This entire transaction was an act of popular vengeance. The people were infuriated at the murder of Copley, who, besides being one of their best citizens, was a general favorite. There seemed to be no occasion or excuse for it, as the Vigilantes contemplated nothing more by the arrest of Pizanthia than an examination of his territorial record. With the crimes he had committed before he came to the Territory, they had nothing to do; and if he had been guilty of none after he came there, the heaviest possible punishment they would have inflicted was banishment. He brought his fate upon himself. It was a brief interlude in Vigilante history, the terrible features of which, though they may be deemed without apology or excuse, need not seek for multiplied precedents outside of the most enlightened nations or most refined societies in all Christendom. CHAPTER XXXVII EXECUTION OF DUTCH JOHN Dutch John was still a prisoner in charge of Fetherstun, in the gloomy cabin on Yankee Flat, a euphonious title given to a little suburb of a dozen cabins of the town of Bannack. He had behaved with great propriety, and by his amiability of deportment won the sympathy and respect of his captors. The revelations which he made in his confession, implicating others, made him fearful of his former companions in crime, who, he knew, would kill him on the first opportunity. One night during his imprisonment both he and Fetherstun were alarmed by the sound of approaching footsteps and suppressed voices in earnest conversation. Fetherstun prepared his arms for a defence. Casting a glance at his prisoner, what was his astonishment to see him standing near the door, with a loaded double-barrelled gun, awaiting the approach of the outsiders. “That’s right, John,” said Fetherstun approvingly; “fire upon them if they come. Don’t spare a man.” John smiled and nodded, levelling the muzzle of the gun towards the sound, but the ruffians heard the click of the locks, and departed. John could have shot his keeper and escaped, but he feared the vengeance of his comrades more than the stern justice of the Vigilantes.