“Most just judge!”
Dr. Steele, though embarrassed by his ill-timed jocularity, was so well satisfied with his sagacity in finding out what a nonsuit meant, without betraying his legal unlearnedness, that the joke was taken in good part, and formed a subject of frequent merriment in after times.
Charley Forbes was the clerk of the court, and sat beside the judge taking notes of the trial. After the decision denying the motion, the plaintiff passed around a bottle of liquor, of which the court and jury partook. Not to be outdone, the defendant circulated a box of cigars. And it was while the spectators were giving expression in various forms to their approval of the decision, that Stinson and Lyons came into the court, and proceeding to the seat occupied by Forbes, engaged with him in a whispered conversation inaudible to the bystanders. After a few moments, Forbes suddenly rose in his place, and, with an oath, exclaimed,
“Well, we’ll kill the scoundrel then, at once,” and accompanied Stinson and Lyons out of the wakiup. The audience, startled by the announcement, hurriedly followed. Dillingham had come over from Bannack in his capacity as deputy sheriff, to look for some stolen horses. He had come on the ground a moment before, in search of Mr. Todd, the deputy at Virginia City, for assistance.
An assemblage of a hundred or more miners and others was congregated in and about the place where the court was in progress,—some intent upon the trial, others sauntering through the crowd and along the bank of Alder Creek. The three ruffians, after a moment’s conversation, approached in company the spot where Dillingham stood.
“We want to see you,” said Lyons, addressing him. “Step this way a moment.”
Stinson advanced a few paces, and looking over his shoulder said to his companions,
“Bring him along. Make him come.”
Dillingham waited for no second invitation. Evidently supposing that they had some matter of business to communicate, he accompanied them to an open spot not more than ten paces distant. There they all stopped, and facing Dillingham, with a muttered curse Lyons said to him,
“Take back those lies,” when with the quickness of thought, they drew their revolvers,—Charley Forbes at the same time exclaiming, “Don’t shoot, don’t shoot,”—and fired upon him simultaneously. The groan which Lyons’ ball drew from the poor victim as it entered his thigh, was hushed by the bullet of Forbes, as it passed through his breast, inflicting a mortal wound. He fell, and died in a few moments. Jack Gallagher, who was in the plot, rushed up, and in his capacity as a deputy sheriff, seized the pistols of the three ruffians, one of which, while unobserved, he reloaded, intending thereby to prevent the identification of the villain who fired the fatal shot.