320 MY SPORTING HOLIDAYS 



from Cheyenne, and about forty in number, all told, 

 proceeded to surround the hut. Two men were 

 found in the hut, one of whom was killed, the other 

 managing in some extraordinary way to make good 

 his escape. He fled to Caspar with the news of the 

 invasion. The town rose like a hornets' nest and 

 sallied forth to do battle with the cattle -owning 

 invaders who had thus gratuitously presumed to inter- 

 fere in its affairs. Caspar claimed the sole right to 

 deal with the eccentricities of its own citizens, and, if 

 there was any shooting to be done, the inhabitants 

 proposed to do it themselves. So it happened that 

 sixty indignant townsmen surrounded the cattle-men, 

 who were compelled to barricade themselves in the 

 log-hut. Serious bloodshed was only prevented by 

 the timely arrival of a regiment of troops from the 

 neighbouring military post. The invading cattle- 

 men were taken back to Cheyenne, where they lay in 

 gaol for a month, and were only finally released on 

 some technical plea. As a matter of fact, the case 

 was never tried on its merits. Among my inform- 

 ants was one of the hired rangers already mentioned. 

 He concluded a graphic account of the incident as 

 follows : 



' We rangers were all right. When we found 

 there were only two men in the hut, we looked on 

 and left the job to the cattle-men. They didn't 

 shoot straight, and so let one man get away and 

 bring the Caspar gang down upon 'em. But,' he con- 

 tinued, ' I guess the cattle-men were too influential a 

 crowd to hang. We rangers were a bit off the job, 

 any way, when we found the " woman-strangler " was 

 one of their leaders. For me,' he concluded, 'they 

 can do their killin' without my company next time.' 



