Good Lord, nearly three weeks gone by. Well, time flies ennit?
To continue... two guys go out after a runaway, one guy comes back reeling in the saddle, seriously wounded, no sign of the other, Hays and his crew saddle up....
From "Wearing the Cinco Peso"....
Hays ordered his men to saddle up. Not far on the Laredo road, they found their missing colleague and his prisoner, a Mexican who had aided the slave's escape and then lay in waiting for the rangers he knew would follow. Asked why he had not already killed his captive, the ranger admitted that he admired the man's bravery.
Unimpressed, Hays ordered the Mexican executed on the spot. The rangers tied their prisoner to a tree and then drew numbers to see which of them would get to do the honors. The rangers composing the firing squad raised their rifles and aimed, ready for Hays' command to fire. But before the rangers pulled their triggers the Mexican yelled a warning: They aimed too low.
At that the man's captor jumped to his feet. "Jack! Hear that! Don't shoot this fellow! Spare him for my sake - could the devil himself beat that?"
Hays waved his hand, signalling the rangers to lower their rifles. The ranger who had captured the Mexican cut the thongs on his hands and legs "and he stood before us a free man."
He told the rangers that "attracted by human sympathy for the Boy," he had assisted in the successful escape of the slave. He had hung back to ambush the rangers pursuing the fleeing slave to settle the score from a previous run-in with a sworn enemy."
"Such as it was," Webber concluded, "this was my first day with the Rangers, and we were soon afterwards sound asleep on the grass." The author Mike Cox feels the story is embellished but to me its so unusual that it has a ring of truth about it.
The Rangers, we are told, already in number a tiny minority of the available Texas male population, had been partying hard all night. Roused to action the next day, the first thing they do after concluding this episode is continue to sleep off their hangovers.
Speaks well of them that they would readily show mercy to a brave man because of his courage. Indeed, reading between the lines, the necessity to draw lots and then the low aim on the part of these expert riflemen, added to Hays' ready pardon of the man, would seem to indicate a general reluctance among them to carry out Hays' order in the first place.
Had they REALLY wanted to kill him one imagines they just could have shot him in the beginning right where he stood.
It is my impression that those men most inclined to pay tribute to unusual courage on the part of an enemy practice habitual courage themselves.
One wonders too about a possible backstory here; the account gives the impression that the Mexican was gunning for the specific ranger he shot from ambush, also Hays and his men were not so outraged by the event that they shot the Mexican out of hand.
Also implied is that the Mexican had reason to believe his enemy would be among those attempting to cash in on recovering the slave.
Perhaps the injured ranger had committed a previous act egregious to the point that Hays' men percieved some justice in the Mexican's actions.
No mention either that the party took up the trail of the runaway themselves, even though they were already saddled up and on the trail.
One of those events one wishes one knew more about.
Anyhow, prob'ly occurred somewhere close to the present route of Interstate 35 South, most likely inside Loop 410, an area I know quite well. Sure has changed since those times though.
..and I can see how riding with Jack Hays in those years could have an appeal, even given the low odds of survival
Birdwatcher
