eluded his pursuers and was returning to Hugoton along an old cattle trail. On reaching the supper station of the rescuers one of the party was sent back to Hugoton to carry the news of Robinson's safety to his wife, and Robinson, joining the rescuing party, turned southward to the Strip, the destination for the night having been the haystacks distant about eighteen miles from the supper camp. The six horseback men, headed by Rob inson, took the lead, followed by the buggies, containing C. E. Cook, Orin Cook, Cyrus Freese, Jack Lawrence, J. B. Chamberlain and John Jackson. The hay camp was reached between Ю and 10.30 o'clock. The moon, fairly up, was shedding its rays unobstructed by tree or hill upon that wild, unsettled strip of land, over which courts for years had exercised no jurisdiction, wherein every man was a law unto himself, and where the prowess belonged to him alone who could maintain it. When the horseback men reached the hay camp, the buggy party, perhaps two hundred yards in the rear, heard quick and rapid firing and hurried forward to find that a battle had occurred in which Sheriff Cross and three of his men were killed, and another, a young man Tonney, supposed to be fatally wounded. On reaching the stacks Cross and his men had unsaddled and were lying down, and here, in the trial of the case, conflicting testimony between the two haymakers arose as to which party fired first, one testifying that the Cross party had opened fire, the other that the Hugoton party was first to fire. The young man Tonney recovered, and at the trial tes tified that the shooting was all done by the Hugoton party. The witness having like wise testified to the presence of a number of Hugoton men in the party that night, who proved that they were not within twentyfive miles of the stacks at the time of the tragedy. Immediately following this tragedy every
man in and about Hugoton and Woodsdale armed themselves with Winchesters and re volvers. Guards were stationed around each town, travel was prevented, and people were not permitted to pass about the coun try, the two towns presenting the appearance of military camps. Excitement ran high, and the governor ordered three companies of militia to the county, where they re mained until quiet was in a measure re stored. No arrests were made until November, when the United States district attorney for Kansas, upon the theory of jurisdiction by the Kansas court, together with the theory that a conspiracy had been formed in Kansas for .the commission of crime in another place, caused the arrest of perhaps a score of the leading citizens of Hugoton. The parties were taken to Topeka and ar raigned before Judge Eoster of the district court of Kansas, but vere discharged upon the ground of no jurisdiction, by the Kansas court, in the Strip. Wood, like an avenging Nemesis, went next to the Texas courts, first to the court for the northern district of that State, the judge declining to act in the matter. He then appealed to the United States district court at Paris for the eastern district of the State. This was a new court over which Judge Bryant, a recent appointee, presided; this judge directing the grand jury to in vestigate the case. Indictments were lodged against a dozen men, the arrest of all of whom soon followed, the men arrested ap pealing to Judge Brewer of the United States circuit court at Leavenworth for discharge upon writ of habeas corpus, the grounds upon which the discharge was asked having been want of jurisdiction by the Paris court. The petition for release was refused, and the prisoners, twelve in number, were put upon trial in the July term of the Paris court. After the first arrest and discharge by Judge Eoster, the six men, who were on
