During the night Lyons sent for one of the citizens, who, under cover of the guns of the guard, approached and asked him what he wanted.
“I want you,” said he, “to release Stinson and Forbes. I killed Dillingham. I came here for that express purpose. They are innocent. I was sent here by the best men in Bannack to kill him.”
“Who sent you?” inquired the citizen.
After naming several of the best citizens of Bannack, who knew nothing of the murder until several days after it was committed, he added,
“Henry Plummer told me to shoot him.” It was afterwards proven that this was true.
Hayes Lyons was greatly unnerved, and cried a great part of the night; but Buck Stinson was wholly unconcerned, and slept soundly.
The trial was resumed the next morning. At noon, the arguments being concluded, the question of “guilty or not guilty,” was submitted to the people, and decided almost unanimously in the affirmative.
“What shall be their punishment?” asked the president of the now eager crowd.
“Hang them,” was the united response.
Men were immediately appointed to erect a scaffold, and dig the graves of the doomed criminals, who were taken into custody to await the result of the trial of Forbes. This followed immediately; and the loaded pistol, and the fact that when the onslaught was made upon Dillingham, he called out, “Don’t shoot, don’t shoot,” were used in evidence with good effect. When the question was finally put, Forbes, who was a young man of fine personal appearance, and possessed of good powers as a speaker, made a personal appeal to the crowd, which so wrought upon their sympathies, and was so eloquent withal, that they acquitted him by a large majority. In marked contrast with the spirit which they had exhibited a few hours before while condemning Stinson and Lyons to a violent death, the people, upon the acquittal of Forbes, crowded around him with shouts and laughter, eager to shake hands with and congratulate him upon his escape. Months afterwards, when the excitement of the occasion, with the memory of it, has passed from men’s minds, Charley Forbes was heard vauntingly to say that he was the slayer of Dillingham. He was known to deride the tender susceptibilities of the people, who gave him liberty to renew his desperate career, and chuckle over the exercise of powers of person and mind that could make so many believe even Truth herself to be a liar. Among the villains belonging to Plummer’s band, not one, not even Plummer himself, possessed a more depraved nature than Forbes; and with it, few, if any, were gifted with as many shining accomplishments. He was a prince of cut-throats, uniting with the coolness of Augustus Tomlinson all the adaptability of Paul Clifford. On one occasion he said to a gentleman about to leave the Territory,