Among the packers were Messrs. John McCormick, M. T. Jones, William Sloan, John S. Rockfellow, J. M. Bozeman, Melanchthon Forbes, and Henry Branson,—energetic business men, who had accumulated a considerable amount in gold dust, which they took with them to make payments to Eastern creditors. Buckskin sacks, containing about eighty thousand dollars, were distributed in cantinas through the entire pack train, no one pair of cantinas containing a very large sum. Besides this amount, there was in a carpet-sack in one of the wagons, fifteen hundred dollars in treasury notes, enclosed in letters to various persons in the States, and sent by their friends and relatives in the mines. The men in the train were well armed, and anticipated attack by the robbers at some point on the route, but they determined upon fighting their way through. Plummer had been on the watch for their departure a week or more before they left, and through his spies was fully informed of the amount they took with them. He made preparations for surprising them in camp after nightfall, on their second day out, well knowing that some would then be seated, others lying around their camp-fires, and still others spreading their blankets for the night. Two of the boldest men in the band, John Wagner, known as “Dutch John,” and Steve Marshland, were selected for the service. They followed slowly in track of the train. Coming in sight of the camp-fire in Black Tail Deer Cañon after dark on the evening appointed, they hitched their horses in a thicket at a convenient distance, and, with their double-barrelled guns loaded with buckshot, crawled up, Indian fashion, within fifteen feet of the camp. By the light of the fire, they were enabled to take a survey of the party and its surroundings. The campers were dispersed in little groups engaged in conversation, ignorant of the approach of the robbers, but fully prepared to meet them. Mr. McCormick, who had done some friendly services for Ives, was warned by him, when on the eve of departure, not to sleep at all, never to be off his guard, nor separate from his comrades, but to keep close in camp until after they had crossed the range. As soon as the robbers comprehended the situation, they withdrew to the thicket and held a consultation. Wagner, the bolder of the two, proposed that they should steal again upon the campers, select their men, and kill four with their shotguns, it being quite dark; that they should then, by rapid firing, quick movements, and loud shouting, impress the survivors with the belief that they were attacked by a numerous force in ambush. “They will then,” said Wagner, “run away, and leave their traps, and we can go in and get them.”