14 RANCH LIFE AND THE HUNTING-TRAIL 



men killed in this way, when the affair was wholly one-sided, than I have 

 known to be shot in fair fight ; and I have known fijlly as many who 

 were shot by accident. It is wonderfiil, in the event of a street fight, how 

 few bullets seem to hit the men they are aimed at. 



During the last two or three years the stockmen have united to 

 put down all these dangerous characters, often by the most summary 

 exercise of lynch law. Notorious bullies and murderers have been 

 taken out and hung, while the bands of horse and cattle thieves have 

 been regularly hunted down and destroyed in pitched fights by parties 

 of armed cowboys ; and as a consequence most of our territory is now 

 perfectly law-abiding. One such fight occurred north of me early last 

 spring. The horse-thieves were overtaken on the banks of the Missouri ; 

 two of their number were slain, and the others were driven on the ice, 

 which broke, and two more were drowned. A few months previously 

 another gang, whose headquarters were near the Canadian line, were 

 surprised in their hut ; two or three were shot down by the cowboys as 

 they tried to come out, while the rest barricaded themselves in and fought 

 until the great log-hut was set on fire, when they broke forth in a body, 

 and nearly all were killed at once, only one or two making their escape. 

 A little over two years ago one committee of vigilantes in eastern Mon- 

 tana shot or hung nearly sixty — not, however, with the best judgment 

 in all cases. 



