his opening sentence.
I’ll bet you thought no woman would ever want me, but I am getting married.
I intend to bring her to Bannack to meet all of you as soon as possible. I can’t wait for you to meet her. She is a wonderful girl and, Revelation, I’ve told her all about you, and how marvelous you were on that long cattle drive. She is very eager to meet you, and I know the two of you will get on well.
At the end of the letter, Billy asked them to take his letter to Duke, Luke, and John.
Since they are running a saloon right there in Bannack it will be easy for you to give them this letter. That way I won’t have to write again. You know how bad I am about writing, it was hard enough to write this one letter, let alone another.
Feeling very good about that letter, Revelation put it aside for James to read when he came home, then she picked up the next one. It was from Bob Ferguson. True to his promise, Bob had joined the Confederate army shortly after he returned to Texas. Because of that, he couldn’t send mail directly to Bannack but had to forward his mail through his parents, back in Texas. As a result, the letter made such a circuitous route that it was over four months old.
I have been made an officer. Can you see me as an officer? I told the captain that the Confederacy must really be scraping the bottom of the barrel if they can make an officer out of the likes of someone like me.
“I think you will be a fine officer,” Revelation said aloud.
Even though I am now an officer, I don’t like the army anymore than I did when I was a private. I should have listened to you, James. This war makes no sense. Good men are killing good men for no good reason that I can see.
I just wish the whole thing was over. But I have a plan. I intend to just keep getting promoted until I am a general. Then, when I’m a general, I’ll tell all the men to go home, and the war will be over. What do you think about that as an idea?
Revelation laughed out loud at that suggestion.
Sometimes when we are in camp and the nights grow long, I think back to the cattle drive we made, and I recall every moment of it with fondness. James, before I left for the army, you asked if I would be interested in coming back to Bannack when the war is over, and ranching with you. I didn’t give you an answer then, but I give you one now.
Yes, I would love to come up there and be your foreman, as my father was foreman for your father. That thought, and that thought alone, sustains me through this awful war.
Just as Revelation finished Bob’s letter, the baby coughed. She put the letter down, then gave the baby his first dose of medicine. After that, she made certain he was covered up, then she sat back down to read the last letter. This one was from James’s parents, but as it was addressed to both of them, she felt no compunc tions about reading it.
She began crying from the very first paragraph.
We have some very sad news to report. Bob Ferguson was killed on October 25 at Pine Bluff, Arkansas. It wasn’t much of a battle—it didn’t even make the news here—but it was devastating as far as our county is concerned. Bob wasn’t the only one killed. You remember young Carl Adams, who used to ride for us? He was killed as well.
Abner Murback, Syl Largent, and Joe Baker were killed earlier in the year. This war has not been kind to Bexar boys. I am so glad you did not go. And I so wish you had been able to keep Bob with you. As you can well imagine, Dusty and Betty Ferguson are having a very hard time with it. We are, too. Bob was like a second son to us, and the brother that you never had.
At that moment, James was blissfully unaware of the fate of his longtime friend. He was in the Lucky Strike Saloon, visiting with Duke, Luke, and John, waiting for the trial to begin.
“This is where the trial is to be, isn’t it?” James asked, checking the clock on the wall behind the bar.
“That’s what Dimsdale4 has been telling everyone,” Duke said.
“Here comes Poindexter now,” Luke said. “Let’s see what he has to say.”
Poindexter stepped just inside the door and motioned to everyone. “If you fellas want to see the hanging, you’d better come on. They’re fixin’ to do it right now.”
“What? They are hanging him already?” James asked. “Where was the trial?”
“There was no trial,” Poindexter said. “There isn’t going to be one.”
James shook his head. “This is not good,” he said. “There should be a trial.”
“Why?” Luke asked. “Folks say Plummer is responsible for more than one hundred killings. If ever anyone needed hangin’, it is Henry Plummer.”
“Folks aren’t saying that,” Duke replied. “Dimsdale is saying that. He’s been firing up people with those articles he’s written. He’s the one that’s pushed it to this point.”
“You ain’t saying Plummer doesn’t deserve to hang, are you?” John asked.
“No, I’m not saying that,” Duke said. “I’m just saying that if we hang him without a trial, it’s going to come back to haunt us some day.”
“How?”
“Duke is right,” James said. “This could cause us trouble. We’ve just become a territory and I’d like to think we might be a state someday. But who is going to want us to be a state with lynching going on?”
“It’s not a lynching exactly,” Poindexter said. “It’s more like a hanging.”
“It’s a hanging without a trial,” James said. “In my book, that’s a lynching.”
“There are about three hundred people down there at the gallows,” Poindexter said. “Do you want to try and stop them?”
“I would if I could,” James said.
“Well, are you going to come down there? Or are you just going to stay here and talk about it?” Poindexter asked.
James, Duke, Luke, and John followed Poindexter down to the far end of the street, where several of the townspeople were gathered around the gallows. Ironically, the gallows had been built by Henry Plummer. Plummer, and two of his henchmen, were standing alongside the scaffolding. All three men had their hands tied behind them.
“Before we send these three scoundrels to their Maker, is there anyone who wants to speak for them?” Captain Nelson Story asked.
“I will speak for them,” James said, hurrying toward the crowd.
“Bless you, James,” Plummer said quickly. “I always knew you were a decent sort. And I know that you know that I am innocent of any wrongdoing.”
James shook his head. “I don’t know that you are innocent, Plummer,” he said. “In fact, I am certain that you are guilty, and you have blasphemed the very concept of innocence by using that as the password for your crimes.”
“Well, if you know he’s guilty, what are you speakin’ for him for?” someone asked from the crowd.
“I’m not speaking for him as much as I am speaking for us. All of us,” James replied. “If we hang these men without a trial, we are as guilty of murder as we believe them to be. We are never going to get law and order here unless we are lawful and orderly ourselves.”
“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.
