Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1894-11-29

was cooking IN the trying pan anu ino
coffee was ready for drinking.
Deprived of blankets, horses, and
with only little ammunition and no
means OF escaping over the mountains
and pursuing party on n locomotive
close upon them, 1t became very UNI
equal match, The robbers were game,
however. They could not light fire in
the pass without discovery, and their
only hope was to steal out of the pass
at night. Tho watch at each end was
too close for that, but they would not
give up. Occasionally the men on the
locomotive would see them through the
thickets and fire on them, and one day
they wounded one of them in the hip. He
kept right on with his companions, and
that day'shunt, like several that pre-
coded 1t, went for nnught.
That night the sheritfs and their loco
motive dropped down to II mountain
settlement on the west side OF tho
Rockies called java. Sheriff Gaugner
and three men thought that they would
steal up the track Always and see II they
could learn anything new. They walked
with the utmost quiet. IL was moon.
light, and just as they stole around a
curve they came face to face with four
of the robbers. Up went the guns and
volley rang out In the night. The
leader Of tho robbers, Jones, was shot
dead. Another, the man who had been
picked up on the road, was wounded
mortally. A third rolled down the steep
mountain side and disappeared in the
| darkness, bounding from stone to stone,
and crashing among the bushes. The
fourth was Mott, WIN had been wounded
in the afternoon. He threw up his
| hands and shouted
For Gods sake, don't shoot any
more r.
Mott surrendered and he and the
wounded man and the dead body of
their leader were taken to Kalispel.
The engine returned 10 the pass during
the night and in the morning Il section
hand was surprised 10 see tie man who
had rolled down the mountain crawl
from almost under the engine and sur
render. He was cold and stiff and Ind
hid there for warmer shelter at night.
1t was utterly out Of the question for
him to hold out any longer. As he held
up his bands and surrendered he said;
"lts all right, boys. We held out as
long us we could, | give in. Hunger
and cold will do what bullets couldn't
do"
They took him aud Mott, who was
only slightly wounded, to Jail in Helena,
The wounded man in Kalispel died the
next day. II had been then learned
from him that there was another mem.
Der Of the gang who had not been
caught. He had remained behind when
the others had gone up the track to re-
connoitre. lie eventually made his way
to Lake Five, on the eastern side of the
mountains, not far from Two Medicine
Lake. There was $500 reward for his
capture, and one day not long after an
old acquaintance ran across him, hall
starved and sick. This robbers name
was White. White owned up to his old
friend and begged for supplies. The
alleged friend promised to bring him
some the next day and appointed d
place of rendezvous in lonely spot
Early in the morning this former friend
stole out to the place and hid In the
bushes, and when White came down
from his hiding place to get the supple:
he needed so much the other man sho
him dead from ambush and then brought
in his body aud got the $500 reward.
This ended the mountain hunt for tho
robbers and put stop to that sort o
crime in that section of the West. Mot
and his companions were tried anC
found guilty of murder, but the supreme
court of the State gave them new
trial, and at last accounts they were il
Helena Jail. There is very little doub
that they will be hanged ultimately
! and thus this band of train robbers, lik,
most other bands of such desperate
/ mon, will be broken up and wiped out
This will serve TO emphasize the fac
that train robbery is kind of Grim,
that really never pays, and one which
almost always ends disastrously. Sucl
men have not only to tightindividuals il
their escape, but the whole power o
large corporations. Two graves tina
, the Great Northern employees poin
! out to passengers in their Rock,
Mountain pass bear witness to the oh
liberation Of one of these gangs, an,
tell the story of one of the most notabl
, pursuits Of criminal band in the his
tory of Montana.