Show STEALING A aril OF BARLEY an exiting III the tit dark with it ly armed arnd arn d thieves I 1 A daring attempt to steal a whole field of barley that had been thrashed has baen been made at the farm arm of J M arim ford on the line at of the burlington ditch nine miles northeast of denver the barley had been bagged and the bags stood piled ap up in a field some distance from Mum fords house just at dusk a young fellow who was taking a short cut across the fields saw law four in men ell at work loading the sacks of barley into two wagons that stood outride put side the field two of the men were the backs sacks to the fence and throwing them over and the other two were w ere loading the wagons he no soon saw that they were not Mum forda farm hands Mum fords men would have driven the wagons into the fields and besides they would be 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 foster a neighboring farmer was called in and soon six men ell were got together all armed and they started out on horseback to catch the barley thieves the night was dark and cloudy and it was impossible possible ful to see any distance but they rode in the direction of the place where the barley was stacked and aud soon they could hear the voices of the 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 cap ture 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 hia his shoulder not fifteen feet away and P close lose at hand the two wa wagons ous 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 moro more bid the scene a shot from his pistol rang on out t upon the air this was the signal for a general fusillade that filled the dark night with flashing pistol shots the thieves returned the hor semens 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 muc much damage w was done none e 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 evident that the che two men outside the fence had fled and left their companions to take the consequences of their acts when the tiring ceased the six horsemen made a search for the remaining meu men but they could not be dounda found they had flea fled in the darkness an examination of the barley bags showed that a great many of them had been taken and the horsemen ut at once went in pursuit of the file wagons I 1 about halt 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 ot of empty bags were found with the marks of a denver firm upon them so that it seems probable that the thieves came from this c city ity the wagons are now at mr mum fords place waiting for an owner i in the morning an examination was made of the field where the shooting took place A trail of blood was found leading to the fence but there it was lost the attempted robbery alarmed the neighboring farmers and an examination was made which resulted in the discovery that seventy two socks auks of wheat which one of the farmers had stored in a distant field had disappeared it is supposed that the thieves were the same ones who tried to steal Mum fords barley denver republican |