Coming In from the Cold

For five months the two mountain men, Don Nichols, 53, and his son Dan, 20, had eluded lawmen in the remote Montana wilderness near Bozeman. Many residents figured that the fugitives, wanted for the July kidnaping of Kari Swenson, a member of the U.S. biathlon team, and for the murder of a man who helped rescue her, had fled the frigid region before the onset of winter. But not Sheriff Johnny France, who had attended the same high school as the elder Nichols. "I'm a mountain man too," he insisted. "It will take one to catch one. I'll get them."

Alerted by a rancher who spotted the smoke of a campfire, France, alone and on foot, picked up their trail last week. He followed their tracks through snow and across rocky terrain for four miles. Rifle in hand, he slipped quietly toward their campsite, then strode almost casually into the opening. "Seen any coyotes around?" he asked. The father jumped up and reached for his rifle. "Please don't make me kill you!" warned the sheriff. France promised the thinly dressed but well-armed fugitives "a warm bed and warm food and warm water," then marched them into a clearing and radioed for help from a helicopter. "I had rehearsed this capture for a long time," France said afterward. "I had dreamed of it, and everything I did was just as if I'd been there before."