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68 rew ard for boone, dead or alive— his escape Chapter IX A large reward was offered for the capture of Boone Marlow, dead or alive, and in consequence the country swarmed with men eager to obtain this reward, either by fair means or foul.1 Boone soon learned of this, and fearing detection, he retraced his steps back to the home place and hid for the time being in a large stack of wheat straw, half a mile from the house. He tunneled into this big hill of straw for quite a ways, and excavated a room in its interior large enough for all practical purposes. No one ever dreamed he was in the neighborhood, though a crowd of men and officers seeking his life because of the high reward were continually about the premises, thinking no doubt that perhaps he might seek to communicate by some means with his family, and thereby leave some clue by which he might be traced and hunted down. Food was conveyed to Boone by Charley’s wife, who displayed more courage and nerve than is usually shown by womankind, and showed herself to be a true heroine. This brave and true-hearted little woman made the trip from the house to the stack under cover of the darkness 1 Young County posted a reward of fifteen hundred dollars for Boone’s capture; the state of Texas offered an additional $200 if the fugitive were delivered “inside the jail door of said county” within six months (Crouch, History ofYoung County, 117; Graham Leader, December 27, 1888). The murder of a fellow officer and the lure of the reward money quickly drew lawmen from neighboring counties. The day after the shooting, Sheriff John J. Douglass of Stephens County arrived in Graham with a posse. From Jack County came Sheriff George W. Moore at the head of another large posse. The Graham Leader called for “all good citizens [to] turn out and assist in [the] capture” (December 20, 1888). REWARD FOR BOONE, DEAD OR ALIVE—HIS ESCAPE ⁄ 69 every night shortly after midnight, going around by different routes each night and stealing through the trees and past guards and spies with the stealth of an Indian and the silence and swiftness of the air. How she ever managed to escape detection was a mystery, as at no time were there less than fifty to seventy-five men prowling around day and night, and watching with sleepless eyes for any sign or clue of Boone or his whereabouts.2 George’s wife, Lillian, had moved over, after his arrest, in order to be with the rest of the women, and to assist in any possible way in bearing the terrible burden of sorrow and distress which had fallen upon them all. None save themselves can realize how these four helpless and defenseless women suffered and were tortured by the official and the hordes of reckless men who continually hung around the neighborhood of the ranch and made life miserable for them in a thousand ways. They overhauled everything on the place and in the house, and nothing was too sacred to escape their prying eyes and ruthless hands. They would come into the house and tear down pillows and poke around the beds with their guns, and tear up the floor, under pretense of hunting for Boone, but really more to irritate and madden the poor half-crazed women than anything else. There was not a box, trunk, closet or drawer that escaped their pilfering hands. There were many volumes of valuable medical works and a few hundred dollars worth of medicines which the family kept in tender remembrance of the good old Dr. Marlow, and these were tumbled about and as roughly used as everything else in the house, until Mrs. Marlow became desperate at the insults and ill usage heaped upon them, and with the help of the girls dug a deep grave one dark night in the bed of a ravine and buried them, preferring them to go to decay to being polluted by the vulgar touch of drunken and insolent moneyed blood-hunters. Many a night did these helpless and terrified women carry their beds into the woods and pass the night huddled together in tears and trembling fear, rather than remain in the house and run the risk of having it burned over their heads. 2 The extent of the surveillance of the Marlow house obviously is greatly exaggerated. Given the...

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