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

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After the affray which terminated in the death of Cherokee Bob and Willoughby, the Vigilantes of Florence met, passed congratulatory resolutions, and renewed their measures for the effective suppression of crime in their midst. Their Executive Committee was instructed to warn all suspicious characters to leave the place immediately,—and they determined to visit with condign punishment those who disobeyed. The leading men among the offenders had fled in anticipation of some public demonstration, so that those who remained were few and powerless. Among these was a tall, lean, cadaverous individual, derisively called “Fat Jack,” who, like Happy Harry, belonged to that class of negative scoundrels, whose love for crime is confined by fear to petty thefts. Fat Jack obeyed the order to leave, and went to Walla Walla. Brooding over his expulsion with increasing indignation, and encouraged in the belief that he could return without molestation, after a short period he went back to Florence, muttering by the way violent threats against those who had banished him. Two months had elapsed since his hegira. It was late in the afternoon of a cold, stormy, March day when he entered the town. At his first appearance he was promptly waited upon by the members of the Executive Committee, who ordered him to retrace his steps at once, or he would be hanged. Hard as this order may seem to the casual reader, to have neglected it would have endangered the efficiency of the committee and opened a way for a return of the roughs to their old haunts.