MORE OF MRS. RAMSEY'S DREAM--SHE STARTS TO FIND HER HUSBAND AND FINDS
HER HORRID VISION VERIFIED--A TWO AND TWO FIGHT, WHICH RESULTS IN
THREE DEATHS, MR. RAMSEY BEING ONE OF THEM--A DESPERATE DEED WITH
TERRIBLE RESULTS--MRS. RAMSEY LOSES HER MIND AND SOON FOLLOWS HER
HUSBAND TO THE GRAVE.
Mrs. Ramsey, after this raving narrative, became more quiet and told the
people standing about her that she had dreamed that she had seen Mr.
Ramsey and Mr. Shepherd come upon the horse thieves and attack them; that
the thieves had started to flee on their horses; that the officers had
followed and fired upon them, the thieves returning the fire. Three men
had fallen almost simultaneously from their horses, two of them being the
fugitives and the third her husband, who had been fatally shot. Her dream
had continued so as to take her out to search for her husband with the
hope of meeting him upon his return. Instead of meeting him alive and well
she had encountered a covered wagon, which she described, bringing in his
dead body, seeing which she had screamed so loud as to awaken herself and
others asleep near her.
This was the dream as Mrs. Ramsey told it. It had been so real to her and
the occurrences so tangible that she felt that a tragedy such as she had
described had occurred, and refused to be comforted by the argument that
it was foolish to pay any heed to a dream. Such she agreed was usually the
case, but in this instance she felt that she had really been present at
the killing of her husband. The conviction seemed to take complete
possession of her. No reasoning would shake her belief that she had been a
real witness to a tragedy which had resulted in her beloved husband's
death.
Mrs. Ramsey refused to again attempt to sleep or even to retire again that
night. The only comfort which she seemed to receive was in the assurance
that as soon as day should break she should be driven out in the
direction which her husband had taken. "I know I shall meet that covered
wagon," she said, "I just know it, but I want to go, anyhow, and to know
the worst."
According to promise she was allowed to start out from Hayes at a very
early hour the succeeding morning, a friend accompanying her in a
carriage. They had driven out a distance of fourteen miles without meeting
any one, when there began to dawn a ray of hope that the dreadful vision
of the dream would prove to have been merely a hallucination, caused by
the imperfect action of the brain while asleep. But the poor woman looked
eagerly forward for the purpose of getting the first view of that which
she most dreaded to see.
Long as it was in coming, the wagon came in sight all too soon. Rising up
over the summit of an elevation in the plains and looking down the
descending grade she saw slowly coming towards her and her companion a
covered wagon drawn by two horses. Throwing up her hands so as to cover
her eyes she exclaimed with all the force of positive conviction:
"My God! there's the wagon."
She could not have been more positive if she had seen the vehicle only the
day before. After this sight she refused to be comforted and only urged
her driver to increase his speed, sobbing as if heart-broken as they
pushed on.
The woman's dream had been more than a dream. It had been a real vision.
There had been no deception. The vehicle was just as she had described it
and in it lay the lifeless body of her husband, just as his wife had said
would be found to be the case.
Very strange all this is, to be sure, and yet true to the letter. Let who
can explain it.
Inquiry revealed the fact that the shooting had occurred just as it had
appeared to Mrs. Ramsey and just as she described it to half a dozen
witnesses before leaving Hayes City. The officers had come upon the
thieves in the afternoon of the first day out, thirty-five miles from
Hayes, just as they were concluding their dinners and preparing to
continue their journey. They had mounted when they discovered the officers
riding down upon them. The thieves knew Ramsey, and their first thought
was to escape from him at all hazards. They accordingly put spurs to their
horses which they rode, leaving the others which they had stolen behind.
The officers spurred up their horses also, and were soon chasing the
thieves across the plains. The two parties were not less than sixty yards
apart when Ramsey said to Shepherd, after having summoned the fugitives to
halt:
"Well, I don't see that there is anything to do but to bring them down.
You take the one on your side and I'll take the fellow on my side."
[Illustration: Mrs. Ramsey's vision of her husband's murder, and also the
killing of a pair of horse thieves.]
This speech had hardly been spoken when the two thieves turned in their
saddles with pistols presented. It was plain to be seen that there must be
a deadly duel then and there.
"Won't you surrender?" shouted Ramsey.
"Never!" was the reply.
"Then we will kill you."
"Fire away."
"Give it to 'em." Thus to Shepherd.
There were four pistol shots coming so close together as to sound like a
volley.
One of the thieves, the one at whom Ramsey had shot, reeled and tumbled
from his horse dead. The other reeled but did not fall, and Shepherd
spurred on after him, not noticing that Ramsey did not follow. After
galloping a short distance the second man fell from his saddle mortally
wounded.
Turning then for the first time, Shepherd, who was unhurt, discovered that
Ramsey had been knocked from his horse. He had been shot through and
through, the ball passing near his heart. There was a ranch a few miles
distant and Shepherd determined to make an effort to get his friend to it
and to leave the thieves where they had fallen. "Dutch Pete" proved to be
the man at whom Ramsey had directed his aim. He it was who had shot
Ramsey. But Ramsey's shot had gone straight home, passing through Pete's
heart. The other thief was also mortally wounded, and soon died. Their
bodies were covered with stones and left where they had fallen. The stolen
horses were gathered together and returned to their owner.
As for Ramsey, he was taken to the ranch referred to and given every
possible attention. But after lingering on in great pain he died at 12
o'clock of the night succeeding the shooting--at the exact hour at which
Mrs. Ramsey had had her startling and strange dream.
The body was then placed in the ranchman's covered wagon, and the cortege
started for Hayes City, meeting Mrs. Ramsey on the road.
It is useless to attempt to further describe the anguish of the poor
woman. She refused to be comforted after her husband's death, and two
weeks after his funeral she was a raving maniac. Four months afterwards
her unhappy spirit deserted the flesh and she joined her husband in the
world beyond this.
A MEXICAN BANDIT.