Show STEALING A CROP OF BARLEY an battle in alio dark with armed A daring rt tempt to steal a whole field of barley that had been thrashed has been made at the farm of J M mam ford on the line of the burlington dach nine miles northeast of denver the barley had been bagged and the bags atod piled up in a field some distance fr an Mum fords house just at dusk a Y ung fellow who was tailing a short cut across the fielda saw four men at work loading the sacks of barley into two wagons that stood outside the field two of the men carrying the sacks to the fence and throwing them over and the other two were loading the wagons he soon saw that they were not firm hands men would have anven the wagons into the fields and besides they would bo very strange farm hands indeed that would work with the desperate haste with which these men were working the young fellow went at first to Mum fords house and told him of what was going on J S foster a neighboring farmer was called in and soon six men were got together all armed and they started out on horseback to catch tho barley thieves the night was dark and cloudy and it was impossible to see any distance but they rode in the direction of the place where the barley was stacked and soon they coald hear the voices of tho men at work it was impossible to see anything and a consultation was held to try to decide the best way to go about the capture while the six horsemen were gathered in a group talking in low tones together a flash of lightning from the cloudy sky lit up the field it disclosed a man with a barley sack upon his shoulder not fifteen feet away and close at hand tho two wagons with the other three men at work one of the horsemen almost as quick as the flashing lightning pulled his weapon and took aim and before darkness once more hid the scene a shot from his pistol rang out upon tho air this was the bignal for a general fusillade that filled the dark night with flashing pistol shots the thieves returned the horsemen 8 fire and the horsemen kept it up until their ammunition was exhausted the only aim for either side was the flashing pistol shots of the others so that not much damage was done none of the horsemen were hurt while the firing was going on the wagons were heard driving off the drivers whipping up their horses in a furious way it was sv ident that the two men outside the fence had fled and left their companions to take the consequences of their acts when the faring ceased the six horsemen made a search for the remaining men but they could not be found they nad fled in the darkness an tion of the barley bags showed that a great miny of them had been taken and the horsemen at once went in pursuit of the wagons about half a mile away they found the wagons but the horses and men were gone the wagons were half filled with sacks of barley and a number of empty b digs ere found with the marks of a denver firm upon them so that it seems jB that the thieves came from this city the wagons are now at mr mum fords placa waiting for an owner in the morning an examination was made of the field shooting took pi ice A trail of blood was found leading to the tence but there it was lost the attempted robbery alarmed the neighboring fanner and an examination was made which resulted in the discovery that seventy two maclis of wheat which one of the farmers had stored in a distant field had disappeared it is supposed that I 1 ho thieves were the same ones who tried to steal Mum fords barley denver republican |