Vigilante Days and Ways: The pioneers of the Rockies; the makers and making of Montana and IdahoLangford, Nathaniel Pitt
History
Vigilante Days and Ways: The pioneers of the Rockies; the makers and making of Montana and Idaho
Langford, Nathaniel Pitt
Frontier and pioneer life -- Northwestern States; Northwestern States -- History; Vigilance committees; West (U.S.) -- History
“The look which emphasized these words,” says Beachy, “the expression,
the calm, sweet face which said stronger than words that failure would
kill her, filled me with new life. They were worth more than all the
taunts I had received, and I bade her adieu with the determination to
succeed.”
While Mr. Beachy was speaking thus fondly of his wife, whose death had
occurred but a few months before he narrated to me these incidents, the
tears rolled down his cheeks,—and he added in a voice broken with
emotion, “I then felt that the time had come when I needed something
more than human help, and I went out to the barn and got down upon my
knees and prayed to the Old Father,—and that’s something I haven’t been
much in the habit of doing in this hard country,—and I prayed for half
an hour; and I prayed hard; and I promised that if He’d only help me
this time in catching these villains, I’d never ask another favor of Him
as long as I lived, _and I never have_.”
Three changes were made in the transmission of the mail over the route
between Lewiston and Walla Walla. The log dwellings and stables at the
several stations were the only evidences of settlement for the entire
distance. Beachy was the proprietor of the stage line. His
station-keepers had been in the habit of transporting way travellers
over parts of the road, for pay, at times when the horses were
unemployed. This practice had been strictly forbidden by Beachy. But
when he and Tom Farrell drove up to the first station, such was his
anxiety to overtake the fugitives, that he did not stop to reprimand the
unfaithful employee who had just harnessed the stage horses to a light
wagon, with the intention of turning a dishonest penny. He took the
wagon himself, and without delay drove to the next station, arriving
there in time to hitch a pair of horses just harnessed by the hostler
for his own use, to his wagon, and hurry on to another station. Here, as
he and Tom alighted, a light buggy with a powerful horse came alongside.
The driver was an old acquaintance. He was going to Walla Walla in haste
for a physician. Beachy offered to do his errand if he would allow him
to proceed in his buggy. The gentleman assented. The horse’s flanks were
white with foam when, at dark, Beachy and Tom Farrell rode into Walla
Walla.
Before entering the town, Beachy concealed his face in a muffler to
avoid recognition. Half-way up the street he observed a man, of whom he
expected to obtain information, engaged with another in conversation.
Jumping from the wagon he approached him cautiously, and, by a
significant grip, drew him aside and made known his business.
“They left four days ago for Portland,” said the man, “with the avowed
intention of taking the first boat to San Francisco. They were here two
days, lost considerable at faro, but took plenty of gold dust with
them.”
“Did they explain how they obtained their money?”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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