“Well, Maggie,” replied her husband, “you remember my dream about Lloyd Magruder? I fear it has all come true. Indeed, I am perfectly certain poor Lloyd has been murdered.” “Nonsense, Hill,” rejoined the wife. “Will you never have done with your unfounded suspicions? You will make yourself the laughing-stock of the whole country, and bring all the roughs in it about your ears, if you don’t cease talking about Magruder.” “I can’t help it, wife,” persisted Beachy. “Those three rascals, Doc. Howard, Chris Lowry, and Jim Romaine, with another hangdog-looking fellow, came into town to-night in disguise, and, under assumed names, took passage in the coach to Walla Walla. They followed Magruder to the Bannack mines, and have doubtless killed him while on his way home. Their cantinas are filled with his gold dust.” “How improbable, Hill,” said Mrs. Beachy, smiling. “Why, only yesterday Lloyd’s wife received a letter from him, saying that he would not start for twelve days, and that he would have a strong company with him.” “Well, well, Maggie, let’s drop the subject. Time will tell whether my suspicions are correct.” Let us inquire into the cause of Hill Beachy’s terrible suspicion. Three months before this conversation occurred, Lloyd Magruder, a wealthy merchant of Elk City, loaded a pack train with merchandise, and made the long and dangerous journey of five hundred miles, by an Indian trail over the mountains, to the Bannack mines, in that part of Idaho afterwards embraced in the boundaries of Montana. The night preceding his departure, Hill Beachy, the landlord of the Luna House in Lewiston, a warm personal friend of Magruder, dreamed that he saw Chris Lowry dash Magruder’s brains out with an axe. He related the dream to his wife the next morning, and expressed great fears for the safety of his friend. She was desirous of telling Magruder; but as his investment was large, and he was ready to start upon his journey, Beachy thought it would only introduce a disturbing element into the enterprise, without effecting its abandonment, and expose him to the laughter and sneers of the public. But he did not conceal the anxiety which the dream had occasioned in his own mind, and was greatly relieved when news came, six weeks afterwards, of the safe arrival of Magruder at Bannack. On the morning of the day after Magruder left Lewiston, Howard, Lowry, and Romaine, in company with Bob Zachary and three other roughs, departed with the avowed intention of going to Oregon. As soon, however, as they had proceeded a sufficient distance in that direction to escape observation, they turned towards Bannack, and after a few days’ journey were joined by William Page, an old mountain teamster. The party followed on in the track of Magruder’s train, which they overtook when within three days’ journey of Bannack, and accompanied it to its place of destination.