Chapter 22
CHAPTER XXII of CAPTAIN BILL MCDONALD, TEXAS RANGER. A STORY OF FRONTIER REFORM. FOR MORE INFORMATION, OR TO VOLUNTEER, PLEASE VISIT LIBRIVOX.ORG. CAPTAIN BILL MCDONALD, TEXAS RANGER. A STORY OF FRONTIER REFORM. BY ALBERT BIGGELOW PAYNE. WHAT HAPPENED TO BECKHAM?
An outlaw raid and a ranger battle, Joe Beckham ends his career. Meantime, the cause of the final and fatal difference between Matthews and MacDonald. Joe Beckham, former sheriff of Motley, was out on bond, disporting himself in picturesque fashion. He got a change of venue, and when his case came up in Baylor County, Cook, his old rival and now his successor, by election, started over to testify,
whereupon Beckham met the train and promptly shot Cook dead as he struck the platform. Beckham then mounted a fast horse and cantered away into the territory, where he joined in organizing a new gang made up of old offenders with a view to doing a wholesale general business and crime. In this gang were Red Buck and Hill Loftus, both justly celebrated, also Kid Lewis, later hung.
They established headquarters in a neighborhood thought to be comparatively safe, since Bill McDonald's work had been confined to Texas, and opened business with every prospect of reaping the natural reward of perseverance and industry. They began by making a general raid on what is now Electra, Texas, where they cleaned out some stores and knocked a storekeeper on the head, after which they looted a country store and post office kept by one Al Bailey, then rode away in
the direction of their territory headquarters. Company B, Ranger Service, was promptly notified, and Captain MacDonald, not yet able to undertake a hard chase, sent his nephew Macaulay and Jack Carwell and two other rangers to join the sheriff of Wilbarger County at Electra in the pursuit. The rangers quickly struck the trail and had followed 40 miles toward the territory at a hard gate when they spied a dugout not far ahead. At the same moment they met an ostensible cowboy,
a line rider, he said, on his rounds. The dugout, he told them, was his and that they would find something to eat there. The party hurried on in the hope of food and warmth, for with the coming of evening it had grown very cold, and snow was beginning to fall. They were a little surprised to see a light in the dugout, but pushed on toward it, when suddenly a volley of shots rang out from that cover, and three horses dropped dead. Not one of the riders was injured, and they promptly
returned the fire, then followed a regular exchange of shots, which kept up to some extent all that bitter cold, snowy night. When morning came, only Macaulay and Harwell of the Ranger Force remained in action, the others having been driven by the cold and storm to find shelter. The dugout was silent enough now, but Macaulay and Harwell, nearly dead from exposure, were in no condition to charge it alone. They were without horses and set off for Wagner's ranch
twenty-five miles away, a foot. Red River lay between, and when they arrived there, the prospect of waiting that icy current was miserable enough. Nevertheless, they did it, arriving at Wagner's ranch, frostbitten and almost dead of hunger. The others had reached there several hours earlier. When all were in condition again, they returned to investigate the dugout. The place was deserted. Red Buck, wounded, as they learned later, with Hill Loftus,
had been able to get away. Also, Kid Lewis, for whom a telephone pole was already waiting at Wichita Falls. Joe Beckham lay stretched out upon the floor, dead. End of chapter 22, Read by Nancy Cochran Gergen, Gilbert, Arizona January 11, 2022
