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Show VILLA, IE BANDIT aO ML una HUEILIJI Leader of Band Cannot Hope to Escape the American Forces. 'r EI Paso, Texas, March 31. Four Hundred American cavalrymen, under the command of" Colonel George A Poild, whirling down from the granite slopes of the great continental divide, have fallen like a thunderbolt on the main body of Francisco Villa's bandits ban-dits at the San Geronimo ranch, scattering scat-tering them like chafr in the wind, and driving the bandit chief, wounded and crippled, to seek a hiding place in the mountains over which he has ruled for so many years. Villa was hurried from danger in a carriage, ine uuiue opened at C o'clock in the morning, March 29. s The news of the brilliant exploit of the American troopers was flashed over the Mexican wires into Juarez today and sent a thrill along the border. bor-der. For seventeen hours the veteran Colonel Dodd and his picked riders of tho Seventh and Tenth cavalry drove down the valley of the Santa Maria river. At the end of a 55-mlle ride" thoy burst upon tho unsuspecting unsuspect-ing Villista camp, where 500 bandits were celebrating the massacre of 172 Carranzlstas. two days previously, at Guerrero Villa, shot through the leg and Svith one hip shattered, was hurried hur-ried from tho scene barely In time to escapo the onslought of the soldiers of the north. The bandits made a. brief but hopeless hope-less stand before the fierce charge of Col. Dodd and his troopers. Then they broke and fled, leaving 31 dead on the field, including their commander, comman-der, General Eliseo Hernandez. Two machine guns., a number of horses, rifles, ammunition and equipment fell into the hands of the visitors. Among the known wounded is Pablo Pab-lo Lopez, Villa's lieutenant iu the Columbus Co-lumbus raid. The American casualties casual-ties -were four privates wounded. The American soldiers did not lin- -. . . . j Tr-. Hun sor on the field ol vociory. rui n hours they drove the enemy before them in the wilderness of mountain peak, desert and canyon where roads or even trails are uuknown and where a misstep means death to horse and rider. They halted only after the chase b.ad led them ten miles from the. battlefield and the fugitives wero scattered far and -wide in little bands of half a dozen men each. Villa's career has ended. His power lias btien broken. His death or capture cap-ture is, only a question of days, perhaps per-haps only hours, such is the inevitable inevit-able conclusion reached hero as little by little tho details of "Dodd's ride seep across the bordor. It seems impossible im-possible that tbe crippled, defeated bandit can long remain hidden even In the mountainous wastes in which he had sought refuge. The sceno of Col. Dodd's victory is a broad valley lying at the head of the Hio Santa Maria. On the west. 3P the barren foothills of tbe continental con-tinental divide and to the east is a trail, made famous by Villa, which leads through the Lagtina de Castllla district to the ill-famed Santa Ysabel. It was at the latter place that Villa killed eighteen American mining men, a crime which sent a thrill of horror throughout the United States and marked the beginning of what many believe to be the end of his bloodstained blood-stained career. It was toward Santa Ysabel that he was believed to be heading when tho troopers of the United States swept down from the north upon his camp. oo |