uently practiced. Offenders in this respect were
shown no mercy. They were convicted, tried, and executed only in the
court of Judge Lynch. I never blamed the ranchmen for this; it was
impossible to guard the herds in the vast area over which they
traversed, and the cattle must be protected in some way. Gil Mead was a
wealthy ranchman, who lived about ten miles from us. He owned the
largest herd of cattle on the plains. They were branded with the vowels
of his name. E.A., which could be recognized anywhere. He always shipped
his cattle East to his brother in Chicago. I feared the man. He was tall
and gaunt, with deep-set black eyes and low forehead. His home was
unhappy; his wife cross and ugly, and his children wild and unruly. This
made him more than commonly disagreeable.

I think it was in the fall of '74 that Harry White brought the big load
of hides to Jack. Both were much pleased at the bargain they made. Harry
gave glowing accounts of a new customer--a ranchman from Chicago, who
had taken up an abandoned homestead. He had purchased many cattle from
his cousin, Gil Mead, and hoped to rival him in the number and quality
of his herd. Jack packed the hides away to keep till December, when we
expected the dealer.

One afternoon, not long after this, Gil Mead rode up to the house,
looking very agreeable and pleasant. A couple of strangers, also
ranchmen, were with him. They wanted to look at the hides, one of the
men being a trader, Gil said. Jack was in Denver, so Yik Kee and I went
to the barn with them. They looked the hides over carefully, and
conversed in low tones, Gil with a suppressed oath. Finally they thanked
us courteously and took their leave.

"Hump; no goodee," said Yik Kee, but he wouldn't say any more.

At five that evening, when we were at supper, a crowd of twenty-five or
thirty men rode up on horseback. Jack came out and met them, inviting
them in to take supper, in his generous, hospitable way. They wanted him
to go to Denver with them, there was to be a meeting there of importance
to ranchmen. The meeting would be at eight. They had brought with them
an extra horse for Jack. Mary looked around for Yik Kee to help her, but
he had mysteriously disappeared.

I faintly remembered seeing his white, horrified face peering around the
barn at the horses. I noted the visitors ate little--the food seemed to
choke them. Some of them watched Mary and the baby in a queer sort of
way. When Jack, as was his