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
A few days after the disappearance of Evans, a number of citizens were
seated in general conversation around the fire in a saloon kept by Mr.
Goodrich. Among the number were Plummer, Jeff Perkins, and Augustus
Moore. Suddenly the door was violently opened and Cleveland entered.
With an air of assumed authority he proclaimed himself “chief,” adding
with an oath that he knew all the scoundrels from the “other side” and
intended to get even with some of them. The covert threat which these
words revealed did not escape the notice of Plummer, but Cleveland upon
the instant charged Perkins with having violated a promise to pay some
money which the latter owed him in the lower country. Perkins assured
him it had been paid. “If it has,” said Cleveland, “it is all right,”
but as if to signify his distrust of Perkins’s statement, he commenced
handling his pistol and reiterating the charges. To prevent Cleveland
from carrying into execution his apparent design of shooting Perkins,
Plummer fixed his eyes sternly upon him and in a calm tone told him to
behave himself, that Perkins had paid the debt and he ought to be
satisfied.
Quiet was restored for the moment and Perkins slipped off, intending to
return with his pistols and shoot Cleveland on sight. Here the
difficulty would have ended had not Cleveland, in an evil moment, in a
defiant and threatening manner, with mingled profanity and epithet,
declared that he did not fear any of them. Filled with rage, Plummer
sprang to his feet, drew his pistol, and exclaiming, “I am tired of
this,” followed up the expression with a couple of rapid shots, the last
of which struck Cleveland below the belt. He fell on his knees. Grasping
wildly for his pistol, he appealed to Plummer not to shoot him while he
was down. “No,” said Plummer, whose blood was now up; “get up.”
Cleveland staggered to his feet, only to receive two more shots, the
second of which entered below the eye. He fell to the floor, and
Plummer, sheathing his pistol, turned to leave the saloon. At the door
he was met by George Ives and Charley Reeves, each of whom, pistol in
hand, was coming to take part in the affray. Each seizing an arm, they
escorted Plummer down the street, meanwhile suggesting with great
expletive emphasis a variety of surmises as to the possible effect of
the quarrel upon the public.
Hank Crawford and Harry Phleger, two respectable citizens, hastened to
the aid of the dying desperado, whom they conveyed to Crawford’s
lodgings. His bed being poorly furnished Cleveland sent him to Plummer’s
cabin to get a pair of blankets belonging to him. The interview, between
Crawford and Plummer on this occasion showed that the mind of the latter
was ill at ease. Like Macbeth’s dread of Banquo, so he felt that, while
Cleveland lived,—
“There is none but he
Whose being I do fear; and under him
My genius is rebuk’d.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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