AND OTHER HUNTING ADVENTURES. 215 



there were a few respectable general stores, half a 

 dozen so-called hotels, shops, etc. The town was 

 full to overflowing with gamblers, rustlers, hunters, 

 cowboys, Mexican rancheros, northern sight- seers, 

 adventurers, commercial travelers, etc. 



All day and all night could be heard the call of 

 the croupier at the gambling-table as he announced 

 the numbers and combinations that the wheel or 

 cards produced in the course of the manipulations 

 to which his deft fingers subjected them. 



Hot words often came from fortunate and unfortu- 

 nate gamesters, and the short, sharp report of the six- 

 shooter, the shouts of combatants, the groans of 

 wounded or dying men, the clatter of heavy boots 

 or spurs on the feet of stampeded spectators were 

 sounds that, nearly every night, greeted the ears 

 of the populace. 



Mob law reigned supreme, and there was little 

 effort on the part of the village authorities to punish 

 offenders. Sometimes Judge Lynch' s court was 

 convened on short notice, and someone who had 

 committed an unusually flagrant violation of the 

 "law of honor" and had killed a man without due 

 provocation, was hurriedly tried and strung up to 

 the nearest tree. 



One evening in the month of November, the excite- 

 ment was varied by the arrival of a u bull-train " * 

 of ten wagons loaded with buffalo skins. They 

 drove to the warehouse of the largest trader in the 



* What is known on the frontier as a " bull-train " is a number of 

 ponderous wagons, drawn by from six to ten yoke of oxen each, 

 used for hauling heavy freight across the plains. 



