The Ketchum keystone. [volume] (Ketchum, Idaho) 1885-1899, 1892-07-16
Skeleton Gulch.

Skeleton Gulch.
1t is a strange thing here this
August morning in the camp on the
upper forks of the Big Cheyenne
River, Dakota, with the Black Hillt
looming up in the west. There art
six emigrant wagons in camp-gold
seekers and their families hurryine
to the new Ell Dorado. There are
a half dozen horsemen besides
making fourteen men in all. Break.
fast has been prepared and eaten
and thirteen of the men are sitting
in a circle. The other occupies the
center, tied hand and foot. The
women and children look on from
a distance and speak in whispers.
Is it a trial by jury? Mol There
is no need of trial. Last night
this man attempted robbery, muir
der and fight. Accident aided his
capture, and when he found himself
baffled he cursed the companions
with whom he had travelled for
many days, and boasted that he
had meant to poison them all had
not circumstances prevented. He
is guilty on his own admission.
He is still cursing the luck that
betrayed him. He is to die, but
how? That is the point the council
will decide. Listen! The leader of
the party is speaking. "All in favor
of shooting hold up the right hand
Six hands up. All in favor of
hanging hold up the same hand !
Six hands up. It's a tie. / vote
agin both. Take him up that
ravine !" -
The White Hills are right here to
the left, and the mouth of dark
and rugged gulch is only fifty rods
away. Four stalwart men pick the
prisoner up and carry him along.
The leader goes to one of the wag-
ons and secures chains and tools
and follows on. The prisoner strug-
giles and curses and reviles as he is
carried along, but no man replies
to him. They have not advanced
forty feet into the gulch before they
are in twilight. Lanterns are lighted
and they move along for hundred
feet more. Neither sunshine nor
the light of day has touched this
spot since the creation of the con-
tinent. It has been midnight here
for thousands of years. It's doubt
full if eyes other than those of SER
pents and fierce wild beasts have
ever rested upon these wet and
Shiny rocks.
"Halt! Here is the spot"
The men group about the pris-
oner, who has suddenly been awed
to silence, and the leader passes
stout chain around the mans
body, and uses a bowlder for an
anvil as he rivets it. Then with
cold chisel and hammer he works
hole into a rock projecting from
the side, and at the end of half an
hour his task is finished. The
growl of the grizzly as he made his
way up and down and the hiss of
the serpent when disturbed by the
fall of stone have been heard down
here in this awful darkness, but
never before the blows of hammer
or the whisper of human voices.
"For Gods sake take me out and
shoot or hang me !"
So cries the prisoner as the men
gather below him, and are ready to
go. No answer. They hold up the
lanterns to see that he is safely
fastened and then turn their backs
on him and disappear.
"Have mercy on me Come back
and shoot me here !"
They hear his voice and the clank-
ing of his chains, but no one turns
his head-no one pleads for him.
They emerge into the sunshine,
hitch up their horses, take their
places as on the day before and in
twenty minutes the rear wagon is
out of sight.
Up the gulch the man stands
listening. He is hoping that some
one will return. There are women
and children with the train; they
will surely plead for him. The
whinny of horse and the shout of
a driver comes family to his ears
through that pitch black darkness,
but only once. Then all is quiet.
An hour ago his eyes were blazing
with fury and his speech was loud
and vindictive. His eyes look ter
ror now, and his lips are SO dry that
not even a whisper could pass over
them.
All! is something returning
someone who has voted that he
must die, but who will place the
muzzle of revolver to his breast
and kill him out of pity? There
are soft footsteps; someone is sure
ly coming! No! 'Tis the drip !
drip, drip, of the water as it falls
off the shelf above and strikes on
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