A parley
ensued, but McNally refused to go back without the cattle, which the
Mexicans had finally to surrender.
At another time McNally received word through spies of an intended raid
of Mexican cattle-thieves under the leadership of Cammelo Lerma. At
Resaca de la Palma, McNally struck the depredators with but sixteen men.
They had seventeen men and five hundred head of stolen cattle. In a
running fight for miles McNally's men killed sixteen bandits, while only
one escaped. A young Ranger by the name of Smith was shot dead by
Cammelo Lerma as he dismounted to look at the dying bandit. The dead
bodies were piled in ox-carts and dumped in the public square at
Brownsville. McNally also captured King Fisher's band in an old log
house in Dimmit County, but they were not convicted.
Showing the nature of Ranger work, an incident which occurred to my
acquaintance, Captain Lea Hall, will illustrate. In De Witt County there
was a feud. One dark night sixteen masked men took a sick man, one Dr.
Brazel, and two of his boys, from their beds, and, despite the imploring
mother and daughter, hanged the doctor and one son to a tree. The other
boy escaped in the green corn. Nothing was done to punish the crime, as
the lynchers were men of property and influence in the country. No man
dared speak above his breath about the affair.
Captain Hall, by secret-service men, discovered the perpetrators, and
also that they were to be gathered at a wedding on a certain night.
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