Imperial Valley press., 1908-04-04

 to mix the Musse1 Slough affair of twenty years back with the raids of thieves upon express cars which hap pened to be hauled by the Southern Pacific.
 During the hunt in the mountains, posse at noon approached cabin on Sampsons Flat, not suspecting that the outlaws were dining there with the occupant, one Mainwaring. Victor Wilson, an Arizona officer, had joined the posse with two Apache trailers, Palon and Palomino, whose skill in tracking was expected 70 be useful. Wilson and Constable Maginnis went to the cabin, intending to buy some vegetables, while others of the posse remained in the road or searched the garden for ripe melons. Mainwaring came out of the cabin with a bucket and went toward the spring, saying nothing to the approaching officers and allaying by his movements any sus- picion they might have had.
 Officers Murdered.
 When Wilson and Maginnis were about twenty feet from the cabin, Evans and Sontag shot through the window and killed them in their tracks. The outlaws rushed forth, opened fire with rifles and shotguns and stampeded the rest of the posse, wounding one and killing horse. The two Indians were at some dis tance, looking for tracks. They dropped behind rocks and returned the fire. A bullet singed Evanss cheek, and he and Sontag fled through a cornfield into the woods.
 The writer was with Sheriff Hen sley's posse for some time, and also with the Wells-Fargo officers on the chase, was at the cabin the day after the murder and gathered the facts from all possible reliable sources. Not being poet, he prefers the word of an intelligent, honest officer to the story of thief and murderer, and has reason to believe that he is accurately acquainted with the facts of the mat ter.
 MilIer's Dime Novel.
 But read Joaquin Miller on the mur- der at Sampson's fiat.
 Chris Evans was never tried for train robbery? Why? I do not know, certainly, but l should say it was be- cause he was never a trainrobber or anything of the sort. He was tried for killing a man by the name of Wilson, neighbor, who, as he knew him well, was persuaded to go along at the head of some Arizona Indian trailers for a promised reward. Mrs. Evans, hearing his purpose, went to him and told him how surely he would be punished. We'll, to be brief, he went ahead, located, through the In diar scouts, the cabin where Evans and Sontag were sleeping, and, sur rounding it, summoned them to sur render assuring them that the only escape from the Indian tomahaw was to surrender to their white neighbors. AS they came too near the cabin these two white neighbors fell dead and the Indians fled.
 It is tolerably plain to anyone hay ing the slightest acquaintance with the ways of the law that Evans was not tried for train robbery because there were several clear cases of the greater crime of murder against him. After he was convicted of murder in the first degree, with punishment fixed by the jury at life imprisonment, it was hardly worth while to try him for another offense. The California law has no provision for infiicting punish ment after death.
 Outlaws Taken.
 Evans and Sontag shot more officers before they were taken. George Gard, once U. s. Marshal for Arizona, went after them with a small posse, had a battle with them in which Sontag was killed and Evans badly wounded, and took Evans to Fresno jail. Evans es- capped from jail, with the aid of a man who supplied him with arms, and shot the city marshal of Fresno as he fled out of town. He was recaptured, tried and sent to prison.