The confederates of Ives spared no efforts, while his trial was in progress, to save him. When intimidation failed, they appealed to sympathy; and when that proved unavailing, it was their intention, by a desperate onslaught at the last moment, to attempt a forcible rescue. They were deterred from this by the rapid clicking of the gun-locks at the moment of the execution. All through the weary hours of the trial, their hopes were encouraged with the belief that Plummer, their chief, would come, and demand the custody of Ives; and if refused, obtain it by a writ of _habeas corpus_, in the name of the civil authorities of the Territory. But if he obeyed the summons of Clubfoot George, which is at best problematical, he acted no conspicuous part. A saloon-keeper by the name of Clinton was very positive that he saw him drink at his bar a few moments before the execution, and that he immediately went out to lead the “forlorn hope” of the roughs. Some other person was probably mistaken for the robber chief, as he was not recognized by any others of the crowd present at the time. In fact he had enough to do to make provision for his own safety; for Rumor, with her thousand tongues, had carried the intelligence of the arrest of Ives to Bannack, before the arrival there of Clubfoot George. He found the people wild with excitement over a version of the arrest, which Plummer himself had already circulated, coupled with a statement that a Vigilance Committee had been formed at Virginia City, a number of the best citizens hanged, and that from three hundred to five hundred armed men were on the march to Bannack, with the intention of hanging him, Ned Ray, Buck Stinson, George Crisman, A. J. McDonald, Thomas Pitt, and others. This anticipatory announcement was made with the hope that by mingling the respectable names of Crisman, McDonald, and Pitt, with those of Stinson, Ray, and his own, he might divert, or at least divide, the attention which would otherwise inculpate only the real villains. It produced a momentary sensation, but failed of effect.