This was a bold piece of strategy on the part of Hauser, evincing an intuitive insight into the character of Plummer; but not one man in a hundred similarly situated would have thought of adopting it. If Plummer had entertained an idea that Hauser suspected his motives in accompanying him to Bannack, this act of gratuitous confidence must have allayed it at once.
Hauser and I engaged a passage to Salt Lake City of one of a company of eight Mormon freighters, who were to leave Bannack at noon on the fourteenth of November. We did not wish to leave until seven o’clock in the evening; and the man, impatient of any delay beyond the departure of his companions, finally agreed, for an extra ten dollars paid in advance, to wait for us until five o’clock P.M. If we were not ready then, he would retain the ten dollars, and leave town without us, so as to overtake the other teams, which were to camp that night at Horse Prairie, twelve miles distant. These arrangements were made in George Crisman’s store where Plummer had an office, and in the hearing of one of his deputies, who immediately communicated the information to his chief.
Early in the forenoon Plummer called upon Hauser and presented him with a woollen scarf of a bright scarlet color, saying, “You will find it useful these cold nights.” A few hours afterwards, a report was circulated of the discovery of a silver lode in the vicinity of Rattlesnake. The person bringing in this intelligence, requested Plummer, who from his experience in Nevada was supposed to be a good judge of the quality of silver ore, to go immediately and examine it. He left early in the afternoon on the Rattlesnake road, but as soon as he was beyond observation, turned southward toward Horse Prairie. Col. Wilbur F. Sanders, who soon followed in the direction of Rattlesnake, returned the next day with the intelligence that he had been unable to trace him. The circumstance of Plummer’s departure, and the presence in town of Stinson and Ray, so wrought upon the fears of our friends for our safety, that it was not without much persuasion that they would permit us to undertake the journey. We were satisfied, however, that, go when we might, we should have to incur the same risk. As a precautionary measure, I carefully cleaned my gun, and loaded each barrel with twelve revolver balls. George Dart, a friend, observing this, asked why I was filling my gun so full of lead. I replied that we were fearful of an attack, and that the indications were that it would be made that night, if at all. Some of our friends endeavored to persuade us to defer our journey till a more favorable time. This we would have done had we not believed that the risk would have to be incurred whenever we took our departure. At the hour of five we were not ready, but the Mormon teamster was prevailed upon to wait for us two hours longer.
Just after seven o’clock, and as we were putting the provisions which we had prepared for our journey into the wagon, Henry Tilden, a member of the household of Sidney Edgerton, then Chief Justice of Idaho, came in with the report that he had been robbed about midway on his ride from Horse Prairie, by three men, one of whom he thought was Plummer. This created much excitement; and if our friends had not supposed that we had already left town, we would probably have been forcibly detained.
Either our failure to appear at the time at which our appointment to leave at five o’clock justified him in expecting us, or the belief that Tilden had circulated the news of his robbery, and thereby delayed our departure, caused Plummer to return by a circuitous route to town. He inquired for me at my boarding-house, and being told that both Hauser and I had gone, left town immediately in hot pursuit.
In the wagon with us was one Charles Whitehead, a gambler, who had made arrangements with another of the Mormon teamsters for conveyance to Salt Lake City; but having some business to detain him in town, he availed himself of the circumstance of our late departure, to give it attention. I had frequently seen him in town, but knew nothing about him, save that he was a professional gambler. He might, I thought, belong to the gang and be in some way connected with their present enterprise, and we kept a close watch upon his movements. We rode with our guns double-charged and cocked, lying upon our laps. It was after eleven o’clock when we reached the camp of the advance party. The night was clear and cold; the atmosphere crisp with frost. Whitehead, who had sent his blankets forward by the other teams, found that they had been appropriated by one of the teamsters, who had concluded that we had delayed our departure from town till the following morning. As he was in delicate health, I give him my place with Hauser in the wagon, and taking a buffalo robe, stretched myself upon the ground beside the wagon.
