It cannot be denied that these rude forms of justice, known as "Judge Lynch's Courts," have done some good in disorganized conditions of society, by deterring, if not in punishing, crime. Indeed, in many cases vigilance committees have been of the greatest service, even in places where the law is supposed to be in force. At one time these committees saved the city of San Francisco from the control of murderers and gamblers.

But on the whole they do more harm than good, for, as in the present instance at Hurley's Gulch, bad men join them for self-protection or to carry out their own selfish ends.

The only men who can properly administer justice are those accustomed to weighing evidence, and, no matter how well meaning, rough miners are apt to be influenced by their feelings rather than their reason.

It would not have taken a stranger long to see that a majority of the men gathered in that canvas-covered apartment, in the hotel at Hurley's Gulch, were prejudiced against the prisoners.

To Mr. Willett, who was familiar with the dignified forms of courts of justice in the East, the proceedings looked like a burlesque on law, for an attempt was made to do things after the manner of long established methods.

Before the prisoners were brought in, it was decided by the committee having the matter in charge, that a man named Jacks, an ignorant, red-faced fellow, who had occupied a similar position on a former occasion, should act as judge.

Mr. Willett and Hank Tims were given camp-chairs directly in front of "the judge," who was making a desperate effort to maintain the dignified bearing supposed to be essential to the office.

The judge rapped with the bottom of a heavy tumbler—the contents of which he had just drank—on a little pine table by his side and called out:

"The next thing in order, gents, is to 'lect a sheriff and a clerk, for I propose that everything in this court shall be square and reg'lar; and, if the prizners has any objections to the officers they must say so now, or forever after hold their peace."

When the judge had ceased speaking, a man with a bullet-head, a red shirt and no neck to speak of—he was the proprietor of this remarkable hotel—pushed himself through the crowd and called out:

"I nominate Badger for sheriff of this here court."

Without waiting for this motion to be seconded, the judge yelled out:

"All in favor of Badger for sheriff say 'aye,' all opposed say 'aye,' too."

As this arrangement left no chance for those who might be opposed to Badger to say "no," he was declared to be unanimously elected.

"Next thing in order is to 'lect a clerk," said the judge.

The man who had nominated Badger now yelled out:

"I name Frank Shirley for clerk!"

The judge, without waiting for the forms in such cases, would have declared Shirley elected had not Mr. Willett leaped to his feet and shouted:

"I protest."

"One of the prizners protests," said the judge, and he picked up the tumbler with an angry gesture, as if about to hurl it at Mr. Willett's head.

Frank Shirley evidently expected to act as clerk of the court without any opposition, for as soon as his name was called he pushed himself to the front.

"What objection have you got to Mr. Shirley, I'd like to know?" said the judge, his face growing redder with anger.

"I have many objections," said Mr. Willett, not at all intimidated by the frowns of Shirley's friends.

"Can't the man write?" asked the judge.

"I suppose he can," replied Mr. Willett.

"Wa'al, if he can write what more do you want in a clerk?" said the judge.

"Many things."

"What are they?"

"He should be free from prejudices."

"And so he is."

"And so he is not," said Mr. Willett, calmly but firmly. "He is my bitter enemy. He has been setting the good men of this place against me by his slanders and unblushing falsehoods. If you want this trial to be fair you must not begin by making officers of men who may find it to their interest to convict me."

"I mean to do what's fair," Shirley managed to say. "And I am not seeking this place. If you elect me I will serve, and do my whole duty like a man, forgetting the past bad character of this unfortunate man, Willett, who married my cousin and sent the poor woman to the grave by his cruelties."

This speech had a powerful effect on the mob, for the men began to stamp, and some of them yelled:

"Don't pay no heed to the prizner, but go right straight on with the trial!"

"Yes, we'll go on with the trial," said the judge, rapping for order, as if determined to have it or break the table.

Still cool and undaunted, Mr. Willett stood up till the storm had somewhat abated.

"If," he said, "I am to have no voice in my own defence, then this trial is a farce and the sooner it ends in the murder of two innocent men the better. If the judge did not mean that I could object to the officers you were about to elect, why did he say so? I am simply availing myself of the privilege you grant me, and I can give you still stronger reasons for my opposition to this Frank Shirley, whom I here denounce, as a man without manly courage or honest principle, and wholly unworthy of belief. He is the one man in this territory who will reap wealth from the death of myself and my son; are you willing to let such a man take part in a trial that may seal my doom in his interest?"

The judge was about to make an angry comment on this, but he was prevented by Collins, who pushed his way through the crowd, and said with a flash of the eyes that boded no good to those who opposed him:

"Thar ain't no man in Hurley's Gulch, or out of it either that'll stand before my face, or the face of my pard, Si Brill, and say that either of us don't always tell the right up and down truth. If thar is sich a man har, I'd like him to trot himself out so that I ken git a good square look at him for 'bout three seconds and a half."

As Collins said this, he quickly threw his strong right hand back on the stock of one of his revolvers and took a calm survey of the sea of astonished faces.

If there was any man present who had doubts as to the honesty and veracity of Mr. Collins and his partner, he thought it the part of prudence to keep them to himself, for the present at least.

"Now," continued Collins, after a half minute of painful silence, "I happen to know, and so does my pard, Si Brill, that that sneak, Shirley, who has been tryin' to make friends with the honest men and the mean ones too, in this camp, by keepin' of 'em howlin' drunk, will fall into a big estate over thar in Michigan, if Mr. Willett's son should chance to peg out afore he gits to be old enough to vote in politics. So, for one, I ain't a goin' to stand by and let that cur have anythin' to do with the case. And more than that, you fellers ought to feel ashamed, clar down to your boots, at 'lectin' for sheriff of this court a man who's known in every minin' camp this side of the Sierras as a drunkard, a bummer—yes, and a murderer! that's Badger, and I make the charge right here to his face. If he don't deny it, mebbe some of his new found friends, Jacks, the judge of the court for instance, might like to take it up. If so, I'm just about as ready to back my words now as at any other time."

Again Collins drew himself up and looked about him, with his right hand gripping the stock of his six-shooter.

"See har, Collins," said the judge, speaking in tones intended to be very soothing, "we're not here to fight, but to do our duty as good men——"

"But is it doin' yer duty to tell the prizners they kin object, and then, when one of 'em does so, to try and choke him off, so's to put in an enemy and a sneak as the clerk of this court?"

"Wa'll, Collins, thar's other folks that ken write in this camp," said the judge. "So I'll withdraw Mr. Shirley, and let another be named."

Much crest-fallen at this decision of the judge, and the very uncomplimentary opinion of himself which he had been forced to listen to, Frank Shirley shrunk back into the crowd from which he had lately emerged with so much confidence.

Even Badger, usually so ready to assert himself, remained dumb in the presence of this strong, brave man.

A young miner, bearing the appropriate name of Clark, was selected as clerk of the court, and then the judge said it was in order to swear in a jury.

"'Cordin' to law," he added, "the prizners has a right to ax the jury questions, and to object to 'em if they doesn't pan out all right. But I hope we'll git along faster'n we've been doin' else this yar trial will last from July to eternity."

As Mr. Willett did not know any of the men who were called to act as jurors, he judged their fitness for the position by their appearance, and so he offered objections to only two, and they were drunk.

It was already noon when the judge declared that all the preliminaries were over, and that he was now prepared to go on with the trial in earnest, "and have justice did to the livin' and the dead."