“I was puzzled to conceive what sort of a joke he was playing with a loaded revolver, but thought I had better not be too curious to ascertain. Plummer accompanied me home. He said that you and he were great friends; that you had done him many favors, and there was no person in the world he esteemed more highly. I thought nothing more of the matter, until I heard that Plummer had threatened your life for refusing to recommend his appointment as Deputy United States Marshal. I had no doubt then, and have none now, that he was trying to get a sight through the window for the purpose of shooting you. Your departure for Salt Lake City a day or two after I heard of your difficulty with him prevented me from informing you of it at the time.”
Miners and others who had worked out or sold their claims, were almost daily leaving the country. Often it was known that they took with them large amounts of gold dust. Various were the devices for its concealment. On one occasion a small company contrived to escape plunder by packing their long, slim buckskin purses into an auger hole, bored in the end of their wagon tongue, and closing it so as to escape observation. Others, less fortunate, lost, not their money only, but their lives, in some of the desolate cañons on the long route to Salt Lake. Many left who were never afterwards heard of, and whose friends in the States wrote letters of inquiry to the Territory concerning them, years after they had gone. Whenever a robbery was contemplated which the freebooters supposed would be attended with unusual risk to themselves, Plummer’s presence was required to conduct it. Knowing that his absence would excite suspicion, he arranged that for such occasions, he should be sent for, as an expert, to examine a silver lode. But few discoveries had at this time been made of this mineral, and Plummer’s Nevada experience was thought to qualify him for determining its value with considerable accuracy. A rough-looking prospector, dressed for the purpose, would ride into town, exhibit his specimens, and urge Plummer, who feigned reluctance, to go with him and examine his discovery, promising him a claim as an inducement. Often would unsuspecting citizens offer to aid Plummer in any work he might then have on hand to enable him to go out, and, under pretence of examining a silver lode, superintend the commission of a daring robbery. Sometimes this same object was accomplished by trumping up a charge against some imaginary delinquent, and obtaining a warrant for his arrest from the miners’ judge, which Plummer, as sheriff, rode away to execute.
The following is one instance of Plummer’s method of obtaining recruits. He called upon Neil Howie in the Fall of 1863, whom he found hard at work mining, but barely earning a subsistence.
“Neil,” said he, “this is a hard way to get a living.”
“I know it,” replied Howie.
“I can tell you of an easier way.”
“I’d like to know it.”
“There are plenty of men making money in this country,” said Plummer, “and we are entitled to a share of it.”
Doubtful as to his meaning, or whether he understood; him aright, Howie regarded Plummer with a puzzled expression, making no reply.
“Come with me,” said Plummer, “and you’ll have all you want.”