s mount and ride a horse which had bucked in a way to impress
the imagination. I spoke of it.

"Was it the gray?" queried Brunner, and when I said it was, he scoffed.
"That horse is trained to buck just the way young Henry wants him, and
he hobbles the stirrups."

Brunner's scepticism was disappointing. I ventured to speak of another
instance that seemed to illustrate the nerve of Henry Thomas:

"Didn't he help capture the 'Kep' Queen bunch of outlaws a few years
ago? I've heard he showed nerve then."

"I reckon you have." Brunner glanced across at me, then stooped to dig a
live coal out of the ashes. He held it for half a minute before packing
it into the bowl of his pipe, shifting it imperceptibly in his toughened
hand as he studied the backlog. When his tobacco was burning steadily,
he spoke:

"I can tell you the truth about young Henry--and the old man, too." I
thought his tone changed. "Twenty-four years ago I came to this Indian
country. For twelve years I rode with the posses as a deputy marshal and
for twelve years now I've been running cattle here on Cabin Creek. I've
been all over the Territory. I know every man in the Cherokee Nation
that ever handled a hot iron. And I know young Henry Thomas, too.

"It was in 1882 that Queen 'went bad,' and began to hold up trains on
the 'Katy' and 'Frisco roads. All of that fall and winter we were after
him and his gang, but we never got a sight of them. They were 'goers'
all right, and when we came up to a two-weeks-old camp-fire they'd
built, we thought we were lucky.

"For six months after the first of the year they did nothing. We heard
that Queen was in California. Then, in June, 1883, while I was at
Muscogee, I got a telegram from 'Cap' White asking me to report at once
to him at Red Oak. Paden Tolbert and I caught the eleven o'clock train
up, dropping off at Red Oak at one in the morning. 'Cap' met us, told us
he had two men ready, and that the five of us would start for Pryor
Creek at once.

"It was a fifteen-mile ride. We planned to pick up four men from the
ranches on the way down, and get to 'Kep' Queen's camp at daylight. We
had been told that there were five men in the camp, that they had been
in the Pryor Creek woods for two days, and that it was their plan to
hold up the flyer from the north next evening. 'Cap' White was sure of
his information, and he had decided upon the men he wanted from the
ranches. The two Thomases--old man Henry and young Henr