Early in the Summer of 1866 I visited all the gulches and camps in Deer Lodge County, on a collecting trip, and had arrived at Blackfoot, a little town in the county, where one of my deputies was located. With the sum which he had received, my collections amounted to about $12,000. Of this amount $5,000 or more was gold dust, which, at $18 an ounce, weighed about twenty-five pounds. With the entire amount I intended to leave the next day on horseback for Helena by way of Deer Lodge, some hundred miles distant across the Rocky Mountains. My friend, Mr. Murphy, happened to be in Blackfoot on special business, and we arranged to travel in company as far as Deer Lodge, the county seat.
Late in the evening as I was about retiring, Mr. Murphy, who had been out on business, came to my room, and in an anxious tone, said he thought he had discovered a plan on foot to rob us the next day.
“Go with me down street,” said he, “and help me form an opinion.”
We strolled down to the stables where our horses were, and thence across the street to a billiard saloon. Standing by one of the tables, Mr. Murphy directed my attention to four men seated in the corner of the room, engaged in close conversation. Something in their manner, their furtive glances under their broad-brimmed hats, the pauses in their conversation when approached, excited our suspicions, and we concluded that as we were the only persons in town known to have money in any considerable quantity, it was not improbable that Murphy’s suspicions were correct. There was nothing in the appearance of the men to warrant such a conclusion, but we remembered that Plummer had the port and bearing of a perfect gentleman.
I returned to the hotel and retired with a feeling of uneasiness that baffled sleep, and as I had resolved to go on, naturally set myself devising some method of avoiding collision with these supposed freebooters. I can form no idea now of the number or character of the expedients that occurred to me, but I remember that none of them seemed, at the time, to give promise of escape or safety if these men had, as I expected, marked me for their prey.
Early next morning Murphy, who had been keenly on the alert, came to my room and assured me that our suspicions were unfounded.
“Those men,” he said, “are honest miners. They left an hour ago to take up claims on a new discovery. The peculiarities we noticed are ascribable to their desire to conceal the locality until they have made their choice of a claim.”
Though not fully reassured, my fears were greatly allayed by this intelligence, which was seemingly confirmed an hour later on being told by the stablekeeper that they had gone to Bear Gulch, where they said they had found “something rich.”
It was pleasant to feel that if this information was true we should not come in contact with them, Bear Gulch being opposite in direction from our point of destination.
At a bend in the trail, about two miles down the creek, we came upon a log cabin saloon by the wayside, in front of which were hitched four horses and leaning beside the door were four double-barrelled shotguns. A glance was sufficient to comprehend the situation.