Once I came up from Wild Cat to get a load of rock salt for my cattle. I called at the Co-op. store, but it had none. Hugh McClellan, the man that the deputies always stopped with, said, "Drive me home, and I will let you have a load."
"Am I safe?"
"Perfectly; there will be no one here for three or four days."
I went, and was loading the salt into my wagon when Lish Goff, a rough man, supposedly unfriendly to me, pulled my sleeve, and nodded toward a side lane. There came Armstrong and McGary! I felt I was a "goner." Surely I could not escape this time! However, I picked up my lines and drove off. McClellan was as white as death.
As I turned my back to the marshals, I was not ten rods in advance of them. Goff stepped out, and told them dinner was ready. They wanted to go to the store, but he persuaded them to wait until after dinner. Thanks to Goff and the "deps" not knowing me, I escaped again.
In the fall, I loaded up a four-horse outfit with cheese to take up to the valley. On Monday morning I sent my little boys to the pasture to bring up my horses. As they were gone rather long, I stepped a few rods in front of the house to look out for them, and I heard a voice distinctly say, "Don't go today."
I consequently told the boys to saddle me a riding pony, and turn the work horses out and let them go to the mountain. Going down the road about ten miles, I turned off to Giles' sheep camp. Just as I reached the camp, we were visited with a heavy rainstorm, and as one happy result all previous tracks in the road were obliterated. On my return home I saw a fresh buggy track, and looking ahead three hundred yards, I beheld my friends, the enemy! I followed leisurely until the road made a curve around the head of a hollow, when I cut across and came in ahead of them. They helloed, but of course I did not hear. McGary stood up with his gun in his hand, but as I quickened my pace, he sat down again. Presently we came to the forks of the road; the right-hand went to Wild Cat, the left to Brinkerhoff's ranch. I took the left, riding leisurely so the buggy might follow. When within a mile of the ranch, I rode rapidly ahead, found everybody gone, and the door locked. I next rode over the brow of a rock ridge,
Then from behind a tree
I observed the enemy,
until the shadow of night settled down upon us, and they had unharnessed, tied up, and gathered wood to keep fire until morning. Then I went home to a loving family and a warm supper.
In the morning the deputies hunted until discouraged, and were on the eve of leaving the mountain when they met a stockman who gave me away by directing them to Wild Cat. They came, got their breakfast, then subpoenaed Tamar, and her daughters Harriet and May, to appear in court on a certain day. When the time came, I sent Albina, my first wife, with my daughters Harriet and May; instructing them, when before the jury to speak the truth freely about me, and promising that all should be well with them. They did so, and the court treated them respectfully, Marshal Armstrong being a gentleman and a friend to them. Tamar's health was delicate, and I determined she should not be dragged into court to be cross-questioned by lawyers; and, as often happened, censured and lectured by a missionary judge.