John reluctantly complied, all the while protesting his innocence. When, however, the shoulder was bared, the scarcely healed perforation settled all doubts in Howie’s mind concerning the personal identity of his prisoner.
“How is it,” said he, “if you are not the man, that you have this scar?”
“I got it accidentally while asleep by my camp-fire. It was cold, and I lay near the fire. My clothes caught fire, and the cap ignited, discharging my pistol, which was strapped to my side.”
“Let me prove to you that this story cannot be true,” said Neil.
Placing a cap upon a stick, he held it in the hottest blaze of the camp-fire. Minutes elapsed before it exploded.
“Do you not see,” he continued, “that long before the cap on your pistol would have exploded, you would have been burned to death? But there is still another reason. If it had exploded, as you say, the ball could never have wounded your shoulder. You must go with me to Bannack. If you can prove your innocence there, as I hope you may, it will all be well with you.”
Leaving his prisoner in charge of the train company, Neil started in pursuit of a person to aid in conveying him to Bannack. Unsuccessful in this, he left with John in company, and proceeded to Dry Creek, where was a camp of fifty or sixty teamsters. Such was their fear of the roughs that they one and all refused to assist him. While deliberating what next to do, a man by the name of Irvine suggested to him that if Fetherstun could be induced to aid, he would be a suitable man for the purpose. Neil went immediately to Fetherstun’s camp, fully determined, if again rebuffed, to attempt the journey with his prisoner alone. Fetherstun volunteered without hesitation, and for the two following days while awaiting an abatement in the weather, took the prisoner in charge and confined him, under guard, in the cabin he had left but the day before.
On the third day Howie and Fetherstun started with John for Bannack, the weather still so severe that they were obliged every few miles to stop and build fires to escape freezing. On one of these occasions, while Fetherstun was holding the horses and Howie building a fire, their guns having been deposited some forty feet away, the prisoner, under pretence of gathering some dry wood which was in a direct line beyond the guns, walked rapidly towards them, intending evidently to possess himself of the weapons, and fight his way to an escape. His design, however, was frustrated by his captors, who fortunately secured the guns before he could reach them.
During the night when they were encamped at Red Rock, misled by the apparent slumber of his captors, John rose up, but, upon gazing around, met the fixed eye of Howie, and immediately resumed his recumbency. As the night wore on, the two men, worn with fatigue, again sunk into repose. Assured by their heavy breathing, John again rose up, but scarcely had he done so when Neil, rising too, said quietly,
“John, if you do that again, I’ll kill you.”