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The Capture of Herman Lehmann Chevato and Dinero were with a Mescalero raiding party coming back out of Mexico and headed home to the Mescalero stronghold in New Mexico. They took the old smugglers’ route, crossing the Rio Grande at Eagle Pass, Texas, and heading northeast through Uvalde County, turning north through Bandera County, stealing more horses along the way. They continued north, skirting Fredericksburg. They knew they were being chased by the Texas Cavalry, but they didn’t have much fear of them. The Mescaleros had ways to escape the cavalry troops. They would leave strings of horses at secluded watering holes, pricking the quicks of their hooves just enough to lame them a little so the horses wouldn’t wander away from the water. As the horse’s hoof healed, it would get used to the water and the grass and stay there, ready for the Mescaleros to come back. As the raiding party moved north, and their horses tired out from the chase, they would find fresh horses hidden at the watering hole, change mounts, and move on, always a step ahead of the cavalry. The Mescaleros feared the Texas Rangers because they were quick and unpredictable, but they never feared the cavalry troops because they were slow. The captain of Chevato’s and Dinero’s raiding party was Carnoviste. He was a pretty cruel man. Chevato and Dinero didn’t call him Carnoviste—they called him The Wolf. They called him this because he was like a wolf, conniving in many ways. He was all for himself; he was very much a “me” man. Before he captured Herman Lehmann, Carnoviste wasn’t hated by the Mescaleros , but people were scared of him, and so that is why he existed. The raiding party had been successful, and they had stolen many horses. They stopped to rest their mounts on a ridge overlooking a small stream. When they looked down over the ridge, they saw a small cabin on the other side of the stream. The cabin was in a field surrounded by a rock fence, and there were children playing in the field. Carnoviste told the raiding party, “I want one of those children.” Chevato and Dinero looked at each other. They ฀ saw no need to steal a child because the raiding party was fat as a tick with stolen horses. But Carnoviste was the leader, so they silently rode down from the ridge and crossed the stream. When they grabbed the two boys, the girl tried to get away by crawling through a hole under the rock wall, so they left her behind and rode off with the boys. the boys were Herman Lehmann and his brother, Willie, and Carnoviste took Herman for himself. Carnoviste (The Wolf) thought to discipline Herman when they got him and they were away from Herman’s home; he thought that beating was the best way. He wanted to teach him discipline, but they had no communications , they couldn’t understand each other. He beat Herman pretty bad, beat him up, and then tied him to a log on hard ground when they were sleeping. So Chevato told Carnoviste,“Why did you get this young boy? If you’re going to treat him that way, he’s going to die.” There was no sense in capturing him if Carnoviste was going to treat him that way, since he would die. So Carnoviste told Chevato,“If you want to help him, go ahead. I’m not going to help.” Chevato then said,“When you tie him up, let’s find a better place to lay him. Or at least let’s lay him in some sand instead of on the hard ground.” One of the favorite tricks of the Mescaleros, if you were a captive, was to tie your wrists to wrists and ankles to ankles. Then, through the opening of your arms and legs, they would run a long pole. They would then put this pole in the notches of two saplings or young trees and tie it down with rawhide so it was like a lock. Chevato would get some bedding, like leaves or grass, and make Herman a little bed to lie on when he was tied up at night. It wasn’t much better, but it was better than the hard ground. When they were near creek beds and Carnoviste would tie Herman to a small tree, Chevato made sure that Herman was lying in sand. There was...

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