten dollars reward/' 
 
 With incredible cunning the men avoided the in- 
 numerable posses on the roads and that evening turned 
 off to a lonesome looking shanty just visible in the tim- 
 ber. The place had been occupied by a homesteader, 
 who was absent. It contained some scant furniture 
 and cooking utensils. Here they remained quiet for 
 four days, while the officers were scouring the country 
 looking for them. 
 
 Tracy walked into Lacenter one day and bought sup- 
 plies but was not recognized. 
 
 They started north again, stealing two horses out of 
 a barn near Lacenter. From a house they took a rifle 
 and some ammunition, while the owner was away. 
 
 Traveling through a thickly settled country they so 
 completely kept out of sight that it was thought they 
 had gone east towards the Cascades. They were 
 recognized near Chevalis on the morning of June 29, 
 and a posse sent after them. 
 
 Twenty men surrounded a thick bunch of timber 
 in which the bandits were hiding, but the members 
 
TRACY, THE BANDIT. 143 
 
 of the posse hesitated to approach, with the excep- 
 tion of one man. 
 
 His name was Warner. He pushed into the tim- 
 ber and came suddenly upon the outlaws. He was 
 greeted with a volley of bullets, and turning, fled. 
 His friends in ambush saw his coming, and think- 
 ing the desperadoes were trying to rush their line 
 they fired on Warner. The man escaped the bullets 
 of the outlaws but was shot by his friends. 
 
 During the night Tracy and Merrill left their 
 horses in the woods and crept through the line of 
 men watching them there were fifty in the cordon 
 by this time made their way to a farmhouse a 
 mile away, stole fresh horses and rode oil to the 
 north. 
 
J44 TRACY, THE BANDIT. 
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 A QUARREL THE DUEL A DASTARD SHOT THE 
 DEATH OF MERRILL. 
 
 Two men stood on the track of the Northern 
 Pacific railroad near the little town of Tenino in 
 the early morning of July 1. 
 
 They were travel worn and desperate looking. 
 Both carried rifles. Not a man or woman in the 
 country for a hundred miles about would have 
 recognized them for Tracy and Merrill, whose 
 audacity had kept every farmer and small store- 
 keeper on the qui vive for three weeks. 
 
 But the fullness of time had brought its revenge 
 and the day of doom had come for one of them. 
 
 Dave Merrill's face was gray in the morning 
 light. 
 
 "I tell you," he was saying, "that I am not going 
 into that town and that I am tired of being hunted 
 as though I were a dog." 
 
 "Well, you are a dog a cur, too, I think," said 
 Tracy. 
 
 "We would be better off if we were separated," 
 said Merrill. "Single handed we might have 
 chance to get out of the country but I don't thinl 
 you want to get away." 
 
 "I don't. I'll make some of those curs that are 
 
TRACY, THE BANDIT. 145 
 
 chasing me wish they had never been born. I won't 
 be taken and I'll make the state of Washington re- 
 member Harry Tracy as long as history is read." 
 
 "Then you can do it alone," said Merrill. 
 
 "Here comes a train, let's get out of this." In 
 silence they left the track, and passed into the tim- 
 ber for a mile, they continued on in a way that 
 would bring them around Tenino by making a de- 
 tour. 
 
 Tracy, who had remained persistently behind the 
 other, stopped as they came to an opening in the 
 forest. It was on the side of an elevation but the 
 ground was comparatively level. A few logs lying 
 about showed that the lumbermen had been busy 
 the previous winter. 
 
 Tracy sat down on a log with his rifle across his 
 knees. Merrill rested a few feet away. The sun 
 was coming up over the trees and the morning air 
 was heavy with a humid heat. Merrill shivered in 
 spite of the heat. 
 
 "What are you thinking of," asked Tracy. 
 
 "Of what we were talking. I tell you I am going 
 to give it up." 
 
 "You want to get over* to Seattle and make a 
 deal with Cudihee, I suppose." Cudihee was the 
 most energetic sheriff in the country, and the only 
 one for whom Tracy had any respect fear he did 
 not feel. 
 
 "You have no reason for thinking anything of the 
 kind," said Merrill. "D you, I'm as square as 
 

 146 TRACY, THE BANDIT. 
 
 you are. If I'd never seen you I wouldn't have been 
 in this fix." 
 
 "No, and if I hadn't been along you would still 
 have been rotting in the pen." 
 
 "I wish to God I was there now." 
 
 "Well, you ain't there, and you've got to stick to 
 me, or " the pause contained a menace that Mer- 
 rill felt. 
 
 "Or I suppose you'll take a shot at me," he con- 
 cluded. 
 
 "Well, yes, if you like." He fingered the trigger 
 of his rifle. 
 
 "I tell you we'd better divide lip," said Merrill, 
 sullenly. 
 
 Tracy eyed him for a minute. Then he said, very 
 calmly : 
 
 "If you don't get me I'll get you. Let's settle it 
 now." 
 
 Merrill looked up eagerly. 
 
 "You mean split." 
 
 "I mean that only one of us will leave this place." 
 
 They both stood up. Merrill's face was ghastly ; 
 Tracy was unperturbed, as though he proposed tc 
 steal a horse. 
 
 "What chance would I have with you?" he saic 
 trembling. 
 
 "I'll make it an even break. Come out here in the 
 sun, stand back to back. Cock your rifle, I wil 
 mine, walk ten paces and turn and shoot." 
 
 "My God, Harry, I can't do that." 
 
TRACY, THE BANDIT. 147 
 
 "If you don't I'll blow your block off where you 
 stand." 
 
 Merrill stepped out to where his companion in 
 crime stood. 
 
 Tracy said afterwards that he intended to give 
 Merrill an even chance. He admitted that he only 
 took the advantage that he did because he *stpected 
 surely that Merrill would. 
 
 "This is on the square, so help you God/' faltered 
 Dave. 
 
 "Yes, are you ready? They stood back to back. 
 Each carried his rifle in the right hand, the muzzle 
 down, the weapon cocked. 
 
 "One, two, three," counted Tracy. At the word 
 three he strode off on the left foot, Merrill did the 
 same. 
 
 Who can tell what thoughts filled the minds of 
 the men as they paced off on that awful march to 
 death. Tracy counting the steps aloud. What was 
 in the mind of Merrill ? Did he contemplate treach- 
 ery, was the ascendancy of the other so complete 
 that he feared to execute what he contemplated? 
 
 Tracy's keen ears were strained to hear the foot- 
 steps of the other. 
 
