When I was at Caldwell waiting to get paid for my work about the 79 mine I thought over Ijams’ proposition a good deal. I could not conceive how any one had any reason to think that I and my friends were so diabolically inclined as to join a mob and go to a distant part of the country and engage in the business of murdering men by wholesale who stood in the same position before the Wyoming Stock Growers’ Association that I and my friends a few years ago did to the Owyhee County Stock Association in Idaho. I and my friends in Idaho are about the only ones that ever had any trouble with the stock association in Owyhee County, Idaho. The stock association dealt us a good deal of aggravation for nearly two years, a large amount of which was blackmail, and some of the wretches had not quit lying the last I heard from them. While the stock association was in existence in Owyhee County, I took a very active part in dealing the institution misery. I and my friends took a very active part in prosecuting and trying to bring to justice some of the perjurers and assassins whom we claim were in the employ of the stock association. I have gone to a good deal of trouble and expense in Idaho to work a hardship upon that misguided and unfortunate institution of a stock association during its short and melancholy existence in Owyhee County, Idaho. The more I thought of Ijams’ propositions the more I became convinced that Ijams had been imposing on me with his stories in regard to killing off the cattle thieves in Johnson County, Wyoming. When the members of the Owyhee County Stock Association in Idaho were talking unusually wicked and seemed to be thirsting for gore, I and some of my friends formed an association for the purpose of bringing to justice any of the members of the stock association who should do a small stockman an injustice. And we intended to bring to justice any criminals that might be in the employ of the stock association and we were quite successful in running down some of the criminals in the employ of the stock association. Our association was an organization for the mutual protection of the small stockmen. We were to brand each other’s stock when convenient and favor each other in other ways. Our association I have every reason to believe is in as good running order today as it ever was. We call it the Owyhee and Bruneau Stock Association. Soon after my interview with Ijams in Nampa, Idaho, I saw a friend of mine in Caldwell by the name of Henry Dement, who was a member of our organization, for running down vigilantes or criminals in the employ of the stock association of Owyhee County, Idaho. I spoke to Dement about the propositions that Ijams had made to me in Nampa; Dement said it would be a good idea for me to keep my eyes open; that the stock association was strong in Wyoming, and it was hard telling what they would do in that country. After I saw Dement I thought the matter over a good deal and came to