The headquarters of the marauders was Rattlesnake Ranche. Plummer often visited it, and the robbers used to camp, with their comrades, in little wakiups above and below it, watching, and ready for fight, flight or plunder. Two rods in front of this building was a sign post, at which they used to practice with their revolvers. They were capital shots. Plummer was the quickest hand with his revolver of any man in the mountains. He could draw the pistol and discharge the five loads in three seconds. The post was riddled with holes, and was looked upon as quite a curiosity, until it was cut down, in the summer of 1863. Another favorite resort of the gang was Dempsey’s Cottonwood Ranche. The owner knew the character of the robbers, but had no connection with them; and, in those days, a man’s life would not have been worth fifteen minutes purchase, if the possessor had been foolish enough even to hint at his knowledge of their doings. Daley’s, at Ramshorn Gulch, and ranches or wakiups on the Madison, the Jefferson, Wisconsin Creek, and Mill Creek, were also constantly occupied by members of the band. By discoveries of the bodies of the victims, the confessions of the murderers before execution, and reliable information sent to the Committee, it was found that one hundred and two people had been certainly killed by those miscreants in various places, and it was believed, on the best information, that scores of unfortunates had been murdered and buried, whose remains were never discovered, nor their fate definitely ascertained. All that was known, was that they started, with greater or less sums of money, for various places, and were never heard of again. CHAPTER V. THE DARK DAYS OF MONTANA. “Will all Neptune’s Ocean wash this blood Clean from my hand?”--MACBETH. Henry Plummer, a sketch of whose previous career will appear in a subsequent part of this narrative, came to Montana Territory from Orofino. He and Reeves had there got into a difficulty with another man, and had settled the matter in the way usual in the trade--that is to say, they shot him. Plummer--who, it seems, had for a long time contemplated a visit to the States--made at once for the River, intending to go down by boat; but finding that he was too late, he came back to Gold Creek, and there met Jack Cleveland, an old acquaintance, and former partner in crime. They made arrangements to pass the winter together at Sun River Farm. Plummer was to attend to the chores about the house, and Jack Cleveland was to get the wood. The worthy couple true to their instincts, did not long remain in harmony, but quarrelled about a young lady, whom Plummer afterwards married. Neither would leave, unless the other went also, and at last they both started, in company, for Bannack.