 "Six, seven," he counted slowly. 
 
 "Eight," he said calmly. 
 
 Then like a flash he turned. The movement 
 brought his rifle up on a straight line. He fired 
 from his side, with the right hand clasping his gun. 
 
 Merrill gave a frightful shriek, threw his hands 
 up, dropped his gun and fell on his back. 
 

 148 TRACY, THE BANDIT. 
 
 Tracy ran to give him a finishing shot if neces- 
 sary. It was not needed. The death rattle was in 
 Merrill's throat. The sun shone in his unseeing 
 eyes, but he felt the presence of his executioner. 
 Tracy pointed the gun at his head but hesitated. 
 
 "You cur/' said the dying man, "you treacherous 
 cur. Curse ." He gasped and was dead. Tracy 
 waited for a moment, then with the muzzle of his 
 rifle he straightened out one of the dead man's 
 legs, which was bent under him. 
 
 He stepped back from the body and looked at the 
 corpse. 
 
 "I thought that would have to be the finish," he 
 said. And turning he stepped out of the sunlight 
 and disappeared in the darkness of the forest. 
 
TRACY, THE BANDIT. 149 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 STEALING RELAYS OF HORSES SIX MEN HELD UP 
 TRACY TURNS PIRATE AND CAPTURES A LAUNCH. 
 
 There was nothing in Tracy's manner to indicate 
 that he had left that dread object lying with eyes 
 I staring into the sky, behind him in the woods when, 
 twenty minutes after shooting Merrill, the bandit 
 emerged from the woods onto the road beside the 
 Northern Pacific tracks, just outside of Tenino, and 
 stopped a passing horseman. 
 
 His manner was careless, even debonair as he 
 threw his rifle into position over the hollow of his 
 arm and commanded the horseman to halt. 
 
 "I don't know who you are," said Tracy, "but I 
 need that horse. You duck." 
 
 The bandit's manner left no room for argument 
 and the rider dismounted. 
 
 "Got any change about you ?" Tracy said. 
 
 The man who was a farm hand, said with trem- 
 bling lips that he had not. Tracy thrust his rifle 
 barrel against the man's chest, pushing him out of 
 the way, then mounted and rode north. 
 
 That same afternoon he stopped a man in a buggy 
 driving a, horse and stopped him with a careless: 
 "I need that horse. Unhitch." 
 
 The man gave some sign of resisting and Tracy 
 
150 TRACY, THE BANDIT. 
 
 fired a shot from a revolver through the back of 
 the seat against which he was leaning. There was 
 no more difficulty, and under the bandit's direction, 
 the driver unhitched his horse, which was fresh, 
 and Tracy exchanged with him. - 
 
 All Olympia was talking of or looking for Tracy 
 that night, when the murderer arrived in the town. 
 
 He turned his horse loose in the suburbs and 
 walked through the town, stopping at several 
 saloons and taking as many drinks and went on 
 unmolested to the southern suburbs. He slept in 
 a barn that night, but something aroused him before 
 daylight and he walked down to South Bay. On 
 the shore of the bay a half dozen men in the employ 
 of the Capital City Oyster company were at work, 
 having just turned out. 
 
 In a tent two men were at work getting breakfast 
 for the rest. A few feet away a gasoline launch 
 was tied to the wharf. 
 
 Tracy's coming was rather unnoticed, or no at- 
 tention was paid to him, for he was standing beside 
 the tent, the sides of which were rolled up, when 
 he spoke first. 
 
 "Sorry to interfere with the game, boys, but I 
 suppose I'll have to line you up. I'm Tracy." 
 
 At the mention of the name the men threw up 
 their hands with one accord and he made them stand 
 in line, facing the tent. 
 
 " Breakfast ready?" he inquired of one of the 
 cooks. 
 
 "Not quite," the man said. 
 
TRACY, THE BANDIT. 15l 
 
 "Well there's no use of starving you fellows, and 
 I'm hungry myself, so you'd better come and finish 
 up." 
 
 The robber sat down at the end of the mess table 
 within the tent, where he had the standing line 
 easily under command, and while the cook was 
 putting the food on the table, joked with Captain 
 Clark, who was in charge of the oyster men. As 
 he sat down to breakfast he laid his rifle across his 
 knees and said : 
 
 "There's no use of you fellows being -uncomfort- 
 able. You might as well put your hands down. I 
 don't suppose there's a gun in the bunch?" 
 
 He ate voraciously and when he had finished went 
 outside and ordered the men to go and take their 
 breakfasts. 
 
 "You better make it a good one," he said. "We're 
 going on a long cruise." 
 
 Breakfast over, he to-ok his place in the bow of 
 the launch and after ordering Captain Clark to tie 
 up two of the men and put them in the tent, the 
 other four, including Clark, he ordered to take 
 seats in the stern of the launch, and added : 
 
 "Now Cap, you lay your course for Tacoma. I'm 
 going to drop in and see the sheriff there." 
 
 The engine was started and the boat got under way. 
 
 Tracy's mood changed frequently during the day. 
 He kept up a running conversation with Clark and the 
 other men, but at times became so threatening in his 
 aspect that the men were terrified lest he should take 
 it into his head to scuttle the launch. 
 
152 TRACY, THE BANDIT. 
 
 "If it wasn't too much trouble to run this d 
 
 thing," he said, "I'd just put you fellows out of the 
 way to prevent you talking when we get ashore." 
 
 Captain Clark humored the man by his ready wit 
 and undoubtedly avoided a wholesale butchery. On 
 one occasion the engine got out of order and Tracy 
 apparently forgetting the fact that he might be seized 
 and overpowered by numbers, good naturedly went to 
 work with the men and fixed it. So thoroughly had he 
 cowed them, however, that no attempt was made to 
 seize the pirate. 
 
 It was getting late as the boat neared McNeil's 
 island, where the Washington prison is located, but the 
 guards upon the frowning walls could be made out 
 easily enough. 
 
 "Run in close to the island, Cap/' Tracy commanded, 
 "I want to take a shot at one of those guards." 
 
 "What's the use, Tracy," said Clark, "They've got 
 more ammunition than you have. And they might 
 turn loose with a rapid-fire gun/' 
 
 "That's so," acquiesced the desperado, "and by the 
 way, I guess I'll go on to Seattle." 
 
 The course of the launch was changed but they were 
 making too much headway and Tracy ordered several 
 stops. 
 
 "I don't want to get in before dark," he said. 
 
