A BATTLE UNDERGROUND.

Auckland Star, Volume XLV, Issue 15, 17 January 1914, Page 17

A BATTLE UNDERGROUND.

DESPERADO'S FIGHT IN DARKNESS. TWO POLICE OFFICERS KILLED. A dispatch from Bingham, Utah, dated November 121 th, states: —In a battle underground, with only the flash t>f their 1 rifies-' breaking the darkness, Ralph Lopez, Mexican gunman, added possibly two more names to his list of killed late to-day, when he drove back a posse of deputy sheriffs in the Utah-Apex mine. Lopez, who started his career of crime ou November 21st by slaying the chief of police of Bingham, two deputies, and a fellow countryman, shouted from the depths of his stronghold to-night that it would cost many more lives before they "got him." The men whom he shot to-day were Deputies Douglas illulsey and Tom Mandrich, who at a late hour to-night still lay where the - fell. The deputies, before entering the Andy tunnel of the mine this afternoon, arranged a signal of four taps on a pipe line iv case of distress. Shortly after the shooting the signal was heard coming from one of the fallen deputies. Then it ceased, and •was not repeated. Arrangements were made to-night to attempt to bring out the two in a mine motor car, and it was expected that this would precipitate another engagement with Lopez. The shooting to-day resulted, when a half-dozen deputies .penetrated the Andy tunnel 000 feet in order to light a smudge to simoke the desperado out. As soou as Hulsey struck a match he was shot down by Lopez. In the exchange of shots that followed ilandricli fell, and then the other deputies retreated. It was at first reported that Dr. David ■Ray, who was superintending the mixing of chemicals for the smudge, had been shot also, but later he appeared at the mine's mouth, having crawled from beside the faiacn deputies on his hands and knees. Deputy Sheriff Julian Sorenson, the only survivor of the four officers who started in pursuit of Lopez on November 21st, crept into the minp to-night to hunt down and ehguge the Mexican single handed. At a late hour he had not been heard _wm. The deputies, who were cut off from the exit during the engagement with the desperado, came out -to-night through the Andy tunnel, after creeping: past rbhe incline in which Lopez is located. They beard no sound w<hen they unwrttinglj- passed the sipot wahere -the two deputies fell, and it is taken for granted that they are dead.