764 



CONSERVATION 



along all right with my uncle. Didn't 

 he have any last name? Guess he left 

 it somewhere, same as my uncle did. 

 Nobody called him Richard Freeman ; 

 it was just 'Dick,' and 'Dick's Station.' 

 . "The old California pioneers will 

 sometimes tell stories of the outlaws of 

 those days, and of the 'Hounds' and 

 the 'Sydney Ducks' who robbed and 

 murdered so many returning miners. 

 It was the crimes committed all over 

 California by such people that led to 

 the forming of the vigilance commit- 

 tees, you know. 



"One day a gang of nine men rode 

 up to my uncle's place. It was hot 

 weather, and for once he was caught 

 asleep in a chair. They piled into the 

 saloon and began spreading themselves 

 before my uncle could get to a weapon. 

 They took all the whisky and cigars 

 they wanted, an' treated him out of his 



but they were all sound and capable, 

 and hardly one but had his pistol 

 strapped on. They was eatin' supper. 

 They was easy clost, and the brush was 

 broken so that everything was plain to 

 be seen, but nobody noticed the man 

 an' the boy in the edge of the field by 

 the fence above the spring. 



"My uncle takes Brick back an' gets 

 hold of his hand a second. 'You'll do,' 

 was all he said, an' then they walks up 

 an' begins to shoot the men. 



"Well, in less than four minutes they 

 killed them all. If I was a novel writer 

 I could give you the details, an' make 

 a great fight of it. The boy shot four 

 men an' my uncle five, an' my 

 uncle chose the end where the most 

 dangerous-looking men were. It was 

 done awful quick an' complete. I think 

 they got a few shots back, but the sun 

 was in those fellers' eyes an' they didn't 



own stock. Of course, he knew enough damage my uncle nor Brick none. 



to be a good feller with the bunch. Brick, 

 you see, was somewhere around out- 

 side when this happened. Not that he 

 would have counted just then. 



"After the crowd was pretty well 

 satisfied that my uncle wouldn't hurt 

 a fly, they went off in the gulch by a 

 spring and made a camp. They took 

 a ham and some other truck out of his 

 cabin and began to get supper. Pretty 

 soon they shot some fresh pork. It 

 would have made a Quaker mad to see 

 how they acted. 



"Brick come home after a little, and 

 found my uncle round behind the cabin. 

 He had got together the rifles, and a 

 couple of the old Colonel Colt revolvers 

 and two shotguns crammed with buck- 

 shot 



" 'Here, Brick,' says my uncle, 'will 

 you stand by me in a fight?' — an' he 

 tells Brick all about the thing. 



'"Of course,' says Brick. 'What 

 you want me to do?' 



" 'Take that gun an' that pistol. It's 

 near sunset an' the men are at supper. 

 You begin at one end an' I'll begin at 

 the other, an' we'll shoot to kill.' 



"My uncle an' that sixteen-year-old 

 boy went out to the west edge of the 

 bank an' looked down on the camp. 

 The nine men had been drinking a lot, 



'My 



uncle sent Brick off to get some 

 of the cattlemen and ranchers to come 

 over. Then they found that every one 

 of the nine men had a bad record, and 

 the rewards on some of them summed 

 up $1,500. They collected that money 

 an' divided it. It was pay for one of 

 Joaquin's gang, an' an escaped con- 

 vict from Australia, and a big nigger 

 from Chili. 



"Brick sat and looked at his share, 

 one evening later, so my uncle used to 

 say. Then he remarked in the slow, 

 scared way he had, 'I ain't sorry I shot 

 them fellers, but I'd rather not get into 

 the habit of it, so I guess I'll take this 

 cash an' go back to Vermont.' 



" 'Can you stay there ?' says my uncle. 



" 'Yes, I can !' answers Brick, 'an' I 

 can get rich there, too.' 



"My uncle always said he had no 

 doubt that Brick held up the Ver- 

 monters. 



"About my uncle? Well, he had 

 managed it this way, you see : His 

 neighbors who helped to bury the dead 

 men knew that nine had been shot. But 

 the officers took notice of only the three 

 that carried rewards. It didn't make 

 much stir. He could have run for 

 sheriff, once, on the strength of it. He 

 went to Frazier River in the gold ex- 



