“What do you propose we do with him? Slap him on the wrist and tell him not to do it again?”
“I propose we hold a trial.”
“Mr. Cason, I appreciate what you are trying to do,” Captain Story said. “But think about this. If we had a trial, by jury, the jury would have to come from among our own number. Isn’t that right?”
“Yes.”
“That means that we would select a jury from right here. Do you really think there are twelve men here who would say Plummer is not guilty?”
“Hell no!” several from the crowd shouted.
“Do you think there are six men? Three? Two?” Story asked. “If you can find one man in this crowd, who would vote against hanging these outlaws, I would consider waiting.”
James looked into the faces of all those present. It was obvious by their expressions that not one among their number would vote for leniency for Plummer or the two men who stood with him.
“I don’t think I could find one man,” James said.
“I don’t think so, either,” Story said. “That means that for all practical purposes we have just had his trial, haven’t we?” Story turned to the crowd. “Gentlemen of the jury, how say you?”
“Guilty!” they shouted as one.
“So say you one, so say you all?”
“Guilty!” they shouted again.
Story turned to Plummer. “All right, Plummer, you heard the verdict. Get up there.”
“No,” Plummer said. “Story, you can’t do this. You’ve got no right to do this.”
“Wait!” one of the miners shouted. When the others looked at him, he said, “Hang Plummer’s two pards first. I want Plummer to watch it, so he’ll know what’s going to happen to him.”
“Yes!” several others agreed.
“All right. We’ll hang the others first,” Story agreed.
James stood in the crowd, feeling uneasy about what he was seeing but knowing that there was nothing he could do about it, and also knowing that, though technically wrong, justice was being served.
Plummer’s henchmen went to the gallows, one at a time. Though both were offered a chance to say their last words, neither accepted the offer. James had to give them credit for facing the end stoically.
Now it was time for Plummer, and Plummer looked over at the ground behind the gallows where lay the bodies of two men who, but moments earlier, had been living creatures. Plummer began to shake uncontrollably.
“No,” he said. He sunk to his knees. “No, please! I beg of you! I don’t want to die! Cut off my finger, my hand, a foot! But spare me! Let me live! Please, have mercy!”
“Like you had mercy on over one hundred men?” Story replied. “Henry Plummer, you have killed many a man for their money, and every man you killed was a better man than you.”
Captain Story nodded at the hangman, and the hangman slipped the noose around Plummer’s neck.
At that moment, Plummer seemed to find some modicum of courage. He quit begging, pulled himself together, and looked straight ahead. “All right, boys, if you are going to do this, give me a good drop,” he said.
Plummer was pushed off the stand. He dropped quickly, was brought up short at the end of the rope, then twisted slowly in a quarter turn to the left.
James intended to tell Revelation about the day’s events as soon as he returned home. Before he could do so, however, she told him about Bob being killed.
“He’s been dead for nearly three months,” she said. “All this time we thought he was alive, but he wasn’t. He was dead while I was reading the letter from him, but I didn’t know that. Somehow, that doesn’t seem right.”
Although she had cried when she read the letter, she cried again now as she told James about it, and James held her in his arms until she was all cried out. He let her cry for as long as she wanted, making no effort to stop her. In his mind he replayed moments from his lifelong friendship with Bob, the times they fished, hunted, and wrestled together. He could always beat him in running. James held Revelation close to him and felt her tears on his own cheeks and wished that it would be all right for him to cry as well.
It was threatening snow by the time night fell, so James carried in an extra measure of fire-wood. After dark, the clouds delivered on their promise and snow drifted down from the heavens, covering North Shadows in a mantle of white. James banked the fire, then they went to bed. Revelation lay beside him with her head on his shoulder and James told her that it was all over.
“What?” she asked. “What is all over?”
“The thieving, rustling, and murdering that’s been going on around here. It’s all over. Henry Plummer and his entire gang have been rounded up.”
“What are they going to do with him?”
“They’ve already done it,” James answered. “They hung Plummer and two of his men today, and I imagine they’ll hang the rest of them over the next few days. No trial, they just hung them. I don’t like the way it was done, but you can’t argue with its effectiveness. I don’t expect there will be much lawlessness around here for quite a while.”
“No trial? That’s bad, they should have had a trial,” Revelation said. “But I’m glad it’s over. I want little Matthew to grow up to be a gentlemen rancher in a civilized country.”
James chuckled. “You want him to be a gentleman rancher, huh? Well, then I guess that means I’m going to have to make North Shadows a gentleman’s ranch.”
“Oh, it already is,” Revelation said.
“What do you mean?”
“Well, it is a ranch, isn’t it? And you, my darling husband, are the most gentlemanly person I’ve ever known. That makes it a gentleman’s ranch.”
Under the padded quilt, Revelation moved closer to James. All was well in the house of Cason.
1 Established in 1859 to protect the Santa Fe Trail.
2 Today, Bannack is a remarkably well-preserved ghost town, designated as a state park.
3 “I am innocent,” was the password of Plummer’s gang, thus their name, The Innocents.
4 Thomas J. Dimsdale, an Englishman, was editor of the Bannack newspaper.
The Bozeman Trail Page 19