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his logs and bars.
Then Tom began to beat the door and threaten to smash the planks.
Zete slid his bar, opened his door, and fired his pistol.
Tom fell dead.
Four or five settlers, hearing the shot, came up from Moulton, and were soon aware how matters stood.
Brief parley led to stern resolve.
Dead or alive Zete must be arrested on the spot and carried to Sheriff De Witt, in Gonzales, the county town, together with the witnesses of his guilt.
They summoned Zete to yield himself a prisoner; he defied them to come in and take him. To attack a desperate fellow was to risk a second life, and perhaps a third, and no one cared, in such ignoble quarrels, to be shot.
The settlers thought of fire.
It is an easy thing to burn a fellow in a log cabin, and Zete himself caved in as soon as he perceived their drift.
At four in the afternoon, as the sun was setting, two settlers started with the prisoner for Gonzales.
The night was closing in, when they were met by seven or eight mounted men, who called a halt.
The darkness hid the features of these persons, but their purpose was apparent in their acts.
They took the
1875.
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