Such a person was sent for. Under John’s dictation, he wrote a letter to his mother. It was read to him, and he was so dissatisfied with it that he removed the rags from his frozen hands and fingers, and wrote himself.
He told his mother that he had been condemned to death, and would be executed in a few minutes. In explanation of his offence, he wrote that while coming from the Pacific side, to deal in horses, he had fallen into the company of bad men. They had beguiled him into the adoption of a career of infamy. He was to die for aiding in the robbery of a wagon, while engaged in which he had been wounded, and his companion was slain. His sentence, though severe, he acknowledged to be just.
Handing the letter to the Vigilantes, he quietly replaced the bandages upon his unhealed fingers. His manner, though grave and solemn, was composed and dignified. Something in his conduct showed that he truly loved his mother. Much sympathy for him was evinced in the manner and attention of those who conducted him to the place of execution, in an unfinished building at no great distance from his place of confinement. The first objects which met his gaze, as he stood beneath the fatal beam, were the bodies of Plummer and Stinson, the one laid out upon the floor for burial, the other upon a work-bench. He gazed upon their ghastly features unshrinkingly, and in clear tones asked leave to pray, which was readily granted. Kneeling down, amid the profound silence of a crowd of spectators, his lips moved rapidly, and his face wore a pleading expression, but his utterance was inaudible. Rising to his feet, while seemingly still engaged in prayer, he cast an expressive glance at the audience, and then surveyed the provisions made for his execution. A rope with the fatal noose dangled from the cross-beam, and beneath it stood a barrel, around which was a cord, whose ends, stretching across the floor, left no doubt as to the office it was extemporized to perform.
“How long,” he inquired, “will it take me to die? I have never seen a man hanged.”
“It will be very short, John,—very short. You will not suffer much pain,” was the reply of a Vigilante.
The poor wretch mounted the barrel, and stood perfectly unmoved while the rope was adjusted to his neck. The men laid hold of the rope which encircled the barrel. Everything being prepared, at the words, “All ready,” the barrel was jerked from beneath him, and the stalwart form of the robber, after several powerful struggles, hung calm and still. Dutch John had followed his leader to the other shore.
CHAPTER XXXVIII
VIRGINIA CITY EXECUTIONS
While the events I have just recorded were in progress at Bannack, the Vigilantes of Virginia City were not inactive. Alder Gulch had been the stronghold of the roughs ever since its discovery. Nearly all their predatory expeditions had been fitted out there. Being much the largest, richest, and most populous mining camp in the Territory, the opportunities it afforded for robbery were more frequent and promising, and less liable to discovery, than either Bannack or Deer Lodge. It was also filled with saloons, hurdy-gurdies, bagnios, and gambling-rooms, all of which were necessities in the lives of these free rangers of the mountains. At the time of which I write there was a population of at least twelve thousand, scattered through the various settlements from Junction to Summit, a distance of twelve miles. It was essentially a cosmopolitan community,—American in preponderance, but liberally sprinkled with people from all the nations of Europe. Some were going, and others coming, every day. Gold dust was abundant, and freedom from social and moral restraint characterized all classes, to an extent bordering upon criminal license.
The Vigilantes, more than ever, after it was decided to execute Plummer, comprehended the necessity for prompt and vigorous measures, as that event of itself would be the signal for all the guilty followers of that chief to fly the Territory. Accordingly, having ascertained that six of the robber band were still remaining in Virginia City, the Executive Committee decided upon effectual means for their immediate arrest. On the thirteenth day of January, three days after Plummer was executed, an order was quietly made for the Vigilantes to assemble at night in sufficient force to surround the city. Not a man was to be permitted to leave the city after the line of guards was established. Bill Hunter, one of the six marked for capture, suspecting the plot, effected his escape by crawling beyond the pickets in a drain ditch. The city was encircled, after nightfall, by more than five hundred armed men, so quietly that none within, except the Vigilantes, knew of it until the next morning. All that long winter night, while that cordon of iron men was quietly stretching along the heights overlooking the city, the Executive Committee sat in council, deliberating upon the evidences of guilt against the men enmeshed in their toils.
At the same time another small band was assembled around a faro table in the chamber of a gambling saloon. Jack Gallagher suddenly broke the silence of the game with the remark,