On a close examination of the spot, appearances indicated that White and Dorsett, with Kelley as a prisoner, had arrived there either at a late hour, or without any provisions, as there was no evidence of cooking. They had tied their prisoner with twisted strips of blanket, pieces of which were found near, and, as they doubtless supposed, secured him for the night. A few fagots had been heaped up for a morning fire; and the theory of the murder advanced by the searching party was that, while White was on his knees kindling the fire, Kelley freed himself from his bonds, picked up White’s revolver, and shot him twice in the back of the neck; then seizing his rifle, turned and shot Dorsett, who was gathering wood a little distance away, through the heart. An armful of wood lay scattered where he had fallen. His skull was beaten in pieces, a bowlder lying near, bespattered with blood and brains, bearing gloomy testimony to the manner in which it was done. After this his body had been dragged some twenty steps from the spot where he fell, and stripped of its clothing, which the murderer had taken away with him, and wore the day that Holmes met him at Deer Lodge. White’s body had also been removed, and the saddle placed over the face. The bodies were taken to Coppock’s ranche, and thence to Virginia City for burial. This was one of the earliest and most brutal tragedies in the newly discovered gold region; and, happening when they were populated mostly by Eastern people, and before Plummer and his band of ruffians had been arrested in their grand scheme of wholesale slaughter, it produced a profound sensation throughout the country. The desire to capture and make a public example of the ruffian who had committed the shocking crime was universal. All eyes were turned to the pursuit of Kelley by Thompson and Coburn, and all ears open to catch the first tidings of its success. These men were beyond the reach of information of the discovery of the bodies at the time it was made, but they had found evidence by the way, which convinced them that their friends had been assassinated. At Deer Lodge a pistol which Kelley had sold was identified by Thompson as the property of Dorsett, and his initials, R. R. D., were graven on the handle. They pushed the pursuit to Hell Gate, procuring two relays in Deer Lodge Valley. Finding that the deep snows rendered the Cœur D’Alene Mountains impassable, they turned back to take the route into Oregon, by Jocko and Pend d’Oreille lakes. Between Frenchtown and Hell Gate they met an Indian with Dorsett’s saddle, which Thompson took from him. Forty miles below Jocko, they reclaimed the horse from a little band of Indians who had traded for it with Kelley. Proceeding on towards the Pacific, they met a company of miners, who had met Kelley fifteen days before, on his way to Lewiston.