THERE is such good news to send you to-day I can hardly write it fast
enough. The Territorial Court has been in session, and yesterday that
horse thief, Billy Oliver, was tried and sentenced to ten years'
imprisonment in the penitentiary! The sheriff and a posse started for
Canon City this morning with him and another prisoner, and I hope that
he will not make his escape on the way over. The sheriff told Faye
confidentially the route he intended to take, which is not at all the
one he is supposed to be going over, and threw out strong hints to the
effect that if he wanted to put an end to the man's vicious career
there would be no interference from him (the sheriff) or his posse. He
even told Faye of a lonesome spot where it could be accomplished
easily and safely!
This was a strange thing for a sheriff to do, even in this country of
desperadoes, and shows what a fiend he considers Oliver to be. He said
that the man was the leader of a gang of the lowest and boldest type
of villains, and that even now it would be safer to have him out of
the way. Sheriffs are afraid of these men, and do not like to be
obliged to arrest them.
The day of the trial, and as Faye was about to go to the court room, a
corporal came to the house and told him that he had just come from Las
Animas, where he had heard from a reliable source that many of
Oliver's friends were in the town, and that it was their intention to
kill Faye as he came in the court room.
