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

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“I’m not heeled”—the mountain phrase for “I am not armed.”

“Then go and heel yourself,” said Mayfield, sheathing his revolver, “and look out the next time you meet me, for I’m bound to kill you at sight. One of us must die.”

The next day, while Mayfield and two friends were walking in the suburbs, they came upon a muddy spot, across which a narrow plank had been laid. This necessitated crossing it in single file. Mayfield was in the centre. Evans was in a cabin beside the crossing, but a few feet distant. Seizing a double-barrelled shotgun, he fired upon Mayfield from his place of concealment, through an open window. Mayfield grasped for his revolver, but fell without power to draw it, exclaiming “I’m shot.” He died in two hours, illustrating in his demise the Scriptural axiom, “With what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.” Evans was immediately arrested, but escaped from jail that night, and being furnished with a horse by a friend, fled the country, and was never apprehended.