CHAPTER XXXII.ALCOHOL AND ELOQUENCE.
“There were extenuating circumstances for the young fellow,” remarked Cody to Wild Bill, commenting on the trial of Wilkins, a few days later. “Chief of them is his youth. I really felt sorry for him when he told me about his difficulties.”
“Well, you certainly helped his case as far as possible,” Wild Bill replied. “It’s a pity we didn’t get that scoundrel, Barlow, to serve as an example of military punishment!”
“No use regretting that now; the dog is dead. Well, for my part, I’m off again.”
“Where do you intend to go now? To Scarlet Gulch?”
“Yes; I think it’s about time I investigate those rumors about my crimes, that are floating around in that section of the country.”
“So do I. If you remember, that’s what I came here to tell you; but we’ve been busy with other matters. When will you start?”
“To-day. I’ve said good-by to the colonel. Will you join me, Hickok?”
“Not just now. I’ve got business to attend to in Eldorado. I may meet you later, if good luck or adventure brings us together.”
The two friends parted, soon after this, and went on their several ways. Buffalo Bill rode slowly andcautiously across the plains, in the direction of Scarlet Gulch, thinking over the points which his friend had given him, and wondering how he should proceed against the gang of ruffians who were in league against him, under the leadership of a man known as “Panther Pete.”
“The first one to tackle is that fellow Slocum,” he thought. “I suspect he has schemes of his own, though he appears to be the tool of the others. I’ll get him first, and I reckon I’ll find him in the Flash Light Saloon.”
As it happened, this guess was correct. Even then, while Buffalo Bill was on his track, “Bug-eye” Slocum was standing in front of Rainey’s saloon in Scarlet Gulch, talking in a loud voice.
Bug-eye was shabby and disreputable, but he had a sonorous voice and a way of “slinging words” that was calculated to make the average citizen of Scarlet Gulch sit up and take notice.
“Feller citerzens, it’s this here way,” said Bug-eye, with an oratorical wave of his hand, the other hand being tucked under and engaged in waving his coat tails, “when a man who’s been honored as Buffalo Bill has been honored; when a man who traveled to the ends o’ the earth and showed benighted lands what the reel and ginoowine wild West, which we have here, looks like; when sich a man, I say, stoops so low as to dishonor hisself by becomin’ an ordinary holdup thief, a-leadin’ holdup gangs, and so dishonors the glorious Stars and Stripes that he lives under, and which gives him perfection—then I say that it’s timefer us, feller citerzens, to put him where the wicked cease frum troubling and the weary aire at rest.”
Applause greeted Bug-eye’s oratorical effort.
“He’s a-raidin’ ’round through this country,” Bug-eye went on, tiptoeing to make himself look taller, and flirting his coat tails until the dust fairly flew from them, “pertendin’ to be here ter pertect us, and then, in a sneakin’ way, holdin’ up stagecoaches and lone and wanderin’ wayfarers, work which he tries ter make people think is done by the reg’lar road agents. Feller citerzens, the time is ripe ter put an end to his masqueradin’, and night roamin’ with a handkerchief over his face, and elevate him by a rope to a handy tree limb, and there let him do a dance on nothin’.”
The roaring cheers broke out again.
“And so now I nomernate fer judge of a Judge Lynch court, that shell do unto Buffalo Bill as he’d ought to be done to, our esteemed feller citerzen, Nate Rainey, the keeper of the Flash Light Saloon here—a man what sets out the best redeye that’s set out over any bar in the whole area of this broad and magnificent country; feller citerzens, I nominates Nate Rainey, ther man what all of us delights to honor.”
Nate Rainey, a hatchet-faced man, with a billy-goat tuft of whiskers on the tip of his chin, popped up like the occupant of a toy jack-in-box. Every one there was yelling his name, and he flushed with pride.
The scene was the wide piazza in front of the Flash Light, and the time late afternoon. In the street were several score men of the border type—miners, cowboys,ranchmen—together with the scum and rabble always to be found in such a place.
Few of the reputable citizens of the town of Scarlet Gulch were in that noisy crowd; they had something more important to do than to hang round Nate Rainey’s saloon and listen to the big words of Bug-eye Slocum. But all the dangerous elements of the community were represented, from the blackleg gambler to the cheap street loafer.
