A few days before I got through working for Jake Linville, young Doc Linville came riding in from a trip to Miles City. He sure was on the prod. He rode to Miles on horseback, it is a several day trip, almost a hundred miles each way. He was there to collect what the county owed him for notifying the Sheriff early this spring about finding the body of old man Ennis.
When the ice went out of Little Powder this spring, Doc happened to be riding along the bank of the river when he noticed a bundle of clothes and a saddle washed to the shore. He recognized the stuff as the property of old Ennis. The stuff must have been thrown into the river through a hole cut in the ice and weighted down with a rock. After the ice went out, the stuff broke loose and washed to the shore.
We all thought old Ennis left the country last winter. His stuff disappeared, his horse and saddle were gone and a note was nailed to his door saying, “I have gone to hell.” But when Doc found that stuff he figured that someone killed Ennis.
He then rode over to Ennis’ cabin to investigate. The cabin was occupied by Humpy McDonald. Humpy found the cabin empty and moved in about two weeks before.
Humpy is a sheepherder, he is a little cuckoo, he never bathes, seldom shaves, and his straight black hair comes to his shoulders and over his beady black eyes. They have a strange crazy look about them. He came from the swamps of Florida a few years ago. His nose was mashed at one time or other and it affects his speech and smell I think.
When Doc rode up to the cabin Humpy came out and like everyone here in the west he asked Doc to get off his horse and come in and have a bite to eat. Of Course Doc wouldn’t eat any of Humpy’s filthy grub, but he did get off his horse and went inside the cabin. The smell inside was terrible.
Doc then told him about finding Ennis’ stuff and said he would like to look around inside the cabin. That was alright with Humpy and as the worst smell came from toward the bunk Doc looked under it. The cabin had a rough cottonwood lumber floor. Doc noticed that some of the boards were loose so he pulled Humpy’s bedroll off of the bunk, yanked the bunk away, pulled up the boards and there was Ennis’ body under a few inches of dirt. He was pretty well gone, there was dry blood spattered on the front of his shirt and chest. Doc realized Ennis was shot and buried there.
Ennis used to have some pretty stiff poker games in his cabin. We are almost sure we know who done him in. One rancher owed him quite a gambling debt.
After Doc found the body he rode to the county seat in Miles City to report the murder to the Sheriff and like I said it is a several day trip. Riding through the slush, snow and ice was not very pleasant.
Then after Doc got back from Miles City with the Sheriff he rustled around and got some ranchers together to hold an inquest. So naturally he expected pay for all of that work. But when he got back from the county seat the other day he told us that he could not collect a cent. He said the damn beer bellies in Miles City courthouse plain beat him out of what he had coming. No wonder Doc was plenty mad.
Doc said when he and Humpy dug the dirt away from Ennis’ body Humpy said he thought he could smell something lately but did not know what it was. He just thought the cabin smelled bad.
Humpy slept over that body two weeks and after the body was found he moved his bedroll into the lean-to barn until after the inquest. And then instead of burning the cabin down, he took it apart log by log and moved it to another location and it is his home now. The body was left where it was found. We do not know what became of Ennis’ saddle horse. Whoever killed Ennis must have led the horse off into the hills and shot him, then cut a hole in the ice and threw the saddle and other stuff into the river to get rid of it. And probably intended to burn the cabin down later, but after Humpy moved into it he didn’t get a chance to do it.
If the stuff would have stayed in the river, and the cabin burned, no one would have known that Ennis was killed. Everyone would have kept on thinking that Ennis left the country.”
Continuing east from where Doc found the dead man partially buried is a dark gray sand rock that may or may not be a grave marker.