The wife of Parish was a Bannack squaw; and Plummer had stated that he had examined Parish when at his ranche in the morning, and had concluded that he could not survive more than a day or two, and that, the instant he died, his wife would take all the horses belonging to parties for whom Parish, Bunton and Co. were keeping them, and would join her tribe on the west of the mountains near Fort Lemhi; and in order to save these horses for the owners, it was necessary that the sheriff should proceed to take them on general principles, and without any writ for that purpose. Never doubting but that Plummer was relating the truth, the people of Bannack saw his party quietly climb the eastern hill, and disappear over one of its declivities. A single member, delayed from some cause or other, lingered behind in the town. After the party had left town, several gentlemen suggested to Colonel Sanders that he should endeavor to overtake them, and volunteered to furnish a horse and saddle if he would do so, with a view to obtaining for himself and themselves, if possible, some interest in the silver quartz mines which they believed would the next morning be staked off and recorded. Colonel Sanders proceeded to his house, took the inevitable accompaniments of a traveller, his blankets, robes, revolvers, etc., and returned to the town, where a somewhat diminutive mule, saddled and bridled and ready for the fray, was presented to him for his journey. Mounting the animal, he started on the trail of the party, who had one hour or more the start of him, on his way to Rattlesnake ranche, the property of Parish, Bunton and Co. The mule at times was recalcitrant in the early part of the journey, but finally settled down and jogged along at a mild speed towards his destination. Tracks of the horsemen were plainly discernible in the road until he reached a point near the summit of the range of mountains between the Grasshopper and Rattlesnake, when they disappeared. Upon arriving at the top of the hill, as is not unusual on the top of these mountain ranges, a snow storm burst upon the lone traveller, accompanied by a high wind, and in half an hour the disintegrated granite in the road, which was dry, mixed with the snow so as to cause the mule to accumulate on his hoofs large quantities of the dust and snow, to such an extent as to make speed impossible, and travelling very difficult. The colonel dismounted and drove his mule in front of him, eight miles, to the ranche, where he confidently expected to find a good-natured, hilarious crowd spending the evening. Judge of his surprise, when he entered the room, to find the only person in it was Erastus Yager, whose actual name not one in a thousand knew, but who was universally known as “Red.” He was the Boniface and _major-domo_ of the place.