“I think that shot’ll kill Olive,” Luther said. Kill Bob Olive it did. Print was present when he drew his last breath. He arranged to have his brother’s body taken to the funeral parlor in Kearney, then sent by train to Texas.

The next battle in this extension of the war went to the Confederacy, due to focused energy and instinctive tactics of their general, Print Olive. Vowing to avenge his brother’s death, he sent scouts to locate the now-in-hiding homesteaders.

Mitchell and Ketchum, hoping to escape the inevitable wrath of the cowmen, headed east behind Union lines. On the advice of Judge Aaron Wall of Loup City, they surrendered themselves to Sheriff Dave Anderson of Kearney, the thought being that, first, he had the strongest jail in the area, and, second, that any trial needed to be held east of the Custer County line, the Olive line. If the Olives could be brought before a sympathetic court, it was hoped that their many misdeeds could be exposed and prosecuted. They had placed their bets on the power of the growing ability of the country to act according to laws.

Print placed his bets on money, ruthlessness and power. Upon learning that the homesteaders had turned themselves in to the sheriff in Kearney, he realized that the trial could not be held there. A full accounting of the year’s events on Clear Creek would likely result in the freedom of Mitchell and Ketchum, and in the organizing of homesteaders along the entire Platte Valley. Vindication of the two men would mean the end of his dream of empire. He went into the Union Pacific station in Plum Creek and sent a telegram to his old friend, Barney Gillan, the Sheriff of Keith County, asking the sheriff to take the next train to Plum Creek.

Upon his arrival Print explained the events of the past few days, and the two men agreed that the trial must not take place. Print aimed to avenge Bob’s death and lynch the Clear Creek rustlers. They devised a simple plan. Print would file a complaint with Sheriff Gillan who would issue a warrant calling for the transfer of Mitchell and Ketchum from the jail in Kearney to Custer County for trial in the county where the shooting of Robert Olive had taken place. They knew Sheriff Anderson to be sympathetic to their cause. The battle had been moved to Confederate territory where they held the high ground.

The plan was put into effect, the warrants issued. The compliant Sheriff Anderson, five hundred dollars in double eagles, that is, twenty-dollar gold pieces, all tucked safely in his saddlebag, released the pair to Gillan who swiftly loaded the men on the next westbound train. Upon arrival in the Olive-controlled enclave of Plum Creek, they were loaded onto the swiftest wagon available and spirited north toward Custer County. Print was observing the action from nearby, and he mounted White Flanks and followed after the wagon.

The courthouse in Broken Bow was never the intended destination. A few miles up the trail, Olive was joined by two horsemen who had been waiting to intercept him. They were Bill Green and Jack Baldwin, businessmen from Plum Creek who were aware of the poorly concealed plot, and who, as one had described to a drinking partner, had always wanted to see a lynching. Each had a fortifying gallon of whiskey slung from the saddle. Olive tried to discourage them but to no avail. They were determined to witness the excitement. When they reached the point in the trail where it crossed the tiny Wood River, they departed to the northwest and followed the riverbed to Devil’s Gap, a shortcut to his South Loup headquarters.

Using a route negotiable only by men on horseback, they reached Devil’s Gap before Gillan and the homesteaders. Olive’s men had assembled there as directed, and he issued orders to get into their assigned positions. When the Gillan wagon passed through the gap, horsemen quickly surrounded the wagon and ordered Deputy Sheriff Dufran to relinquish the reins and surrender the wagon and its occupants. Gillan and Dufran were ordered to walk up the trail about a quarter of a mile to an adobe house and to wait there for further directions.

Radical Winds ~ by Steve Buttress, posted by Chuck Peek