 It was after dark when they landed on the beach a 
 few miles north of the city. Making the men step 
 ashore first, Tracy called out to Frank Scott, one of 
 the crew : 
 
 "I'll have to ask you to tie up your pals here. Sorry 
 
TRACY, THE BANDIT. 153 
 
 to do it, Cap," he added, addressing Clark. "You've 
 been pretty decent with me and I'll try to square my- 
 self some day, but I don't want you to beat me into 
 Seattle." 
 
 He examined the knots tied by Scott and then re- 
 marked: * 
 
 "I guess I'll need you, Frank, come along with me," 
 and he made the man go before him as far as the rail- 
 road track. 
 
 "I'm ashamed of myself to be so chicken-hearted," 
 he said, "but I'm going to turn you loose," and he sent 
 Scott back to the launch. 
 
 Within an hour the authorities of Seattle were in- 
 formed by Captain Clark of the arrival of Tracy. 
 Sheriff John Cudihee, a fearless and capable officer, 
 had declared that if Tracy ever landed in Kings county 
 in which Seattle is situated, that he would get him. 
 Cudihee was absent when the news arrived, but Deputy 
 Sheriff Jack Williams at once collected a number of 
 deputies and started to look for Tracy's trail. 
 
154 TRACY, THE BANDIT. 
 
 CHAPTER XXVII. 
 
 THE BATTLE OF* BOTHELL TRACY AGAINST A POSSE 
 KILLS TWO MEN, WOUNDS TWO, AND ESCAPES. 
 
 In the party that started out with Jack Williams 
 looking for Tracy's trail that night, there were six 
 men who knew how and were not afraid to fight and 
 two who were determined to be in at the death and 
 they assumed there would be a death. The latter two 
 were reporters, Carl Anderson and Louis Seef rit, 
 
 Williams himself had had plenty of experience as 
 an officer in border fights and could shoot straight and 
 fast. Among his deputies was Charles Raymond, of 
 Snohomish county, another man who had seen fighting 
 on the frontier, both with toughs and Indians. Two 
 police officers and two other deputies made up the 
 posse proper, and they were followed by a number of 
 stragglers willing to take a chance in getting part of 
 the reward offered for the killing or capture of the 
 outlaw. 
 
 They found the bandit's trail three miles north of 
 Seattle and by daylight the next morning knew they 
 were somewhere close to him. Early in the morning 
 he stopped a boy on the road and sent him into Seattle 
 to procure ammunition for his Winchester, but was 
 obliged to take to the timber before the messenger re- 
 turned. 
 
TRACY, THE BANDIT. 155 
 
 Tracy procured breakfast at a house near Bothell 
 and word was got to Williams' party that he was mak- 
 ing his way north. 
 
 At two o'clock in the afternoon the posse emerging 
 from the suburban town of Bothell, on a northern road, 
 were surprised by a shot from the heart of a piece of 
 waste land covered with scrub timber and tall weeds. 
 
 With the exception of Williams, Raymond and 
 another man, the members of the pursuing party dis- 
 mounted. 
 
 Williams stood up in his stirrups and called out : 
 
 "You'd better surrender, Tracy. We've got you 
 rounded up this time." 
 
 For answer Tracy stood up, his head being visible 
 above the weeds and fired at Williams, who had his 
 rifle presented for instant action. The bullet struck 
 the rifle barrel and deflected, hitting Williams in the 
 breast and penetrating his lung. He fell from his 
 horse and died a few days later. 
 
 The members of the posse fired a volley at the spot 
 where Tracy had been standing, but the bandit moved 
 about with incredible rapidity, his rifle almost con- 
 stantly in action and the reports coming from widely 
 divergent spots. 
 
 "The fellow shoots like a company in skirmish/' re- 
 marked Seefrit, one of the reporters. At the instant 
 a bullet struck him in the shoulder and put him out of 
 the engagement. 
 
 Raymond, who remained mounted, was firing rapid- 
 ly at the smoke of Tracy's shots. He hoped to get a 
 sight of the outlaw and plant a bullet that would be 
 
156 TRACY, THE BANDIT. 
 
 effective. His temerity cost him his life, for Tracy, 
 rising out of the shrubbery within a score of yards of 
 the deputy, shot him through the head, then turned 
 and wounded Anderson, who had taken a position in 
 plain sight where he could view the combat. 
 
 The number of casualties, the unerring accuracy of 
 the bandit's aim, had a shilling effect upon the attack- 
 ing party and the members drew off to take care of 
 their wounded. 
 
 Taking advantage of the lull, the outlaw, at whom 
 more than 1,00 shots had been fired in vain, crept off 
 through the weeds and escaped unscathed. 
 
 When the report of the battle and its results reached 
 Tacoma, Sheriff Cudihee made up his mind that Tracy 
 should not be allowed to get away from the neigh- 
 borhood of Seattle. 
 
 He wired the facts briefly to Governor McBride, who 
 promptly placed the state militia at the disposal of the 
 sheriff and offered a reward of $5,000 for the capture 
 of Tracy, dead or alive. 
 
 Cudihee was more nearly a match for Tracy than any 
 of the numerous men who had started to effect his 
 capture or kill the outlaw. Cunning in the wiles of 
 frontier warfare, fearless to a degree, a dead shot and 
 capable of dealing with the desperado on his own 
 terms and on his own ground, it was to be expected 
 that the Seattle sheriff would give a good account of 
 himself. 
 
 Taking two men with him he found Tracy's trail and 
 followed it in the direction of Freemont. Here he 
 met with awkward interference on the part of the 
 
TRACY, THE BANDIT. 157 
 
 local police, who insisted on attaching themselves to 
 his posse. Policemen Breez and Rawley joined the 
 sheriff in spite of his protests. 
 
 "We know the fellow and we'll get him. He's at 
 Van Horn's house," Breez said. 
 
 As a matter of fact the outlaw had taken possession 
 of a house belonging to a Mrs. Van Horn, standing in 
 the midst of an isolated farm. Surrounding a clear- 
 ing in which the house was located was a belt of 
 dense timber. Mrs. Van Horn was alone in the house 
 when Tracy arrived, and terrified by the threats of 
 the bandit had provided him with food and he was 
 still there when Cudihee arrived. 
 
 The sheriff was driving in a buggy and behind him, 
 on foot, came policemen Breez and Rawley. 
 
 "You f ellows'll get your heads blowed off if he gets 
 a shot at you. You'd better let me deal with him," 
 said Sheriff Cudihee. 
 
