“1. The hand of the Lord was upon me, and carried me out in the Spirit of the Lord, and set me down in the midst of the valley which was full of bones. “2. And caused me to pass by them round about; and, behold, there were very many in the open valley; and, lo, they were very dry. “3. And he said unto me, Son of man, can these bones live? And I answered, O Lord God, thou knowest. “4. Again he said unto me, Prophesy upon these bones, and say unto them, O ye dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. “5. Thus said the Lord God unto these bones: Behold, I will cause breath to enter into you, and ye shall live. “6. And I will lay sinews upon you, and will bring up flesh upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and ye shall live; and ye shall know that I am the Lord. “7. So I prophesied as I was commanded: and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and, behold a shaking, and the bones came together, bone to his bone. “8. And when I beheld, lo, the sinews and the flesh came upon them, and the skin covered them above: but there was no breath in them. “9. Then said he unto me, Prophesy unto the wind, prophesy, son of man, and say to the wind, Thus saith the Lord God: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live. “10. So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood upon their feet, an exceeding great army.” Who can fittingly describe that solemn scene, wherein was the beginning of the redemption of Montana from ruffian rule? In a vast sense the death of Brother Bell was a vicarious sacrifice. A new power arose in that beleaguered land from that very hour, to which all honest men instinctively turned for inspiration and for strength. Verily, the vision of the Prophet Ezekiel of old, became that day a new prophecy in a new land; for from the dark cañons of those mountains, where the dry bones of scores of murdered victims were lying, and symbolically from the new-made grave of our Brother Bell, there arose, “and stood up upon their feet, an exceeding great army,” the avengers of outraged justice, even the Vigilantes of Montana. After the Masonic fraternity at Bannack had decided to organize a regular lodge, and a dispensation for that purpose had been applied for, Plummer expressed publicly a strong desire to become a Mason. Such were his persuasive powers that he succeeded in convincing some members of the order that, in all his affrays, he had been actuated solely by the principle of self-defence, and that there was nothing inherently criminal in his nature. There were not wanting several good men among our brotherhood, who would have recommended him for initiation.