With this understanding, which Colonel Sanders sought to impress upon his mind so that he would not forget it, the party, in knots of two and four, left the town in an easterly direction towards the point where Plummer had stated they were going that evening, which was about fifteen miles distant, and where he said they would remain over-night at the ranche of Parish, Bunton and Co., on Rattlesnake Creek, and the next morning would proceed to obtain the horses that were in such danger of being stolen.
This ranche was perhaps the best known of any in the Beaverhead country at this time. Plummer himself had denounced its proprietors as cattle thieves, and had threatened to have them arrested for that high crime, but had never done so. At this particular time the senior member of the firm was sick with fever, and it was thought that he could not long survive.
The morning coach which had brought Plummer and the other passengers from Virginia City, had also brought one Dr. Palmer, a medical practitioner at Virginia City, who had been sent for to attend Mr. Parish.
The wife of Parish was a Bannack squaw; and Plummer had stated that he had examined Parish when at his ranche in the morning, and had concluded that he could not survive more than a day or two, and that, the instant he died, his wife would take all the horses belonging to parties for whom Parish, Bunton and Co. were keeping them, and would join her tribe on the west of the mountains near Fort Lemhi; and in order to save these horses for the owners, it was necessary that the sheriff should proceed to take them on general principles, and without any writ for that purpose.
Never doubting but that Plummer was relating the truth, the people of Bannack saw his party quietly climb the eastern hill, and disappear over one of its declivities. A single member, delayed from some cause or other, lingered behind in the town.
After the party had left town, several gentlemen suggested to Colonel Sanders that he should endeavor to overtake them, and volunteered to furnish a horse and saddle if he would do so, with a view to obtaining for himself and themselves, if possible, some interest in the silver quartz mines which they believed would the next morning be staked off and recorded.
Colonel Sanders proceeded to his house, took the inevitable accompaniments of a traveller, his blankets, robes, revolvers, etc., and returned to the town, where a somewhat diminutive mule, saddled and bridled and ready for the fray, was presented to him for his journey. Mounting the animal, he started on the trail of the party, who had one hour or more the start of him, on his way to Rattlesnake ranche, the property of Parish, Bunton and Co.
The mule at times was recalcitrant in the early part of the journey, but finally settled down and jogged along at a mild speed towards his destination.
Tracks of the horsemen were plainly discernible in the road until he reached a point near the summit of the range of mountains between the Grasshopper and Rattlesnake, when they disappeared.
Upon arriving at the top of the hill, as is not unusual on the top of these mountain ranges, a snow storm burst upon the lone traveller, accompanied by a high wind, and in half an hour the disintegrated granite in the road, which was dry, mixed with the snow so as to cause the mule to accumulate on his hoofs large quantities of the dust and snow, to such an extent as to make speed impossible, and travelling very difficult.