I could not sleep for the cold, and about three o’clock in the morning, thoroughly chilled, I arose, took my gun in my hand, and walked briskly back and forth before the camp. Finding that this exercise did not greatly increase my comfort, I went down to the bank of the creek thirty yards distant and commenced gathering dry willows to make a fire. While thus employed I strayed down the stream about twenty rods from the camp. Suddenly I heard a confused murmur of voices, which at first I thought came from the camp, but, while walking towards it, found that it was from a different direction. Curiosity now overcame all thought of cold. I dropped the armful of sticks I had gathered, and carefully disentangling the little copse of willows which sheltered me from view, peered through, and saw in the dim moonlight three footmen approaching on the other side of the stream. The thought struck me that they might be campers in search of horses or mules that had strayed. I walked noiselessly down the stream, to a point where I could obtain through a vista an unobstructed view, my trusty gun held firmly in the hollow of my hand. The three men approached the opening through which I was gazing, and I now discovered that their features were concealed by loosely flowing masks. I no longer doubted their identity or purpose. Some little noise that I made attracted their attention to the spot where I was standing. They saw me, and, perceiving that I had recognized them, changed their course, and disappeared beyond a clump of willows.
My first impulse was now to return to camp, and arouse the men, but I concluded not to do so unless it became necessary. One of the Mormons, as I passed by him, roused himself sufficiently to ask me why I was up so early. I replied that I was watching for prowlers. In a few moments I returned to the bank of the creek, and followed it down thirty or forty rods, till I came to a ripple where the water was not more than six inches deep. Stepping into the stream, I waded noiselessly across. The opposite bank was about two feet high, and covered with a willow thicket thirty feet in width. Through this I crawled to the opening beyond, where was the moist bed of a former stream, its banks lined with willows; and in this half-enclosed semicircle, not fifty feet distant from where I was lying, stood four masked men. One of them had been holding the horses—four in number—while the others were taking observations of our camp. After a brief consultation, they hurriedly mounted their horses, and rode rapidly off towards Bannack. These men we afterwards ascertained were Plummer, Stinson, Ray, and Ives. The fortunate change in my lodgings, and the coldness of the weather, and consequent sleeplessness, saved us from an attack whose consequences may be better imagined than described. We made the journey to Salt Lake City in safety; but from the frequent inquiries made of us while there, concerning others who had attempted it before us, we concluded that many had fallen victims who left the mines with better prospects of escape than those which encouraged us. It was the common custom of Mormon freighters to extend their day’s journeying far into the evening. Plummer was cognizant of this fact, and there can be no doubt that his purpose in presenting Hauser with the scarf was, that he might single him out from the rest of the party after nightfall. It is a coincidence that Plummer was hanged on the succeeding anniversary of Hauser’s birthday, January 10, 1864.
Our trip of fifteen days, with the thermometer ranging from zero to twenty degrees below, was not unrelieved by occasional incidents which we recall with pleasure. Among these, of course, we cannot include the cold nights we were obliged to pass upon the frozen earth. But we found an inexhaustible store of amusement, not unmingled with admiration, in the character of our Mormon conductors. Simple-hearted, affable, and unsophisticated, with bigot faith in their creed, studious observance of its requirements, and constant reliance upon it both for assistance in difficulty and pastime, they afforded in all their actions a singular contrast as well to the unregenerate Gentiles, as to the believers among older sects. They were not only sincere in their belief, they were enthusiastic. It was the single element which governed their lives: they idolized it, and neither reason, which they at once rejected, nor ridicule, which they silently abhorred, could shake their religious credulity. We engaged in frequent discussions with them, prolonging the evening camp-fire sittings with arguments which broke like the waves of a summer sea upon the rock of simple faith. Theology with them was restricted to the revelations of Joseph Smith, and the counsels of Brigham Young. These contained the precious elements of their belief.
While passing over one of the divides, I recited to Hauser with such marked emphasis as I could command, Milton’s description of “the meeting of Satan and Death at the gates of Hell.” The stirring passage immediately absorbed the attention of our Mormon driver. The serious cast of his features during the recitation attracted our attention; and soon after we had camped for the night, while supper was in the course of preparation, he was heard to remark to a brother teamster,