CHAPTER XX

“YOU DAMNED JUDAS”

NOT for years had Shoshone County been so interested in any public event as it was in the trial of Rowan McCoy for the murder of Dan Gilroy. Scores of ranchmen had driven in from the hills to be present either as witnesses or spectators. North of town was a camp with two chuck wagons where the cattlemen kept open house for all the range riders who had ridden down to Wagon Wheel. A beef had been killed and a cook engaged. Everybody was welcome to help himself. At the opposite end of town the sheepmen also had a camp, for the two small hotels were entirely inadequate to hold those in attendance.

The sentiment of the people was strong for a conviction. Rowan had many friends, and the cattle interests were anxious to see him acquitted. But the killing of Gilroy had been so unprovoked that it had aroused a bitter and widespread resentment. The feeling of those not involved in the cattle and sheep war was that an example must be made. Shoshone County had irrigated lands for sale. Its oil fields were on the market for exploitation. Its citizens were eager to prove to the world of investment that the wild, turbulent days were past, that Wyoming had arrived at a responsible sobriety which would not tolerate lawlessness. Once for all they meant to show the night raiders that they were within reach of the courts.

Haight, the new district attorney, was a young man, almost a stranger in the county, and he wanted a record for convictions. Therefore he brought McCoy to trial for the murder of Gilroy rather than Tait. Gilroy had many friends and no personal enemies. He was a quiet, peaceable man. Apparently he had been shot while unarmed and trying to escape. His killing had been wanton and unprovoked. It might be claimed that Tait had always wanted trouble and that he had been struck down while firing at his enemies. But in the case of Gilroy this plea would not stand.

The courtroom was crowded to the windows. Two bailiffs stood at the door and searched every man that entered; for the feeling was so intense that the authorities did not want to take the chance of any possible outbreak. A gun in a hip pocket was too easy to reach.

In his opening statement the district attorney told the story of the sheep and cattle war. He traced the source of the bad feeling between the prisoner and Tait, and showed that the bitterness extended to Silcott and Falkner, two others charged with this murder, one of whom had been wounded and the other beaten up by the sheepman. The prosecution would prove that both Silcott and Falkner had made threats against Tait, that Falkner had been seen to take a rifle from a ranch bunk house in the dead of night, and that McCoy had led the party which killed the two sheepmen. It was, he claimed, immaterial to the case of the State whether McCoy had or had not fired the shot that killed Gilroy. He would introduce evidence tending to show that the prisoner actually had fired the shot, but his honour would tell the jury that this was not necessary to prove guilt. The testimony would show that McCoy with three of his companions rode back to the Circle Diamond Ranch, pretended to the housekeeper that they had spent the night there, and after breakfast returned to the round-up camp, burying on the way the rifle that Falkner had been seen to take the night before.