THE OUTLAW'S LAST STAND
After the vigilants had frightened the outlaws into abandoning their
operations in the valley, the thieves skulked across the reservation to
a strip of country some twenty-five miles northeast of where Megory now
stands. Here, on the east, the murky waters of the Missouri seek their
level; to the north the White River runs like a cow-path through the
foot hills--twisting and turning into innumerable bends, with its
lime-like waters lapping the sides, bringing tons of shale from the
gorgeous, dark banks, into its current; while on the south runs the
Whetstone, inclosed by many rough, ragged brown hills, and to the west
are the breaks of Landing Creek. In an angle between these creeks and
rivers, lies a perfect table land known as Yully Flats, which is the
most perfectly laying land and has the richest soil of any spot on the
Little Crow. It took its name from a famous outlaw and squaw-man, by the
name of Jack Yully. With him the thieves from the Keya Paha Valley found
co-operation, and together had, a few years previously operated as the
most notorious band of cattle rustlers the state had known. For a
hundred miles in every direction this band plundered, stole, and ran the
cattle and horses onto the flats, where they were protected by the
breaks of the creeks and rivers, referred to. Mixed with half, quarter,
eighth and sixteenth breeds, they knew every nook and crook of the
country. These operations had lasted until the year of the Little Crow
opening, and it was there that Jack Yully made his last stand.
[Illustration: Although the valley could not be surpassed in the
production of grain and alfalfa, the highlands on either side were great
mountains of sand. (Page 126.)]
He had for many years defied the laws of the county and state, and had
built a magnificent residence near a spring that pours its sparkling
waters into a small lake, where now stands a sanitarium. Yully had been
chief overseer, dictator, and arbitrator of the combined forces of
Little Crow and Keya Paha County outlaws and mixed bloods. The end came
when, on a bright day in June, a posse led by the United States Marshal
sneaked across the Whetstone and secreted themselves in a cache between
Yully's corral and the house. Yully was seen to enter the corral and
having laid a trap, a part of the men, came in from another direction
and made as if to advance when Yully made a run for his house, which
took him alongside the men hidden. Before he could change his course he
was halted and asked to surrender. He answered by dropping to the
opposite side of the horse and began firing. In the skirmish that
followed the horse was shot and fell on Yully, but in the shot's
exchange two of the posse and Yully were killed.