CHAPTER V.--AT HURLEY'S GULCH.
Hurley's Gulch, though subsequently called "Hurley City," has no righton the map if it ever had a place there, for, like many other moreambitious and important cities, it has ceased to be the abode of man andreturned to its original state of barrenness and desolation.
It was at this time a mining camp that had sprung up in a night, as itwere, when a man named Hurley--after whom the place was named--haddiscovered gold in a little creek near the spot that so suddenly becamethe site of busy mining life.
Though less than six months old and destined not to survive a secondbirthday, Hurley's Gulch had nearly a thousand inhabitants, with stores,saloons, assay offices, hotels and all the business establishments thatcharacterize such places.
There were a few women in the camp and a sprinkling of Indians, Negroesand Mexicans, but the great mass of the inhabitants were miners, roughin appearance and even rougher in speech.
A more picturesque and novel settlement than Hurley's Gulch it would beimpossible to find outside the peculiar mining camps of the West.
Two little streaks of grass could be found growing beside the creek onthe bluff above which the camp had been established; but beyond thisthere was hardly a sign of vegetation in sight.
All about the place, far as the eye could reach, was a tempest-tossedexpanse of dry, glistening rocks.
As there was neither timber for building nor material for bricks, thedwellings, stores, saloons, hotels and offices were necessarily ofcanvas.
The tents were pitched here and there irregularly, and as all of themhad seen hard service in other mining camps and "cities," their generalappearance was patched and dilapidated in the extreme.
The great majority of the men at Hurley's Gulch were industrious miners;but as vultures hover over the track of an army in the field and wolvesfollow up a buffalo herd to prey upon the weakest, so crowds ofwell-dressed gamblers and red-faced whisky sellers swarm in prosperousmining camps to plunder and demoralize.
Hurley's Gulch had more than its share of these wicked fellows, and asthere was not the shadow of law there to defend the weak, every man wentarmed as a matter of course.
Until law officers can be elected or appointed and courts of justiceestablished in such camps, it is the custom of the more industrious andpeaceable to form what they call "vigilance committees" for their ownprotection.
It need not be said that, no matter how well-meaning the purpose, manymen, themselves criminals, get on such committees, and that great wrongis often done to the innocent by these rude efforts to do justice.
Mr. Willett's was a case in point.
A few days before he had come over this last time to Hurley's Gulch, ahard-working miner had been killed and robbed of the gold-dust which hehad patiently panned out from the bed of the stream.
This crime made the miners angry, and they held an indignation meetingafter the poor man's funeral, and organized a committee to ferret outand punish the criminals.
As there was no jail in which to detain those guilty of lighteroffences, there was only one penalty in the code of the vigilantes, andthat was _death_!
Tom Edwards had not been a favorite with the better class of men atHurley's Gulch.
In his opinion money was made for the sole purpose of gambling away andgetting drunk on.
It was generally believed that he had been paid for his claim at GoldCave Camp by Mr. Willett, so that many who heard him declare to thecontrary and say that he had sold on credit, placed no faith in hisword.
But when Tom Edwards was found dying the night before Mr. Willett was tohave left the Gulch, his past falsehoods were forgotten in view of thenearness of his end and the calmest were inclined to believe him.
It was well known that hot words had passed that very day between Mr.Willett and Tom Edwards, and this afforded to many a reason for the act.
It was pitchy dark when the wretched man was shot, and he was very drunkat the time, so that when his wound restored him, for a short time, tohis senses, there can be no doubt but he was honest in the belief that"two men," Mr. Willett and Hank Tims were the guilty parties.
The accused men were at once arrested by the vigilance committee andplaced under guard in a tent.
Both protested their innocence, as well they might, and Mr. Willettasked to be permitted to send to his camp for papers that would prove toall that he had paid Tom Edwards in full the price at which he valuedhis claim.
A few men were inclined to believe Mr. Willett, but to set all doubts atrest, it was decided that further action should be postponed in the casetill the receipt of the money and the deed of sale had been procured.
The next morning Ulna was dispatched on this mission, and we have seenthe fidelity with which he performed the duty and the unexpectedobstacles that prevented the return of the accused man's son with thepapers.
There were two men at Hurley's Gulch at this time who, if they hadchosen, could have set at rest all doubts as to the mystery surroundingTom Edwards' death and handed over the guilty parties to the vigilantes;but as this act would have resulted in their own swift destruction, theykept their awful secret to themselves.
These men were Frank Shirley and the outlaw Badger.
Frank Shirley believed, and with reason, that if Sam Willett was out ofthe way, the last bar between him and a great fortune would be down.
He was a dissolute, thriftless fellow, every faculty of whose low mindseemed to have been concentrated into the one mean gift of cunning.
On the way from Gold Cave Camp to Hurley's Gulch, Frank Shirley and theman whom he had hired to help him in his wicked purpose, discussed thesituation from every point of view.
The first thing they decided on was that Mr. Willett and his son must beprevented from ever meeting again, but they did not agree so readily asto how this was to be done.
More bluff, and possibly more brutal than his employer, Badger urgedthat he be allowed to waylay Mr. Willett and kill him on his return.
But Frank Shirley opposed this, saying, for he was a coward at heart, asall such men are:
"Willett will have with him the Indian boy and the old hunter, HankTims; they are all well-armed, and they would be stronger than us. No,Badger, we must hit upon some plan that has less risk in it."
"Wa'al," responded Badger, "hit upon the plan yersel', an' if I don'tcarry it out without flinchin', I'll give you leave to shoot me downlike a dog."
When these men reached Hurley's Gulch they found Edwards "drunk asusual," and loudly declaring wherever he went that Mr. Willett wastrying to rob him out of fifteen hundred dollars.
Here was the very chance for which Frank Shirley had been looking.
If he could have Edwards put out of the way, in such a manner as tofasten the crime on Mr. Willett, a hundred stronger and braver men wouldbe ready to accomplish his purpose with their own hands.
He told Badger of his scheme, and that creature, without a moment'sthought of the awful crime he was about to commit, pledged himself tocarry it out when the other gave the word.
To add to the evidence against Mr. Willett, as that gentleman wasarrested, Frank Shirley appeared to be very much cast down.
With tears in his eyes, he explained to the many who were only too eagerto listen, that Mr. Willett had married his, Shirley's, cousin, that hehad borne a bad character in Detroit, and that he had recently fled fromthat city to escape the consequences of his many crimes.
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