It was a bright October morning when the train left Virginia City, and moved slowly down Alder Creek, into the picturesque valley of the Pas-sam-a-ri. The sun shone; the mountain atmosphere was crisp and exhilarating. The long plain stretching away to the base of the Ruby range reflected upon its mirror-like surface that magnificent group of pine-covered mountains, along whose sides glinted in the sunbeams the bewitching hues that give them their name. Towering on the right, rose the twin pinnacles of Ramshorn and Mill Creek; and, afar in the distance, painted upon the horizon, was the superb outline of the main range of the old Rockies, and Table Mountain lifting its glittering plateau of snow far above the surrounding peaks. Filled with the inspiration naturally enkindled by these majestic views, the men, with all the animation and abandon of uncaged schoolboys, shouted and sung as they galloped along and hurried the train across the widespread valley. Into the hills, over the mountains, across the streams, through the cañons they scampered, entering Bannack the third day, just as the sun was setting. Business detained them at Bannack the three following days. With the design of misleading the villains at Lewiston who might be on the watch for his return, Magruder sent by a company which left the morning after his arrival, a letter to his wife, telling her of his success, and that he would leave for home with a train strongly guarded, in twelve days. While he was thus planning the way for a safe return, Howard was equally busy in maturing a scheme to rob him on the route. This infernal project, the fruit of long contemplation, he now for the first time unfolded to Lowry and Romaine, who gave it their eager compliance. Meeting with Bob Zachary, he confided it to him; but, on learning that it could not be effected without the possible murder of Magruder, and the four persons accompanying him, Zachary, villain as he was, declined all participation in it. It was understood by the three that on the eighth day of the journey, when the train would make camp in the Bitter Root Mountains, at a distance of one hundred miles or more from any white settlers, they would carry their diabolical design into execution. Howard declared that it could not be done without killing the five owners of the trains. Page was to be kept in ignorance of the plot until the eve of its performance.