 The men said they would, and hid themselves near 
 the edge of the timber. Cudihee drove about a hun- 
 dred yards past the house, until his vehicle was hid- 
 den by the timber, then got down and crept back. 
 
 He had supposed that Tracy was alone with Mrs. 
 Van Horn in the house, but, fortune favoring the 
 outlaw, as usual, two farm hands had arrived a few 
 minutes before the coming of the posse. 
 
 Tracy was not blind to what was going on and 
 did not want to be trapped in the building. 
 
 Cudihee lay concealed one hundred yards or so 
 from the front door of the house when Tracy came 
 
158 TRACY, THE BANDIT. 
 
 out with a man on each side of him. The outlaw 
 carried his rifle ready for action. 
 
 Cudihee maneuvered to get the drop on Tracy 
 before showing himself and was already in position 
 to get his man when Rawley and Breez dashed out 
 of the timber and shouted in unison: 
 
 "Throw up your hands, Tracy." 
 
 Before the sound had died away both men were 
 stretched on the ground with bullets in their brains. 
 
 With that frightful certainty of aim that was one 
 of his most distinguished characteristics, Tracy had 
 killed both of them in the same instant. 
 
 His movements had disconcerted the aim of the 
 sheriff and Tracy, dodging about and keeping the 
 farm hands close beside him, made it impossible for 
 Cudihee to get a fair shot at him before he reached 
 the timber. The men who had been shielding Tracy 
 at last threw themselves on the ground in response 
 to the command of Cudihee and a volley of shots 
 followed Tracy into the thick covert of timber. 
 
 In the uproar following the death of the two men 
 and the miscellaneous fire Tracy again made good 
 his escape, v 
 
TRACY, THE BANDIT. 1J9 
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII. 
 
 A STRENUOUS FOURTH OF JULY TRACY AGAIN BREAKS 
 
 THROUGH A CORDON OF MILITIA HOLDS UP 
 
 THE JOHNSON FAMILY. 
 
 The celebration of Independence Day in Washing- 
 ton did not lack for excitement, though some hun- 
 dred of citizens were deprived of the ordinary pleas- 
 ures of the day by reason of the disturbed state of 
 public feeling, caused by the pursuit of Tracy. 
 
 One hundred members of the National Guard 
 were taken into the field to effect the capture of 
 the desperado. His movements were so rapid and 
 uncertain that it was almost impossible to follow 
 them, but the troops, stationed across a stretch of 
 country, into which Tracy was being driven by 
 Sheriff Cudihee and his men, formed what was 
 thought to be an impassable barrier to the bandit's 
 progress. 
 
 Cudihee's hunt had become systematic. Deploy- 
 ing men on each side for considerable distance, he 
 put a pack of bloo'd hounds on Tracy's trail. 
 
 The trail was picked up fresh on the morning of 
 the Fourth at a farmhouse where the outlaw had 
 stopped and commanded breakfast. 
 
 At that time the pursuers were not more than an 
 
160 TRACY, THE BANDIT. 
 
 hour behind Tracy and the hounds took readily 
 enough to the scent. 
 
 The country was wooded and dry, and, although 
 the quarry could plainly hear the dogs, he found 
 no opportunity to destroy the scent by taking to 
 swamp or stream. 
 
 He moved rapidly and was not caught sight of 
 although the hounds were keen on the trail, until 
 eleven o'clock, when they suddenly gave tip the 
 scent and refused ta work. 
 
 His devilish cunning had led the fugitive to the 
 one means of safety. He passed close to a farm- 
 house in the doorway of which a woman was stand- 
 ing. 
 
 Dashing up to the door he thrust the frightened 
 woman aside, went into the kitchen and said : 
 
 "Have you any pepper?" 
 
 The woman pointed to a shelf on the wall and 
 Tracy seized upon a can oi red pepper. Running 
 to the roadway, which was dry and hard, he walked 
 rapidly along, scattering the pepper in his tracks 
 at intervals. Then, taking to the timber, he worked 
 his way to the west and stopping a straggling mem- 
 ber of one of the posse, disarmed and dismounted 
 the man and took his horse. 
 
 Towards evening he caught .sight of the uniforms 
 of the militiamen who barred his path. Guessing 
 that his escape would be cut off to the right or 
 left, he made up his mind to essay one of those 
 dramatic climaxes which he was fond of indulging 
 in, and break through the military line. He no 
 
TRACY, THE BANDIT. 161 
 
 longer heard the dogs, who had left the trail when 
 they found it hot with pepper; and he concealed 
 himself to wait for darkness. 
 
 Leading his horse in the dark, he made his way 
 cautiously to within a few yards of the line of 
 guards. Then making a tremendous row by shout- 
 ing and shooting he frightened the horse into a mad 
 run in the direction of the soldiers. 
 
 They, alert and anticipating a dash from the robr 
 ber, riddled the horse with bullets, many of them 
 running to the scene of the disturbance and leav- 
 ing a break in the line through which Tracy easily 
 made his way without opposition. 
 
 Reaching the shore he was looking about for a 
 boat wheft another Japanese fisherman had the 
 misfortune to meet him. Tracy promptly held him 
 up and compelled him to get a boat and row him 
 across the Sound to Port Madison. 
 
 John Johnson and his family, including* a hired 
 man named John Anderson, were at breakfast the 
 next morning when a mud-covered figure appeared 
 at the door and, thrusting a rifle into the room, 
 commanded the family, roughly, to leave the table. 
 
 Directing Anderson to take a cord and tie John- 
 son's hands, the intruder then ordered the woman 
 and children out of doors and seated himself at the 
 table. 
 
 Tracy, for it was he, spent the entire day at the 
 Johnson house, resting and planning his further 
 progress. He compelled Anderson to bring out all 
 of Johnson's clothing and his own and selected a 
 
162 TRACY, THE BANDIT. 
 
 fresh supply for himself. Incidentally he bathed, 
 and shaved himself, and stole four watches. 
 
 Tracy was in good humor when he left Johnson's 
 house that night. He had studied the situation and 
 felt that his hope of escape lay in reaching the 
 mainland and getting to the interior as fast as- 
 possible. 
 
 "Anderson," he said, "how'd you like to hire out 
 tome?" 
 
 Anderson, who was a big Swede and who lived in 
 such a remote district that the fame of Tracy had 
 not reached it, not knowing his visitor, said : 
 
 "Ay tank ay got pooty good yob here," and grin- \ 
 ned. 
 
