named Parks were returning, when a shot came out of the bushes, and the bullet whistled uncomfortably near. They rushed to the cover of brush but found no one. That night, while Parks was writing a letter in the old soddy, the cook shot him in the back, killing him instantly. Before he could get any further action with his six-shooter, the boys overpowered him. He was taken to Pine Bluffs, then to Cheyenne, and turned over to the authorities, and in due time was convicted and sentenced to imprisonment for life.

It was brought out in the trial that he had shot at Robb and Parks earlier in the evening of the murder, and that he had tried to kill the whole outfit by poison so that he could take and get away with the thousands of cattle. Failing in the poison effort, he had decided to kill them two by two, or singly, as they returned from their work. His marksmanship being poor, he had then started in with the intention of killing the outfit single handed, and wholesale robbery as his objective.

There was no pentitentiary in Wyoming at the time, and the custom of taking care of prisoners of this character, was to take them to the prisons of other states, the state of Wyoming paying the state which furnished the accommodation a stipulated fee.

The cook, Nurse, was accordingly taken to Joliet, Illinois, to serve his sentence. For some cause or other he obtained a parole, and as is frequent in such cases, the criminal character of the man reasoned that having escaped with light punishment, there was a little danger in the field of criminals, and there were chances of great gain. He went to South Dakota.