“Vi-gi-lan-tes! What’s that?”
“Why, don’t you know about the Vigilantes? No, I don’t suppose you do. Even Miss Wallace didn’t till I told her. Why, the Vigilantes were brave men in the early days when the Pioneers were just going into Montana and Wyoming and the other States out there. You see, when they discovered that those States had such rich lands for wheat, and hills for cattle, and gold mines—especially the gold—people just flocked there by thousands. And, of course, there were many thieves and cutthroats and lawless men who went, too, and they just became the terror of the country.
“They rode swift horses, and they knew all the passes in the mountains. When they heard a train of men and horses was coming from the mines, they would lie in wait in the mountains and come down upon them, steal their gold and horses and murder any who resisted. It wasn’t safe to take any journeys in those days.”
“Well, but why did the people allow it? Why weren’t they arrested?” Priscilla in her interest had forgotten all about being out-of-sorts.
“Why, you see the people couldn’t help it at first. The country was so very new that law hadn’t been made. The government did send judges out there; but there were so many lawless men that they threatened even the judges; and, besides, these robbers were perfectly wonderful shots, and they would scare the people so terribly that they were glad to get away with their lives.
“But by and by things grew so bad, and so many innocent persons who dared oppose the robbers were shot down, that some men banded together, and called themselves the Vigilantes. They pledged themselves to watch out for evil-doers, to stand for fair play, and to put a stop to robbery and murder. Of course, it was very hard at first, and many of the Vigilantes lost their lives; but pretty soon other bands were formed in the other towns, and they kept on, no matter how discouraged they were at times. They used to post signs on the roads that led to towns; and sometimes they would draw in red chalk on a cliff or even on the paving in town, warning the robbers and murderers that if they came into that place they would be captured.”
“What did they do if they captured them?”
“They most usually hung them to a tree. The big tall cottonwoods out there are called ‘gallows trees,’ because they used to hang so many to their branches. It seems wicked now, of course,” Virginia explained, seeing the horror on Priscilla’s face, “to kill them like that—sometimes even without a trial. But really, Priscilla, they couldn’t do anything else in order to save the good people from danger.”
“No, of course, they couldn’t. Mustn’t it have been exciting?”
“Exciting? I rather think it was exciting! Jim used to tell me about it. There was one place in Montana named Virginia City where there were many of the Vigilantes. You see, there were very rich gold mines there, and that meant there were lawless men, too. Jim was there once, and he could remember some of the Vigilantes. He said there was one awful man who had killed scores of persons, and who was the terror of the whole country. And the strangest part of it was, he was nice-looking and talked like a gentleman. The Vigilantes watched for him for ten years before they got him.”