238 Sport and Life. 



arrived in due time. It was a somewhat memorable scene. The 

 canoe bringing him had been sighted from the enemy's camp, for 

 the little cove irt which it lay faced the south. Forgetting for 

 the moment all the dire threats exchanged by the two camps, 

 Winchesters and six-shooters were laid aside, and the inmates 

 of both camps streamed down to the shore to receive the 

 representative of the law. We were a motley little crowd, six 

 or seven on our side, for some necessary witnesses had arrived, 

 and twice that number in Hammil's party. The two camps had 

 each built themselves a log cabin or two, which, by the way, 

 were the first houses in West Kootenay, there being no others 

 within 100 miles. Hence it became unavoidable that Judge Kelly 

 should take up his quarters in one or the other of the rival camps. 

 " Now, boys," he addressed the crowd, " I think it will be fair to 

 both camps if I grub in the one and sleep in the other, so just 

 let me know who has got the better grub outfit," a little joke 

 which was greeted with merriment. A hasty exchange of 

 information concerning our respective culinary possessions 

 between Hammil and myself, left no doubt that the enemy's 

 grub box was far better stocked than ours. Molasses, onions, 

 and canned stuff, of which we had none, decided the question in 

 which camp the judge would take his meals. Every morning and 

 evening he was escorted to and fro from one camp to the other by 

 one or more of his late hosts, the distance being a few hundred 

 yards. 



The largest of the three shanties in the two camps was selected 

 as the court-house, where the trial took place. Every soul 

 except the judge was, of course, deeply concerned in the issue of 

 the litigation ; millions, we all thought, were at stake, and feelings 

 therefore ran very high, for Sprow 7 le's intense animosity had 

 -communicated itself to his witnesses as well as partners. That in 

 such a rough crowd, composed to a great extent of men who had 

 passed their lives in American mining camps, where men very 

 frequently take justice into their own hands, a trial lasting for 

 some weeks was not marred by a single affray was, under the 