“I ain’t no orator, like what my friend Slocum is,” Nate Rainey apologized, as he stood before the yelling mob, “er I’d try ter make ye a speech. It’s acts that talks fer me, says I; and so I say, jist bring Buffler Bill before me, and prove that he’s been doin’ these hyer things that everybody says he’s doin’, and up he goes, at the end of a rope, quick’s a cat kin wink her eye; and now you hear me!”
Then everybody yelled, and they yelled again, louder than ever, when Rainey invited them to step into the Flash Light and “likker” at his expense.
The situation at Scarlet Gulch, as set forth by Slocum and Rainey, was singular. For, if credible reports were to be believed, Buffalo Bill had departed from his traditional honor, and had not only engaged in holdups and robbery of various kinds, but had organized a band of blacklegs and cutthroats, who had become known popularly as “Buffalo Bill’s Border Ruffians.”
Who the members of this desperado organization were no one could say; but it was a fair supposition that many of them lived in Scarlet Gulch itself, andprobably some of them were in the crowd before the Flash Light cheering the words of Rainey and Slocum.
As strange as anything in this situation, according to the reports, was that, when Buffalo Bill first came into that section, he had come in his customary capacity as the upholder of law and order. He had been there but a short time, however, when he was caught robbing the safe of the First National Bank, which he blew open with a stick of dynamite, getting all the money in the cash drawer. He had been seen and recognized, and after that he had been too wise to exhibit himself openly in the town; though his Border Ruffians soon began to make things warm for travelers on the surrounding trails, and had once ridden boldly, by night, into Scarlet Gulch, and robbed Payson’s hardware store,in the very busiest section.
The men who crowded to the bar of the Flash Light to accept Rainey’s invitation to “likker up” talked of these things, and threatened what they would do when Buffalo Bill was caught.
When the drinks had been served, Slocum hopped to the top of the sloppy bar, posing again oratorically, with one hand waving and the other under his coat tails.
“And now, feller citerzens,” he cried, his face beaming with joy and drink, “we’ll give three cheers for our esteemed feller citerzen, Nate Rainey—the man who is to be Judge Lynch hereafter in this young and enterprisin’ town, and is ter deal out jestice to all who deserve it, and give the rope to every man who is doin’ sich things as we know that Buffalo Bill has done.And now three cheers fer him, sizzlin’ hot an’ rip-roarin’.”
They gave the three cheers with such will and vim, and stamped the floor so hard, that several bottles were shaken from their positions behind the bar and fell crashing to the floor, the liquor running out.
Bug-eye Slocum looked longingly at that flowing liquor; but yelled in an abashed voice as he saw two or three men throw themselves flat down on the floor and begin to lick it up:
“Sam Wagner there, ain’t you ashamed o’ yerself; and ain’t you ashamed o’ yerself, Foxfire Bascomb, to be actin’ in that way, lickin’ likker frum the floor, as if you was dogs er cats, and the likker was milk?”
“Oh, if they’re so desert dry as that,” said Rainey, “I’ll set ’em up ag’in.”
He was mightily pleased with the uproarious cheers which had been given him.
Then there was more drinking, and more talk about Buffalo Bill’s Border Ruffians.
After that the vigilantes were appointed, a dozen men, with Rainey as judge; and they were to try Buffalo Bill as soon as he fell into their hands, and then hang him.
The “trial” would not be much; for, even before his capture, Buffalo Bill was thus adjudged guilty, and sentenced to be hanged.
But Bug-eye Slocum and Nate Rainey had accomplished their purpose.
This vigilantes band could be used not only againstBuffalo Bill, but against the enemies of Slocum and Rainey as well.
Thereafter, if a man gained their ill will, the only thing necessary to get him out of the way would be to accuse him of some crime before this court of Judge Lynch, support the accusation with false testimony, and forthwith the man would be swung on high at the end of a rope and promptly choked to death.
It was almost as quick work as ordinary murder, and much safer for the murderers; for they could always show that they were acting for the good of the community.
When the vigilantes had been chosen, of men selected beforehand by Slocum and Rainey, there were again drinks all round; and then the meeting broke up, and the half drunken and excited crowd flowed out into the street in front of the Flash Light.