When the specified
hour had passed, twelve double-barreled shotguns were loaded with
buckshot, and in a body the vigilantes hunted these men down as they
would mad dogs and riddled each one through and through with the big
shot! It was an awful thing to do, but it seems to have been
absolutely necessary and the only way of establishing law and order.
Our friends at Fort Dodge tell us that the place is now quite decent,
and that a man can safely walk in the streets without pistols and a
belt full of cartridges.
FORT LYON, COLORADO TERRITORY,
October, 1873.
ONE naturally looks for all sorts of thrilling experiences when out on
the frontier, but to have men and things mix themselves up in a
maddening way in one's very own house, as has recently been done in
mine, is something not usually counted upon. To begin with, Mrs. Rae
is with us, and her coming was not only most unlocked for up to two
days ago, but through a wretched mistake in a telegram she got here
just twenty-four hours before we thought she would arrive. Ordinarily
this would have been a delightful surprise, but, unfortunately, things
had begun to "mix!"
Faye had suffered so much from the wound in his head that very little
attention had been given the house since my return from the East,
therefore it was not in the very best of order.
