George Ives, who turned out to be one of the most desperate of the gang of robbers, was the rancher’s clerk at Virginia City. Whenever application was made for a horse, unless the applicant was on his guard, Ives could, by a careless inquiry, learn his destination. By communicating this to his confederates, they could pursue and rob, or kill the rider without delay or suspicion. To escape this system of espionage it was my custom, when ready to leave for Bannack or elsewhere, to send an order by a friend to the rancher or Ives, requesting him to let the bearer have the horse to go to some point which I designated, in an opposite direction from my actual destination. The friend would receive and mount the horse, and ride out of town, beyond observation, where I would meet him and go on my way. Thirty journeys of this kind were safely made between Virginia City and Bannack during the fall, none, however, without the precaution of carrying a pair of revolvers in my cantinas, and a double-barrelled gun across my saddle. During a brief stay in Omaha several years ago, I met with Dr. Leavitt, who was a resident of Bannack while Plummer dwelt there. He related the following incident, which is repeated here, for the insight it affords of Plummer’s malignancy. “One night in October, 1863,” said the doctor, “I was walking along the roadway of Main Street in Bannack. The moon, obscured by clouds, shed a dim light, by which I could see for a few yards quite distinctly. As I passed your boarding-house, my attention was attracted by a noise at my left. I stopped, and on close observation saw a dark object under the window. My curiosity was excited to know what it could be. Judge of my surprise on approaching it to behold a man with a revolver in his hand, on his knees at the window, peering into the room through a space of less than an inch between the curtain and the window casing. I watched him unobserved for some seconds. Disturbed by my approach, he sprang to his feet and darted around the corner of the building—but not so rapidly as to escape recognition. “‘Why, Plummer,’ I exclaimed, ‘what in the world are you doing there?’ “Seeing that he was known, he came forward, laughing, and replied, “‘I was trying to play a joke on my friend Langford. He and Gillette board here, and I heard their voices.’