A few parting shots stampeded the stragglers.

Then, with one hundred captured ponies--most, if not all of them, stolen from the Express and State stations--we rode back to Sweetwater Bridge.
The recovered horses were placed on the road again, and the Express was resumed.

Slade, who was greatly pleased with our exploit, now assigned me as special or supernumerary rider.

Thereafter while I was with him I had a comparatively easy time of it, riding only now and then, and having plenty of opportunity for seeking after the new adventures in which I delighted.
Alf Slade, stage-line superintendent, frontiersman, and dare-devil fighting man, was one of the far-famed gunmen of the Plains.

These were a race of men bred by the perils and hard conditions of Western life.
They became man-killers first from stern necessity.