A Frontier Doctor Page: 59

INTO THE PANHANDLE

I then had another pleasant job, sewing up the villain's
scalp !
From the west, two Americans with one horse drifted
in and after a few days continued their journey down the
valley. The fact that they had but one horse excited
more or less comment, as a man afoot in that country at
that period was either a curiosity or a suspicious character.
Moreover, while they were in town they were rather ex-
clusive and gave little information regarding themselves.
They had been gone but a few days when one of them
returned alone with the horse, making camp at the river
close by. The L I T Ranch was in the valley west of
Tascosa, and Superintendent McCarty, as well as a
number of his men, had noticed the two men when they
first came through. They all happened to be at Tascosa
when the lone man returned with the horse, and at once
'spotted' him.
My headquarters were at the store of Howard & Mc-
Masters where I had a room. That evening McCarty,
who was a friend of mine, came in and told me this story:
They had seen this man come back alone, which looked
very suspicious, so they put him through a sort of 'third
degree' and as his answers were more or less contra-
dictory and unsatisfactory, they called in a number of
men in town and had a regular trial, found him guilty of
murdering his companion, and decided to hang him.
The man's defense was that two or three days after
leaving Tascosa his comrade was taken very sick and be-
came delirious. When the man who returned awaked
from a sleep of exhaustion his partner had disappeared
and he was unable to find him. He also claimed to be
sick himself, and for this reason McCarty, a very level-
headed and considerate man, decided to have me examine
him. He urged haste, as the men were preparing for the
execution.

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