 "Well, I think you'll get another yob," said Tracy. 
 "Come along with me." 
 
 Anderson protested and Tracy hit him brutally ; 
 over the head with the barrel of his rifle. That; 
 was all the conquering Anderson needed. He found 
 a boat and rowed Tracy over to the mainland, in i 
 the direction of Seattle. 
 
 The waters about Seattle were full of tugs and 
 steamers carrying scores of deputies and volunteers, ; 
 looking for traces of the bandit. Even a United j 
 States revenue cutter had been pressed into service 
 and the water front was alive with men, engaged in : 
 that most exciting of pursuits a man hunt. 
 
 On reaching the shore near Seattle, Tracy made 
 his way to the timber, keeping Anderson with him, 
 though for what purpose is not known. 
 
TRACY, THE BANDIT. 163 
 
 That night he tied the unfortunate Swede in an 
 upright position to a tree. 
 
 It was uncomfortable for Anderson but Tracy 
 slept. 
 
 In the morning Tracy released Anderson, hid his 
 rifle and started on a detour that would carry him 
 around Seattle. For three days he kept ^Anderson 
 with him, the two being frequently seen. Wearing 
 as he did, the clothes he had taken from Johnson's 
 house, his face recently shaved, there was nothing 
 in Tracy's appearance to suggest the bedraggled 
 and desperate looking outlaw he was when last 
 seen by his pursuers on the mainland. Scores of 
 people saw the two men and they stopped at many 
 houses where Tracy paid for food. 
 
164 TRACY, THE BANDIT. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIX. 
 
 A WANTON SHOT THE CAPTURE OF THE JERROLDS. 
 
 Tracy was first recognized by those who were 
 seeking for his life in the neighborhood of Renton, 
 south of Seattle. 
 
 He held up a man in the outskirts of Renton and 
 got into conversation with him. The man had no 
 money but Tracy took a Seattle paper from him and 
 read there that he was being hunted by some hun- 
 dreds of men and the sheriffs of Kitsap, Kings, 
 Pierce, Snohomish and Jefferson counties. 
 
 He found that he had unwittingly passed through 
 posses which lined every road, and the members of 
 which believed that the entire country was so pro- 
 tected that it would be impossible for him to re- 
 turn to the mainland without being captured. 
 
 He read that the revenue cutter, Grant, and the 
 government launch, Scout, had been loaded with 
 men picked for service in the woo-ds and expected to 
 land them for work in the wilds of Kitsaj) county. 
 
 'That helps some/' Tracy remarked. "I don't 
 think I have any immediate business in Kitsap 
 county. I can see where I need a gun. Have you 
 got a gun?" he asked the man. The man stupidly 
 
 
TRACY, THE BANDIT. 165 
 
 said that a neighbor of his who lived a few. hundred 
 yards up the road had a rifle. 
 
 "Show me the place," said Tracy. Forcing An- 
 derson to go with him he made the Rentonite to 
 knock at the door and when it was opened led his 
 captives in. The rifle he wanted was hanging on 
 the wall and there was a pile of cartridges on a 
 shelf. Without waiting to draw a weapon Tracy 
 walked to the wall and took down the rifle and 
 helped himself to the cartridges. 
 
 The owner of the house attempted to interfere 
 and was knocked down. Tracy led Anderson out in- 
 to the darkness and disappeared. 
 
 Tracy told Anderson he was looking for trouble. 
 The farm hand plead with him for his liberty and 
 the bandid told Him he would show him something 
 of life. They were walking along by the side of 
 the railroad track in the early morning when a man 
 appeared walking along the track carrying a rifle. 
 ^Tracy at once stepped out on the track and met the 
 man face to face. 
 
 "Heard anything of Tracy !" asked the stranger. 
 
 "Not a line," said Tracy. "Whose outfit do you 
 belong to?" 
 . "Cudihee's." 
 
 "Well, good luck." The amateur thief hunter 
 went on down the track. He had gone about a 
 hundred yards when it occurred to Tracy that he 
 ought to have a shot at him. He drew a revolver 
 and fired one shot. It missed the deputy and he 
 
166 TRACY, THE BANDIT. 
 
 looked around. Tracy was aiming to fire another 
 shot and the deputy fled to the woods. 
 
 Just before noon Tracy and Anderson saw tww 
 women picking berries in the woods. Tracy ad- 
 dressed the women pleasantly and asked them if 
 they lived in the neighborhood. The younger one, 
 Miss May Baker, of Seattle, answered: 
 
 "I don't know that it's any of your business 
 where we live." 
 
 Her companion was Mrs. McKinney, also of Seat- 
 tle. 
 
 "Now I hope you ladies are going to be pleasant," 
 said Tracy; "because I'm going to ask you to lead us 
 to the nearest house." 
 
 There was something menacing in his tone and 
 the women, followed by Anderson, Tracy bringing 
 up the rear, made their way to a house about a mile 
 and a half from Renton, owned by Charles Jerrold, 
 a contractor. 
 
 The only person in the house was Thomas Jerrold, 
 a 17-year-old boy and his mother. Driving his 
 prisoners ahead of him, Tracy entered the kitchen 
 of the house and told Mrs. Jerrold he had brought 
 her some visitors and they would want something 
 to eat. He produced a strap with which he tied 
 Anderson's hands and seated him in a corner. The 
 women huddled together at one side of the room and 
 Tracy, after looking out of the door which com- 
 manded a view of the railroad tracks, called the boy 
 outside and producing two watches, one gold and 
 the other silver, which he had taken from the farm- 
 
TRACY, THE BANDIT. 167 
 
 er Johnson at Port Madison, said to young Jerrold : 
 "Now, my name is Tracy. I want you to do an 
 errand for me. You take these two watches, go into 
 Seattle and pawn them. Buy two Cold revolvers, 
 six-inch barrels, and* 100 cartridges. I'll write it 
 down. If you ain't back here by dark Fm going to 
 cut your mother's throat." 
 
 He started the frightened boy off. Young Jerrold 
 went into Renton and told a deputy, whom he met, 
 that Tracy was at his house. The news was tele- 
 phoned to Seattle and Cudihee's men were directed 
 to surround the place. 
 
168 TRACY, THE BANDIT. 
 
 CHAPTER XXX. 
 
 SAVED AGAIN RY A WOMAN A POSSE FOILED 
 
 Tracy spent the afternoon with the three women 
 and evidently sought to make an impression on Miss 
 Baker, a very self-possessed young woman. He in- 
 sisted that the ladies eat lunch with hi$i, and sat 
 where he could command a view of the railroad 
 track. He was sitting there unmoved when a special 
 train containing a crowd of deputies passed along 
 the track. 
 
