Читать книгу Vigilante Days and Ways. The pioneers of the Rockies; the makers and making of Montana and Idaho онлайн

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The two shebangs swarmed with ruffians. On one occasion a party of half a dozen, while riding in the vicinity of Craig’s Mountain, were stopped by a volley from the shebang, which, being harmless, was returned. A number of well-mounted robbers started in pursuit. The party escaped by hard spurring, one of the number, to lighten his burden, throwing several large bags of gold dust into the grass. They were afterwards recovered. A butcher by the name of Harkness, of Oro Fino, was also assaulted, and fired upon, who owed his deliverance to the fleetness of his horse. Owners of pack trains never attempted to pass without force sufficient to intimidate the robbers.

The other shebang was used as a receptacle for stolen horses. It was under the superintendence of a noted horse-thief by the name of Turner, who had been a partner in the business with Bill Bunton. Any member of the band, whose claim to recognition was founded upon success in any thieving or bloody enterprise, could leave his jaded steed here in exchange for a fresh one. A single incident will illustrate the manner in which many of the horses were obtained. A gentleman riding a beautiful young mare, on his way from Oregon to Oro Fino, while she was drinking from the stream near by, was suddenly confronted by a man, who claimed her as his property. Several persons were witnesses to the meeting. Drawing a bill of sale of the mare, from his pocket, which he had obtained five hundred miles away, he dismounted, and was about to prove his ownership, when the ruffian jumped into the saddle, and, seizing the bridle, rode rapidly away. The wayfarer called upon the by-standers to assist in the recapture of the animal, instead of which they knocked him down, stripped him of everything in his pockets, and told him to leave. He entered Lewiston utterly destitute.