Wildest Dreams - By Rosanne Bittner Page 0,176

homes, deciding to make a fast dollar off the hanging. Those who could not get rooms had set up wagons and tents outside of town, and vendors in the street were making money selling everything from food and drinks to little signs that read, I Saw the Hanging in Billings, Montana Territory, May 25, 1878. Programs had been printed up and handed out, giving the names of those to be hanged: Ben Walker, Jim Walker, and their uncle, Zack Walker. Because the kidnapping and blackmail scheme was Zack Walker's idea, and because he did nothing to keep his nephews from raping Katie, he was sentenced to be hanged right along with the two young Walkers. Two other men who had been brought in, a Terry Brubaker and Matt Peters, did not take part in the rape. They were given five-year prison sentences and had been sent to Montana's territorial prison at Deer Lodge, nearly two hundred miles to the west. A U.S. Marshal had already come to take them away, although the prison was not even finished yet. Only the north wing was completed, and they heard it was already filling fast with horse thieves and murderers, as Montana continued to struggle to bring law and order to its citizens, who had demanded an end to vigilante justice in their territory.

Lettie hoped such justice would end, that men like Luke could stop risking their own lives keeping the lawless out of Montana. He had brushed against death too many times over the years. If the bullet he'd taken rescuing Katie had hit him just a few inches to the left, it would most certainly have killed or crippled him. He still could not fully use his right arm, and to this day he still limped from the bullet wound that had shattered his right thigh the day the buffalo hunters had shot him down.

Today justice would be served legally. A hangman would pull the lever that would open the trapdoors beneath the three Walker men and send them to their reward, whatever that might be. Lettie hoped they would burn in hell forever for what they had done to her daughter, and she had no regrets over killing one of those men herself. By the time bodies were collected and identified after Luke's rescue of Katie, Tex told her that one she had shot was dead. It was learned he was Irv Walker, father of the two Walker boys to be hanged today, brother to Zack Walker, and just as no-good. Katie had told her that the one called Irv had urged his "boys" to have themselves a good time with their captive. Also killed were another nephew, Larry, who was one of those involved in the rape; and a man called Coolie, both shot down by Tex. They had picked Coolie up along the way on their journey of vengeance, and the man had never told them his full name. Tyler had wounded another man named Ken Justice, and the man had died on the trip back to Billings. It was Ty's first killing, and Luke and Lettie both hoped their son would never have to kill again. It had gone hard on him, and his only consolation had been that the man had been a part of the terrible gang that had hurt his sister. Ty had also wounded Brubaker, but the man had lived. Runner had captured Matt Peters, as well as the fleeing Brubaker, and it was those two who were headed for prison.

Nine men, Lettie thought, four killed, two going to prison, three to hang. Even that did not seem like justice enough for poor Katie. It would take more than ending their lives for her daughter to recover from her ordeal. She well knew the kind of nightmares that would haunt the girl for a long time to come. The family had surrounded her with love. They were all doing everything they could to encourage her, and she was glad she had shared her own tragedy with her daughter. That had seemed to help more than anything.

Pearl came to stand beside her mother at the window. "Katie, you should see the crowd down there!" she told her sister. "I never saw so many people!"

Katie sat in a corner of the room knitting. "I don't want to look," she answered quietly. "Just tell me when it's over."

Lettie's heart ached at the evident pain in Katie's voice. The trial had been held inside the cattlemen's hall,