Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
along. On this occasion I followed the right-hand side of the road as usual when a car came
towardsusontheotherside,aman(?)atthewheelandaladysittingbehind.Thedriverdelib-
erately crossed the road towards us, and, as there was a fence, the horse could not jump down
into the ditch, a thing I often had to make him do to avoid serious accidents when ungentle-
manlydriverstriedtheirjokesonus.BeforeIcoulddoanythingthecarhitmyhorseviolently,
knocking him down, and opening a gash in his flank and left hind leg. The driver did not stop,
and before he disappeared around the curve he honked the horn and waved his hand at me.
If I had been armed, which was never the case after I had crossed the U.S. border, there is
no telling what I would have done to that man. There lay my dear companion who had taken
me over mountains, through deserts and jungles, over a distance of some 10,000 miles. Had
all our efforts been made to reach this spot, and be robbed of victory through the guilt of a
low-down 'road-hog', and this when we had almost reached the goal? Surely fate could not
be so cruel and luck adverse after having been kind to us in places where I had sometimes
expected we could not pull through. After the first shock Mancha rose, and although he bled
profusely, I found that no bones were broken. I washed him down at a stream, and at a farm-
house I obtained iodine, with which I disinfected the wounds. Although I informed the police
by 'phone, giving the number of the car and other details, I never heard from them, although
they promised to communicate with me; I shall always remember that. If I had been travelling
in an aeroplane instead of on a horse, and somebody had wilfully damaged a part of my ma-
chine, this would have been broadcast and printed as an unparalleled outrage and scandal, but
as things were there was a difference; yes, I must say, a vast difference!
DuringmyridethroughtheStatesIhadtwoincidentswithbootleggers;onewhenIleftthe
highway to follow a path into a wood where I intended to rest for an hour or so. I was looking
for a spot where there might be good grass, and had gone quite a distance without finding a
suitablespotwhenarough-lookingfellowstoppedmetoaskwhatIwasdoingthere.Asitwas
obvious that he was not sober, I simply continued, but I had not gone very far when another
ruffian held me up, and this by pointing a shotgun at me. He asked me what I was after, and
when I told him, he merely told me to 'get' and not to dare to come 'interferin'' around there
again,orelsetherewouldbetrouble.NaturallyIthoughtIwastrespassingonprivateproperty,
and having apologised returned to the highway. When I again passed the drunken fellow on
my way back, he was even more unfriendly than he had been before, and threatened to 'shoot
me full of holes' and made other unpleasant but obviously sincere promises and threats, such
as I had never heard even in Central America or Mexico, places that are reputed to be very
'tough'.
That evening, when I told some acquaintances about this strange happening, I heard from
good authority that 'moon-shiners' were working some stills in that wooded neighbourhood;
and as the sheriff is elected by public vote, many of the voters see to it that the man of their
choice is a non-interferer - and I was given to understand that it pays in every sense of the
word.
Search WWH ::




Custom Search