d earth! But as good luck would have it, the irons
pressed tightly and painfully on the wrists of the captive, and he
cried from his room, "Hunter! oh, Hunter! come and loose these cursed
irons,--they're killing me!"

"Now, gentlemen," said Hunter, "you see whether he knows me or not." To
the prisoner he said, "I'll loosen them if you'll tell all about it."
He came in and said, "Yes, I stole the horse; I'm a thief, and that man
is a detective of the government from Cheyenne."

Of course, here all danger should end, and my story cease. But the
truth is, something new turned up very often to embarrass the journey
back to Cheyenne. After leaving Fort Harker, a new dodge was attempted,
but different from the one that Paddy essayed when he greased the
horse's mouth to save the oats. Leaving the culprit in irons at Fort
Harker, the detective proceeded on to Fort Ellsworth, Kansas, from
which place he started in the morning with his horse, in high hopes of
reaching Cheyenne in a few days.

But alas for the vanity of human hopes and expectations! Having ridden
about fifteen miles, the horse came to a sudden pause, and acted like
one afflicted with spring-halt. Stopping at a ranch near by, after a
careful examination, it was found that some precious villains had tied
some silk cords on his legs underneath the fetlocks, thoroughly
crippling him, so he could hardly move a limb. They hoped to lame the
horse till he could be stolen again! But it was not successful. This
journey of seventeen hundred miles cost the sum of six hundred dollars.
But the horses were valued at fifteen hundred dollars, and it was right
to put a stop, if possible, to the crime so common in the West of
stealing horses, and one which subjects the culprit to a ball in his
body, if needful to recapture stolen stock, and all say it is just and
right, as a man's horse there may, in some cases, be "his life."

But the fellow while in limbo sawed off the chain and ball from his leg
and escaped. He, moreover, had the impudence to write a saucy letter to
Mr. Hunter, telling him "that the caged bird had flown, and the
probability of their never meeting again!"

The rascal had been a soldier in the army, deserting several times, and
re-enlisting under a new name each time, at different posts in the
western country.

HANGING HORSE-THIEVES.

It seems awful when we hear of the "Vigilance committees" in new
countries. They are a body of men combining togethe