“N-N-Not much.  J-J-Just t-t-told him, th-th-that’s good, and settled.”

Some years afterward, when Brown was part owner and superintendent of the Black Hills stage-line, he was waylaid and killed by the Indians, while on a return trip from Custer City.  Thus ended the career of one of the bravest and best of the men on the frontier.

One of the most famous of temporary toll-ferries was over the trail-crossing of Green River.  It was owned by Bill Hickman, a Mormon, and as the river was seldom fordable he reaped a rich harvest of gold from the emigrant trains.  His prices for crossing teams depended upon the ability of their owners to pay, varying from five to twenty dollars each.  The old ford may still be seen just below the station of Green River on the Union Pacific Railroad.

During the preparation for the Mormon war the supply-trains of the government were constantly harassed by that people.  The genius of campaigning by destroying trains was Major Lot Smith.  One evening, at the head of forty men, after riding all night, he came in sight of a westward-bound government train.  On coming up to it he ordered the drivers to turn round and go back on their trail.  They obeyed promptly, but as soon as Smith was out of sight, they wheeled around and travelled west again.  During the day a party of Mormon troops passed them, and taking all of the freight out of the wagons, left them standing there.

Smith was afterward informed by his scouts that a caravan of twenty-six wagons was approaching.  Upon this information he halted his men and, after eating, started again at dusk, approached the train while it was in camp at a place near Simpson’s Hollow, and ambushed his party for several hours.  Meanwhile, he learned that there were two trains, each of twenty-six wagons; but in fact as was afterward discovered there were really three of seventy-five wagons in all.

About midnight, while only a few of the teamsters were gathered around their camp-fire, some of them drinking, some smoking, they suddenly saw what seemed to be an endless procession of armed and mounted men emerge from the darkness.

Smith, quietly coming up, asked for the captain of the outfit, whose name was Dawson.  As a majority of the teamsters were asleep, their guns fastened to the covers of the wagons, and any resistance almost hopeless, Dawson stepped forward, surrendered, and told his men to stack their arms and group themselves on a spot designated by Smith.  Smith dealt successively with the other trains in like manner.  Then, after lighting two torches, he handed one of them to a Gentile in his party, known as Big James, remarking at the same time, “It is eminently proper for a Gentile to spoil a Gentile.”

Riding from wagon to wagon, Smith’s men set fire to the covers, which rapidly caught in the crisp mountain air, and were soon all ablaze.  Dawson, meanwhile, was ordered by Smith to the rear of the trains to take out provisions for his captors, and when everything was fairly burning he and his party rode away, first informing his panic-stricken captives that he would return as soon as he had delivered the provisions to his comrades near by, and instantly shoot any one who should make any attempt to extinguish the flames.