After a few more words they separated. Meantime Fetherstun had left Sears’s Hotel with his prisoner, and gone down the street to Durand’s saloon. Fetherstun, being an entire stranger, kept close watch of his prisoner. They sat down at a table and engaged in a game at cards. Howie came in, and warned Fetherstun to be on the alert for a rescue, promising to return in a few minutes. Buck Stinson and Ned Ray soon after made their appearance, and shook hands with John. They were followed by four or five others, and the number finally increased to fifteen. Fetherstun’s suspicions, excited from the first, were confirmed on seeing one of the men step up to John, and say in an authoritative voice, “You are my prisoner”; which remark was followed by a glance and a smile by the ruffian, as much as to say, “I’m safe now, and your time has come.” [Illustration: JOHN FETHERSTUN _Overland express messenger_ ] Fetherstun, anticipating an attack by the crew, stepped into a corner, and drew his revolver. Those of my readers who have since had frequent opportunity to estimate the cool, determined courage of the man, will know that this preliminary movement was only preparatory to the desperate heroism and energy with which, had occasion required it, he would then have sold his life to a crowd of supposed desperadoes. They took the prisoner away without resistance, and Fetherstun returned to his hotel. Four or five men were there, of whom, on inquiry, he learned that Howie had not been there. As soon as he heard this, he said to them, “Gentlemen, I don’t know whom I am addressing, but if you’re the right kind of men, I want you to follow me. I am afraid the road agents have killed Neil Howie. He left me half an hour ago, to be back in five minutes.” He seized his gun, and was about to leave when a man opened the door, and told him not to be uneasy. This seemed to satisfy all the company except Fetherstun. He left the hotel, gun in hand, and at no great distance came to a cabin filled with men, with Dutch John as the central figure. Being denied admission, he demanded his prisoner. He was told that they were examining him. The men whom Fetherstun had mistaken as road agents had mistaken him for the same. Explanations soon set both right, and John was restored to the custody of Howie and Fethertsun, who marched him back to the hotel, where he was again examined. After many denials and prevarications, he finally made a full confession of guilt, and corroborated the statements which “Red” had made, implicating the persons whose names are contained in the list he had furnished. This concluded the labors of that day, and at a late hour Howie and Fetherstun, unable to obtain lodgings for their prisoner in any of the inhabited dwellings of Bannack, took him to an empty cabin on Yankee Flat. CHAPTER XXXV EXECUTION OF PLUMMER