Ranch Life 99 



his own, well-watered, and his stock roamed over 

 a couple of leagues of rolling hills. One day a 

 man and his wife filed their claim to a quarter 

 section (160 acres) of these hills, and began to 

 build a cabin. The first squatter protested and 

 blasphemed — in vain. Finally, he and his son 

 and a nephew deliberately stalked the stranger, 

 and shot him dead on his own land ; they also 

 shot and wounded the wife, who dragged herself 

 several miles to a neighbour, and recited the facts. 

 Within twenty-four hours the murderers were 

 locked up in the village "calaboose," and during 

 the following night they were taken out and 

 lynched. The Vigilantes hanged them from a 

 bridge not a mile from our ranch-house, and some 

 children, crossing the bridge on the road to school, 

 found the bodies stiff and stark at the end of two 

 stout ropes. A rope had been provided for the 

 nephew ; but at the last moment, as he stood shiv- 

 ering upon the ragged edge of eternity, he was 

 released and commanded to leave the county for 

 ever. He needed, I have been told, no urging. 

 This case has a certain interest, because the old 

 man, it appeared, had not fired a single shot ; but 

 it was equally certain that he, and he alone, had 

 planned the affair. Further, he was rich, and the 

 people in our county were only too well aware 

 that in California it is easier for a camel to pass 

 through the eye of a needle than for a rich man 

 to be convicted of murder in the first degree and 

 executed. Accordingly, they very properly hanged 

 an old scoundrel who otherwise would have escaped 

 almost scot-free. 



