“I’ll trouble you for your six-shooters, gentlemen,” now said the leader.
“I’ll give ’em to you in a way you don’t want,” replied Simpson.
The next moment three guns were leveled at Simpson. “If you make a move you are a dead man,” said the leader.
Simpson saw at a glance that he was taken at a great disadvantage, and thinking it advisable not to risk the lives of the party by any rash act on his part, he said, “I see now that you have the best of me; but who are you, anyhow?”
“I am Joe Smith,” was the reply.
“What! the leader of the Danites?” asked Simpson.
“You are correct,” said Smith, for he it was.
“Yes,” said Simpson, “I know you now; you are a spying scoundrel.”
Simpson had good reason for calling him this, for only a short time before this Joe Smith had visited our train in the disguise of a teamster, and had remained with us two days. He suddenly disappeared, no one knowing where he had gone or why he had come among us. But it was all explained to us, now that he had returned with his Mormon Danites. After they had disarmed us, Simpson asked,
“Well, Smith, what are you going to do with us?”