In the meantime Ed Birch, who was a friend…

chunk 936 · paragraph 1213

ard in short order. In the meantime Ed Birch, who was a friend of the family, had heard of the disgraceful affair and had ridden out to the round-up and notified the unsuspecting father. The heart- stricken father hurried to town to take summary vengeance upon the villains. They had become suspicious, and had gone to the sawmill and got their effects preparatory to leaving the country on a cattle train which they expected to leave at 5 o’clock Monday morning. Sheriff Lockhart, becoming aware of the probability of a killing if Herring ran across the pair, had sent deputies in every direction to arrest them with the double purpose of pre- serving the peace and holding the criminals to account before a legal tribunal.