 "There goes a bunch looking for me," he said, 
 smilingly. "I know they're deputies, because I 
 recognized a red haired reporter with them." 
 
 "Then don't you think you'd better go?" said Miss 
 Baker. 
 
 "Oh, I know they wouldn't be impolite enough to 
 disturb me when I'm in such good company," said 
 Tracy. 
 
 By way of making conversation Miss Baker asked 
 him why he wore a moustache. 
 
 "Why do you ask," he inquired. 
 
 "Because I don't like a man with a moustache," 
 she answered. 
 
 "Then I'll have to get a razor," he rejoined. 
 
 "Have you had your picture taken lately?" a$ked 
 the girl. 
 
TRACY, THE BANDIT, 169 
 
 "Well, not for about three years," he answered. 
 "But that's because I'm modest. I've had lots of 
 chances to have it taken, for every time I meet up 
 with a bunch of deputies there is always a reporter 
 ahead of the troop carrying a camera and trying to 
 get a snap-shot. I seem to be popular." 
 
 Tracy made himself agreeable at the table and re- 
 marked as the meal was finished: 
 
 "You know I like this. It seems just like home." 
 
 "You spoiled our berry-picking," complained Miss 
 Baker. 
 
 "Well, we'll all go berry-picking in a minute," 
 said Tracy. 
 
 "But we'll be late in getting home," objected 
 Miss Baker. 
 
 Tracy promised to steal the best buggy in the 
 neighborhood and drive her home. 
 
 "I don't know about that," said Miss Baker. "I 
 hardly think we'd enjoy the drive with deputies 
 shooting at us." 
 
 "But surely they wouldn't be impolite enough to 
 shoot at me when I was in the company of ladies. 
 Besides you wouldn't mind a little thing like that, 
 would you ?" 
 
 "O no, we'd like to get killed for you I don't 
 think," said the girl. 
 
 While this conversation was going on the swarm 
 of deputies coming up the track had entirely sur- 
 rounded the house. Every avenue of escape seemed 
 to be closed to the outlaw, but he sat much more 
 
170 TRACY, THE BANDIT. 
 
 unconcerned .than the women in whose company he 
 was. 
 
 A deputy coming from the timber walked toward 
 the open door of the house. Tracy saw him coming 
 and stepped into another room from which he could 
 command a view of the front room without being 
 seen. He took Anderson with him. 
 
 "Tell him there's nobody here," he said to Miss 
 Baker. 
 
 He stood rifle in hand where he could see her and 
 aimed the gun deliberately at her. The girl did 
 not falter and as the man reached the door and 
 asked : 
 
 "Is Tracy here?" she replied: 
 
 "Why should he be here?" 
 
 The deputy turned away without making further 
 inquiry. Tracy soon after left the house by the rear 
 and went unnoticed down the river, having warned 
 the women in the meantime to make no disturbance 
 that he would be back. The woods were full of 
 men but he was not observed and returned in a few 
 minutes. He had some straps with him when he 
 came back, and, leading Anderson out of the house, 
 he took him to a chickencoop and fastened him to a 
 post. 
 
 He returned again to the house, bared his head, 
 and said: 
 
 "Goodbye, -ladies; I thank you. It was just like 
 home." 
 
 He walked, crouching, down to the river and 
 
TRACY, THE BANDIT. 171 
 
 turned into a field beside the house filled with reeds 
 and shrubs. 
 
 When he reached the middle of the field he stood 
 up and could be plainly seen. 
 
 The eyes of 100 deputies saw the man stand up 
 but they all thought him a member of the posse. 
 Crouching again he made his way to the river bank 
 and crept silently through the underbrush. A 
 couple of reporters standing on the railroad track, 
 saw him and made the comment: 
 
 "There goes one of those fool deputies. Tracy'll 
 get him." 
 
 The quiet of the summer evening was broken by 
 the baying of the bloodhounds, which had been 
 brought up to put on Tracy's trail, as he emerged 
 from the brush along side of deputy sheriff who held 
 a saddled horse. 
 
 Before the man was aware of his presence, Tracy 
 brought the barrel of his rifle crashing down on the 
 unfortunate man's skull. Then he mounted the 
 horse and dashed away. 
 
172 TRACY, THE BANDIT, 
 
 CHAPTER XXXI. 
 
 THE WOODS FULL OF DEPUTIES. 
 
 That Harry Tracy escaped death or capture that 
 night is the greatest tribute to his cunning and 
 knowledge of men and woodcraft. The woods were 
 fairly full of men, every one armed and all inspired 
 by the desire for revenge or gain, bent upon taking 
 the life of the desperado. 
 
 Sheriff Cudihee and the sheriffs operating with 
 him had sent not less than two hundred deputies to 
 the neighborhood of the Jerrold house. They had 
 almost completely encircled the place and under 
 the direction of Deputy Sheriff McLellan every pos- 
 sible emergency, it was thought, had been provided 
 for. Still he got away. 
 
 But he had not got off entirely free. 
 
 Attracted by the report that the bandit was sur- 
 rounded, men were flocking to the place from all 
 direction. Tracy rode toward Cedar Mountain and 
 was seen by a telegraph operator who sent word to 
 the sheriffs. 
 
 Within a half mile of Cedar Mountain, he came 
 unexpectedly on a posse. They fired at him and 
 shot the horse from under the desperado. 
 
 Tracy dropped behind the horse and poured such 
 
TRACY, THE BANDIT. 173 
 
 a terrible fire into the group that the men fairly 
 melted away, two of their number being wounded. 
 
 Again he slipped away into the forbidding dark- 
 ness of the forest, which offered the only possible 
 avenue of safety to him. 
 
 The bloodhounds were brought up and put upon 
 the trail again. Following the hounds was a pack 
 of men numbering nearly two hundred all of whom 
 were even more intent upon his blood than the dogs 
 were. Tracy told many people with whom he came 
 in contact afterwards that the only fear he ever felt 
 was when he heard the baying of the hounds. It 
 made him shudder, he said. 
 
174 TRACY, THE BANDIT. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXII. 
 
 A DASH FOR THE WILDERNESS. 
 
 He doubled about on his track and on one oc- 
 casion was so close to the dogs that he only escaped 
 by jumping a chasm, putting the brutes at fault, 
 though the man himself was almost in sight of 
 his pursuers and could plainly hear their voices. 
 
