Along the way they met several people, who commented on the smoke and wondered if they knew about it. It was finally beginning to dawn on them that, when their victim’s disappearance was remarked, they would be the prime suspects, having been seen leaving Condon with him and arriving in the McKenzie valley without him.

What to do?

The two of them decided what they needed was to find some rustic sucker willing to perjure himself by swearing that he had seen the three of them together, bringing the horses down.

And so commenced Clarence Branton and Courtland Green’s Melmoth-like wanderings through the McKenzie Valley, horses in tow, looking for friends old and new who would be willing to perjure themselves in exchange for the pick of the herd....(McKenzie Valley, Deschutes and Lane counties, 1898) (For text and pictures, see http://offbeatoregon.com/1804a.branton-green-murder-john-linn-489.html)