The prisoner accompanied his captor to the camp-fire. The weather was intensely cold. Many of the oxen belonging to the trains had died from exposure, and others were so severely frozen that they lost their hoofs and tails the succeeding spring. As soon as Howie and his prisoner were thoroughly warmed, Neil said to him, “John, I have arrested you for the part you took in the robbery of Moody’s train last month. Every man in that company charges you with it.” “It’s a lie,” said John. “I had no hand in it at all.” “That question can be easily decided,” replied Neil, “for the man they supposed to be you was wounded by a shot in the shoulder. If you are not the person, there will be no bullet mark there. I don’t wish to make a mistake, and your denial of the charge makes it necessary that I should examine. Just remove your shirt.” John reluctantly complied, all the while protesting his innocence. When, however, the shoulder was bared, the scarcely healed perforation settled all doubts in Howie’s mind concerning the personal identity of his prisoner. “How is it,” said he, “if you are not the man, that you have this scar?” “I got it accidentally while asleep by my camp-fire. It was cold, and I lay near the fire. My clothes caught fire, and the cap ignited, discharging my pistol, which was strapped to my side.” “Let me prove to you that this story cannot be true,” said Neil. Placing a cap upon a stick, he held it in the hottest blaze of the camp-fire. Minutes elapsed before it exploded. “Do you not see,” he continued, “that long before the cap on your pistol would have exploded, you would have been burned to death? But there is still another reason. If it had exploded, as you say, the ball could never have wounded your shoulder. You must go with me to Bannack. If you can prove your innocence there, as I hope you may, it will all be well with you.” Leaving his prisoner in charge of the train company, Neil started in pursuit of a person to aid in conveying him to Bannack. Unsuccessful in this, he left with John in company, and proceeded to Dry Creek, where was a camp of fifty or sixty teamsters. Such was their fear of the roughs that they one and all refused to assist him. While deliberating what next to do, a man by the name of Irvine suggested to him that if Fetherstun could be induced to aid, he would be a suitable man for the purpose. Neil went immediately to Fetherstun’s camp, fully determined, if again rebuffed, to attempt the journey with his prisoner alone. Fetherstun volunteered without hesitation, and for the two following days while awaiting an abatement in the weather, took the prisoner in charge and confined him, under guard, in the cabin he had left but the day before.