 Clambering over rocks he saw a light in the house, 
 of a farmer named Feek. His evident intention was 
 to reach the house and get a horse and even this 
 desperate intention led him to one of those strange 
 freaks of fortune which he was always so quick to 
 take advantage of. 
 
 As he approached the house Feek saw him and 
 shot at him at short range. Tracy returned the 
 fire, but did no damage. Believing it useless to at- 
 tempt to get a horse from a house that was guarded 
 he turned off down a declivity and found himself on 
 the edge of a swamp. 
 
 With a sense of relief he plunged into the sedgy 
 morass and presently arrived at a comparatively 
 open body of water through which he waded. It 
 was only by the most desperate effort that he freed 
 himself from the clinging mud at the bottom of 
 the swamp, but when he again reached firm ground 
 
TRACY, THE BANDIT. 175 
 
 his trail was completely last to the dogs and he had 
 a fair start away from his pursuers. 
 
 Finding a horse in the pasture he improvised a 
 bridle by tying a bit of string about the animal's 
 jaw and was off to the east. 
 
 He had defeated Cudihee's army as completely as 
 though he had routed the sheriff by force of num- 
 bers. 
 
 But the escape inspired Tracy with a knowledge 
 of the certainty of death or capture if he remained in 
 the vicinity of the coast cities. 
 
 Again he disappeared and was not heard of for 
 two days. During that time he saw no living being, 
 or at least, was not seen to be recognized. He suf- 
 fered hunger and deprivation, even compelled him- 
 self to forego the ferocious pleasure of pitting him- 
 self against his fellow man, in the hope of getting 
 into a less populous district. 
 
 It was near Kent that he felt impelled to secure 
 food and additional arms. He had lost his rifle in 
 the flight from Renton and had but one revolver. 
 
 He appeared in the doorway of the house of E. 
 M. Johnson, near Kent about noon. He presented a 
 frightful appearance. He had on a slouch hat, cor- 
 duroy coat, canvas trousers and boots and was in- 
 crusted in mud from head to foot. The natural 
 ferocity of his countenance shone out of the grime 
 on his face. In his right hand he held a revolver. 
 
 Johnson and his family were at dinner. 
 
 "Get away from that table and let me eat," com- 
 manded Tracy. 
 
176 TRACY, THE BANDIT. 
 
 The people terrified at the frightful apparition 
 in the door, obeyed, and stepping to the table, Tracy 
 greedily devoured what food there was in sight, John- 
 son, his wife and their three children looking on and 
 anticipating the worst. 
 
 When he had appeased in some measure the pangs 
 of hunger Tracy looked at Johnson and said in a hard 
 tone: 
 
 "I suppose you know me. I'm Tracy. I'll tell you 
 what I want you to do. You go into Tacoma and buy 
 me a 45 Colt's revolver and two hundred cartridges. 
 You ought to be back here in six hours. If you are 
 not back, or if I see any sign that you have betrayed 
 me I will cut the throats of that woman and those kids 
 and set fire to the house before I leave. And remem- 
 ber that I keep my word. Now go." 
 
 In terrified haste Johnson saddled a horse and 
 went away protesting that he would obey the out- 
 law to the letter. Tracy locked the doors of the 
 house, called for water, washed and shaved himself, 
 put on Johnson's best clothes and awaited the man's 
 return, keeping the trembling woman and the chil- 
 dren in the room with him all the time. Johnson 
 returned within the prescribed time with the re- 
 volver and so impressed was he by the threats of the 
 bandits that he said nothing of the occurrence until 
 the next day. 
 
 Again Tracy disappeared and a few days later 
 was seen near Covington. He was surrounded by a 
 posse and instead of remaining in the woods and 
 
* TRACY, THE BANDIT. 177 
 
 fighting he baldly took to the railroad tracks, as- 
 suming that the deputies would not recognize him 
 because of his changed appearance. 
 
 He was right, for although halted by Deputies J. 
 A. and F. C. Bunce who inquired who he was, he 
 replied: "I'm Anderson," and walked carelessly 
 past. It dawned upon the Bunce brothers after he 
 had gone that they had let Tracy slip through their 
 hands. They fired at him with shotguns and 
 wounded him in the back. A few minutes later he 
 met another deputy named Crowe, who was in hid- 
 ing alongside the railroad embankment. 
 
 "Who goes there," called Crowe, throwing his 
 rifle to his shoulder. 
 
 "A deputy," replied Tracy. 
 
 Crowe lowered his rifle and walked toward the 
 man, when Tracy drew a revolver and fired at him 
 three times. It was the new weapon and his aim was 
 disconcerted. Crowe was so close that the power 
 blinded him and he fell. Tracy went on and dis- 
 appeared. 
 
 A few miles further east he boarded a railroad 
 train and rode for nearly a hundred miles without 
 being recognized. 
 
 In the meantime the country behind him was 
 teeming with men hunting for him. Farmers left 
 their homes, taking with them covered wagons and 
 camp equipage. They had made a business of hunt- 
 ing Tracy. In many sections farm work was en- 
 tirely suspended while the hunt went on. 
 
 For weeks this remarkable state of affairs con- 
 
178 
 
 TRACY, THE BANDIT. 
 
 tmued, the whole people engaged in the hunting 
 down of one man who by his infernal ingenuity 
 and ferocious qualities had terrorized a state. 
 
 Tracy was in comparative security in the east- 
 ern part of the state before it was known that he 
 had got away from the coast country. 
 
TRACY, THE BANDIT. 179 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIII. 
 
 AN AMATEUR SURGEON TRACY RIDES A BIKE. 
 
 Tracy was tired of the struggle. The lust for 
 blood and the joy of the strife departed from him when 
 he felt the hiss of the hot shot in his flesh as he left 
 the Bunce brothers. 
 
 He had made up his mind to reach the "Hole-in-the- 
 Wall" country where he had assurance of meeting with 
 kindred spirits and acquaintances among the desperate 
 band of that desplate region. 
 
 Observing that he was attracting attention on the 
 train, and fearing recognition he left it at a water tank 
 and made off to the woods in a southeasterly direction. 
 He' was lost in the recesses of the forest for a couple 
 of days but the pain from his wound and the danger 
 that he apprehended from blood poisoning, compelled 
 him to seek human aid. 
 
