Page:The Overland Monthly Volume 5 Issue 3.djvu/86



"Take him—he is braver than Lucifer —and not a hair of your head shall be hurt."

Wabash then solemnly shook hands with his old companions, and rode on. English and his remaining comrades returned to Lewiston.

We reached Walla Walla safely, and I never saw Wabash or Baboon again. But a letter lies before me as I write, postmarked Easton, Northampton County, Pennsylvania, and signed "Old Baboon." This letter contains the following paragraph:

"The house stands in this wood of elms. We have two California grizzlies, and a pair of bull-dogs. Wabash keeps

the dogs chained, but I let the grizzlies go free. We are not troubled with visitors."

Scott, English, and Peoples were arrested, some months later, for highway robbery, and, heavily ironed, were placed

under guard, in a log-house, as a temporary jail. That night was born the first Vigilance Committee of the north. It consisted of but six men, mostly Expressmen. About midnight, under pretense of furnishing the guard with refreshments, they got hold of their arms, and told the prisoners they must die. Scott asked time to pray; English swore furiously, but Peoples was silent. Soon one of the Vigilantes approached Scott,

where he was kneeling, and was about to place a noose over his head.

"Hang me first," cried English, "and let him pray."

The wonderful courage of the man appealed strongly to the Vigilantes, but they had gone too far to falter now. They had but one rope, and proceeded to execute them, one ata time. When the rope was around the neck of English, he was respectfully asked by his executioners to invoke his God. He held down his head a moment, muttered something, then straightened himself up, and turning to Scott, said:

"Nelse, pray for me a little, can't you, while I hang? D—— if I can pray."

He looked over to where Peoples sat, still as a stone, and continued, "D—— if I can pray, Billy; can you?"

Peoples died without a word or struggle. When they came to Scott, and put the rope about his neck, he was still praying most devoutly. He offered, for his life, large sums of money, which he said he had buried; but they told him he must die. Finding there was no escape, he took off his watch and rings, kissed them tenderly, and handing them to one of the Vigilantes, said, "Send these to my poor Armina," and quietly submitted. At dawn the three men, eyes aglare, lay side by side, in their irons, on the floor, rigid in death.