The prisoners had been placed in safe hands and with their guards were eating supper near, so the scout had an opportunity to see how much kindness was bestowed upon the two men.
“You see the boys wish to do the best they can for them, as they regard them as dying men,” explained the storekeeper.
“Dying men?”
“Well it amounts to that, as we shall try them after supper, and that means a verdict of guilty.”
“What is the use of trying them if the verdict is assured?” asked Buffalo Bill, with a smile.
“Well, for effect. You caught them trying to break into Deadshot Dean’s cabin and rob it, and you brought here with you the implements they used, while you bear testimony to their guilt.”
“True, but why not run them out of the camps, under penalty of death if they return?”
“That would never do, for, of course, every fellow that is run out has a purse made up for him by the sympathetic miners, and hereafter every man that wanted money would do some act to be sent away for, whereas if we try these men, find them guilty and hang them, Pocket City will rid itself of two notorious scoundrels and their end will serve as a wholesome lesson for others.”
“Well, if they are all you say they are they deserve hanging, yet I suppose it would have been better for me to have taken them to the fort to get justice.”
“They will get justice here, for we will try them by the law of right. Now let us go and arrange for the trial.”