 He found a lonely woodman and told him that he had 
 been injured by the accidental discharge of a shot gun. 
 Removing his clothes, he gave the man James Sum- 
 mers a knife and asked him to cut the shot out of his 
 back. Summers went after the job timidly, and Tracy 
 cried out : 
 
 "Go on man, cut deep. You won't hurt me." 
 
 He remained with Summers for three days, but his 
 
180 TRACY, THE BANDIT. 
 
 natural bravado got the better of his discretion and he 
 could not refrain from telling his host who he was. 
 The confidence proved fatal, for a few hours after 
 he left Summers* shanty that section of the statS 
 was aroused and up in arms. 
 
 Not knowing that the pursuit was organized, again 
 Tracy made his way slowly across the country, re- 
 fraining from acts of violence. When he asked for 
 food he was willing to pay for it and cheerfully helped 
 his hosts at their work. A number of men, members 
 of the posse, met him a few miles from Ellensburg 
 and fired at him. 
 
 He was slightly wounded in the back of the head, 
 but for some reason did not make a fight. He dis- 
 appeared into the woods. 
 
 Outside of Ellensburg he met a young fellow on a 
 bicycle and stopped him. Probably in a spirit of 
 deviltry the bandit took the bike, saying that he wanted 
 to see if he could still ride. The bicyclist, suspecting 
 who the man was, was afraid to make a protest and 
 Tracy rode through Elllensburg, stopping to buy am- 
 munition and get a drink. 
 
 He was heard of from time to time, always alone, 
 generally good natured, sometimes menacing, but he 
 slew no more men. 
 
 Early in August he appeared at Govan, Washington, 
 and was recognized. The residents, inspired by the 
 hope of reward, organized a posse and pursued the 
 outlaw, who made off toward Conowai Creek. He 
 had little difficulty in eluding his pursuers and from 
 
TRACY, THE BANDIT. 
 
 181 
 
 the remarks he made to settlers at whose houses he 
 stopped he appeared to be rather amused at the idea 
 that farmers could take him. 
 
 Yet the irony of fate brought about his end through 
 just such means as this at which he laughed. 
 
182 TRACY, THE BANglT. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIV 
 
 AT THE EDDY FARM THE LAST STAND THE BITTER- 
 NESS OF DEATH THE OUTLAW^ END. 
 
 The little town of Creston, Washington, was 
 thrown into a furore on the morning of August 4, 
 when it was stated that Tracy had been seen and 
 recognized in the suburbs. A meeting of the citizens 
 was called at once and a posse organized which in- 
 cluded nearly every able-bodied man in the town or 
 neighborhood. 
 
 Tracy was not aware of the organization of this 
 posse, or perhaps was careless of consequences, be- 
 lieving that he could elude the pursuers at any time. 
 
 On the morning of August 5 he walked up to the 
 house of J. M. Eddy, a few miles from Creston, and 
 asked for something to eat. 
 
 "I'm willing to pay for it/' he said, smilingly. 
 
 Eddy's young son was with him and, though he sus- 
 pected who his visitor was he said nothing, until break- 
 fast was over, when Tracy announced himself. 
 
 "This place looks pretty good to me," he said, "I'd 
 like to stop here." 
 
 His words were prophetic. 
 
 Eddy told him he had no employment for him and 
 Tracy replied: 
 
 "That's all right. I just want to help." 
 
TRACY, THE BANDIT. 183 
 
 And he did. All that day he worked about the barn, 
 but kept Eddy and his son close to him without appear- 
 ing to compel them. Tracy was coming out of the 
 stable late in the afternoon when he saw a man peer- 
 ing out of the underbrush beside a field. He stepped 
 back into the stable and watched intently, calling the 
 farmer and his son into the place. He made out an- 
 other figure in hiding, then another. 
 
 "They're after me," he said grimly, "and I think 
 it's up to me to move." 
 
 He stepped outside and a shot rang out. Crouch- 
 ing he ran rapidly into a field of growing grain. 
 
 Even as he ran a number of men stood up and fired 
 at him. 
 
 Who it was that fired the shot which brought him 
 down, will never be known, but one bullet in that hail 
 of lead struck him in the right leg and shattered the 
 bone. 
 
 He sank down in the midst of the rich, growing 
 grain and in spite of the pain he smiled and Eddy 
 heard him call out: 
 
 "I guess that settles it." 
 
 Dragging his shattered leg after him the outlaw 
 crawled deeper into the lush growth of grain and, 
 balancing himself, he drew both revolvers and fired 
 with astonishing rapidity in many directions. 
 
 His object was to create the "impression among the 
 head hunters that it was dangerous to approach him. 
 His effort was entirely successful and no man of them 
 all dared enter that field. 
 
184 TRACY, THE BANDIT. 
 
 Tracy took a handkerchief from about his neck and 
 endeavored to staunch the flow of blood from the 
 wound* in his leg but an artery had been cut and he 
 found this impossible. 
 
 There, in the midst of a shelter provided by nature's 
 beneficence to man, he sat in the gathering darkness 
 and watched the life-blood spurt until the ground 
 around him was saturated. 
 
 Who can tell what the man's thoughts were, as he 
 felt the weakness of death creeping upon him? Was 
 there regret for the wasted life? remorse for the crimes 
 that bore heavily upon his guilty soul? Did he long 
 for another day and another chance? 
 
 Perhaps in that dark hour the home in the Ozarks 
 was in his thoughts, his mind went back to that night 
 when he put it all behind him and left 'Genie on the 
 brow of the hill looking down into the valley in which 
 he had spent his boyhood. 
 
 At the end, when the loss of blood brought on the 
 partial syncope that precedes death, the native spirit of 
 the man asserted itself again. 
 
 He must not be taken. That was his thought. Rais- 
 ing himself on one hand, he lifted the other clasping 
 his pistol, to his temple, and with an expiring effort, 
 
 pulled the trigger. 
 
 # # # * * * 
 
 The morning sun dissipating the^ chill of night 
 warmed the head-hunters, surrounding the field of 
 death, into action. The pistol shot in the darkness 
 had been a signal of joy to many of them who sus- 
 pected the truth. 
 
TRACY, THE BANDIT. 185 
 
 Creeping cautiously with advanced weapons through 
 the grain they met in the middle of the field ready to 
 shoot down their quarry at any sign of movement. 
 
 Then they came upon him. Stark upon his back, his 
 unwinking eyes looking into the dome of the heaven 
 that is sometimes pitying, a smile upon his lips, in 
 his right hand the engine of death, lay all that was 
 mortal of HARRY TRACY, the BANDIT. 
 
 THE END, 
 

 
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