from concealment.  I asked him if he was going to have the men arrested.  He replied that he was not.  Then, said I, if you do not I will.  “Mr. Thompson,” he replied, “rather than appear against them I will abandon all I have and leave the country.  For if they did not kill me they would destroy all I have.”  Under these circumstances I was forced to let the matter drop, and content myself with writing an article for the local paper.  No names were mentioned and nothing at which an honest man could take offense.  Instead of publishing the article as a communication, it was published as an editorial.  But scarcely had the paper appeared on the street, than three men, all known to be thieves and desperate characters, caught the editor, knocked him down, pulled out his beard, and would probably have done him greater bodily harm had not Til Glaze interfered and stopped them.  While the editor was being beaten he hallowed pitifully, “I didn’t do it, Thompson did it.”  This embittered the whole gang against both Glaze and myself.  But they appeared satisfied with threats about what they were going to do, and for the time being made no attempt to carry out their threats against either of us.

This was in the fall of the year.  On the 15th of March, 1882, a man dashed into town and riding up to me asked where he would find the Coroner.  He was greatly excited and his horse was covered with foam.  I told him the nearest officer was at The Dalles, 125 miles away, but that a Justice of the Peace could act in his absence.  I then asked him what was the matter?  He replied that Langdon and Harrison had killed old man Crook and his son-in-law, Mr. Jorey.  I then told him to go to Mr. Powers, the Justice of the Peace.  Presently the Deputy Sheriff for that section of Wasco County came to me and asked me to go with him to assist in the arrest of the murderers.  There had been some dispute between the murderers and the murdered men, resulting a law suit.  It was at best a trivial matter and no further trouble was apprehended.  But immunity from punishment had emboldened the gang and they believed they could do as before, simply defy the law.  I declined to go with the Deputy, making as an excuse that I did not feel well.  He then summoned me as a posse.  I told him to “summons and be d-d,” I would not go.  That it was a long ride and that the men had been seen “going towards The Dalles, saying they were going to give themselves up.”  The officer was furious and went away threatening me with the law.  But I had other ideas regarding the whereabouts of the murderers.  An old gentleman living on Mill Creek, east of Prineville and about thirty miles from the scene of the murders, had told me of the finding of a cabin concealed in a fir thicket and that it contained both provisions and horsefeed and had the appearance of having been much used, but that there was no trail leading to it.  As soon as I learned of the murders I made up my mind that the murderers would go to that cabin.  I