Be his motives what they might, it is certain that when an unarmed man met Bowney, entered into a discussion with him, and lived verbally to report the same, he was looked upon with considerably more interest than a newly-made Congressman or a ten-thousand-acre farmer was able to inspire.

The two men whose conversation we have recorded studied the ears of their own horses for several minutes, after which the first speaker asked: 

“How did you do it?”

“Well,” replied the other man, “ther’ wasn’t anything p’tickler ’bout it.  Me an’ him wuzn’t acquainted, so he didn’t suspect me.  But I know’d his face—­he wuz p’inted out to me once, durin’ the gold-rush to Kern River, an’ I never forgot him.  I wuz on a road I never traveled before—­goin’ to see an old greaser, ownin’ a mighty pretty piece of ground I wanted—­when all of a sudden I come on a cabin, an’ thar stood Bill in front of it, a-smokin’.  I axed him fur a light, an’ when he came up to give it to me, I grabbed him by the shirt-collar an’ dug the spur into the mare.  ‘Twus kind of a mean trick, imposin’ on hospitality that-a-way; but ‘twuz Bowney, you know.  He hollered, an’ I let him walk in front, but I kep’ him covered with the revolver till I met some fellers, that tied him good an’ tight.  ‘Twuzn’t excitin’ wurth a durn—­that is, ixcep’ when his wife—­I s’pose ’twuz—­hollered, then I a’most wished I’d let him go.”

“Sheriff got him?” inquired the first speaker.

“Well, no,” returned the captor.  “Sheriff an’ judge mean well, I s’pose; but they’re slow—­mighty slow.  Besides, he’s got friends, an’ they might be too much fur the sheriff some night.  We tuk him to the Broad Oak, an’ we thought we’d ax the neighbors over thar to-night, to talk it over.  Be thar?”

“You bet!” replied the first speaker.  “And I’ll bring my friends; nothing like having plenty of witnesses in important legal cases.”

“Jus’ so,” responded the other.  “Well, here’s till then;” and the two men separated.

The Broad Oak was one of those magnificent trees which are found occasionally through Southern California, singly or dispersed in handsome natural parks.

The specimen which had so impressed people as to gain a special name for itself was not only noted for its size, but because it had occasionally been selected as the handiest place in which Judge Lynch could hold his court without fear of molestation by rival tribunals.

Bill Bowney, under favorable circumstances, appeared to be a very homely, lazy, sneaking sort of an individual; but Bill Bowney, covered with dust, his eyes bloodshot, his clothes torn, and his hands and feet tightly bound, had not a single attractive feature about him.

He stared earnestly up into the noble tree under whose shadow he lay; but his glances were not of admiration—­they seemed, rather, to be resting on two or three fragments of rope which remained on one of the lower limbs, and to express sentiments of the most utter loathing and disgust.