JOHN FETHERSTUN
Overland express messenger
Fetherstun, anticipating an attack by the crew, stepped into a corner, and drew his revolver. Those of my readers who have since had frequent opportunity to estimate the cool, determined courage of the man, will know that this preliminary movement was only preparatory to the desperate heroism and energy with which, had occasion required it, he would then have sold his life to a crowd of supposed desperadoes. They took the prisoner away without resistance, and Fetherstun returned to his hotel. Four or five men were there, of whom, on inquiry, he learned that Howie had not been there. As soon as he heard this, he said to them,
“Gentlemen, I don’t know whom I am addressing, but if you’re the right kind of men, I want you to follow me. I am afraid the road agents have killed Neil Howie. He left me half an hour ago, to be back in five minutes.”
He seized his gun, and was about to leave when a man opened the door, and told him not to be uneasy. This seemed to satisfy all the company except Fetherstun. He left the hotel, gun in hand, and at no great distance came to a cabin filled with men, with Dutch John as the central figure. Being denied admission, he demanded his prisoner. He was told that they were examining him. The men whom Fetherstun had mistaken as road agents had mistaken him for the same. Explanations soon set both right, and John was restored to the custody of Howie and Fethertsun, who marched him back to the hotel, where he was again examined.
After many denials and prevarications, he finally made a full confession of guilt, and corroborated the statements which “Red” had made, implicating the persons whose names are contained in the list he had furnished. This concluded the labors of that day, and at a late hour Howie and Fetherstun, unable to obtain lodgings for their prisoner in any of the inhabited dwellings of Bannack, took him to an empty cabin on Yankee Flat.
CHAPTER XXXV
EXECUTION OF PLUMMER
Retribution followed rapidly upon the heels of disclosure. The organization of the Vigilantes of Nevada and Virginia City was effected as quietly as possible, but it embraced nearly every good citizen in Alder Gulch. Men who before the execution of Ives were seemingly indifferent to the bloody acts of the desperadoes, and even questioned the expediency of that procedure, were now eager for the speedy destruction of the entire band. Every man whose name appeared on the list furnished by Yager (“Red”) was marked for early examination, and, if found guilty, for condign punishment. The miners forsook their work in the gulch to engage in the pursuit and capture of the ruffians, regardless alike of their personal interests, the freezing weather of a severe winter, and the utter desolation of a country but partially explored, immense in extent, destitute of roads, and unfurnished even by nature with any protection against exposure.
The crisis demanded speedy action. The delay of a day or even an hour might enable the leading ruffians to escape, and thus defeat the force of a great and efficient example. The ruffians themselves had taken the alarm. Many of them were on their return to Walla Walla, and others were making preparations for leaving. It was of special importance to the object in hand, that Plummer, the chief of the robber band, should be the first to suffer. That individual, ignorant of the disclosures that had been made by Yager, was at Bannack, quietly preparing for an early departure from the Territory. Calm and placid in outward seeming, his conduct bore evidence that he was all terror within. He was too familiar with the extreme phases of character not to suspect that he had possibly been betrayed by some of the number that had been captured, though much too polite and sagacious to manifest by his deportment the presence of any such suspicion. But he was constantly on the alert. Not a beat in the pulse of the community escaped his notice. Not a strange face that he did not closely scan, nor a gathering occur whose details escaped him. The language of looks and signs and movements was as familiar to him as that of words, and in it he read plainly and unmistakably that his reign of deception was at an end. The people had found him out, and he knew it. His only mistake was that he delayed action until it was too late.
At a late hour of the same night that Dutch John was examined, four Vigilantes arrived at Bannack from Virginia City, with intelligence of the organization at that place, asking the coöperation of the citizens of Bannack, and ordering the immediate execution of Plummer, Stinson, and Ray. A hurried meeting was held, and the Sabbath daylight dawned upon a branch organization at Bannack. The day wore on unmarked by any noticeable event until late in the afternoon. Three horses were then brought into town, which were recognized as belonging to the three murderers.