One lady fell dead, and she had much the same graceful carriage as Mrs. Bouton, but proved to be another and an entirely innocent girl. Her companion was Minnie Montgomery, the daughter of John Montgomery, who owned the log stage station on the Black Hills route, at the north end of the Fort Laramie bridge.

Miss Montgomery did not see the assailant, and whoever he was, he made good his escape. No one knows who fired the shot, but all old timers had their suspicions.

Bouton finally sold his ranch to Seberry & Gardner, who built a big stone house, and went into the business of raising hurdle ponies, for cross-country riding, and other fancy purposes.

Leaving the ranch, Bouton and his wife went to Deadwood, and by and by there drifted back along the route a rumor that he had found his wife talking to a mining man of considerable prominence, and had started a row, in which he had come off second best. They said he was buried in Boots graveyard at Deadwood.

Young Gardner, of the new firm, was the trainer for the ranch, and his tiny saddles were the jokes of the country wide. Once, when a number of prospective buyers were at the ranch, young Gardner proposed to give them a demonstration. He had a series of hurdles of various kinds over a given run and he mounted one of his well broken ponies and rode away. The first hurdle, which was an insignificant affair, proved too much for his thoroughbred, and they went down in a heap. A great shout of laughter went up from the assembled ladies and gentlemen, which provoked young Gardner into a torrent of language so inelegant, albeit so expressive of his sentiments, that the party beat a hasty retreat.