ey Forbes was clerk
of this court, and incidentally one of Plummer's band! This clerk and
these deputies killed one Dillingham, whom they suspected of informing a
friend of a robbery planned to make away with him on the trail from
Bannack to Virginia City. They were "tried" by the court and freed.
Hayes Lyons admitted privately that Plummer had told him to kill the
informer Dillingham. The invariable plan of this bloodthirsty man was to
destroy unfavorable testimony by means of death.

The unceasing flood of gold from the seemingly exhaustless gulch caused
three or four more little camps or towns to spring up; but Virginia City
now took the palm for frontier reputation in hardness. Ten millions in
"dust" was washed out in one year. Every one had gold, sacks and cans of
it. The wild license of the place was unspeakably vitiating. Fights with
weapons were incessant. Rude dance halls and saloons were crowded with
truculent, armed men in search of trouble. Churches and schools were
unknown. Tents, log cabins, and brush shanties made the residences.
"Hacks rattled to and fro between the several towns, freighted with
drunken and rowdy humanity of both sexes. Citizens of acknowledged
respectability often walked, more often perhaps rode side by side on
horseback, with noted courtesans, in open day, through the crowded
streets, and seemingly suffered no harm in reputation. Pistols flashed,
bowie-knives flourished, oaths filled the air. This was indeed the reign
of unbridled license, and men who at first regarded it with disgust and
terror, by constant exposure soon learned to become part of it, and to
forget that they had ever been aught else. Judges, lawyers, doctors,
even clergymen, could not claim exemption."

This was in 1863. At that time, the nearest capitals were Olympia, on
Puget Sound; Yankton, two thousand miles away; and Lewiston, seven
hundred miles away. What machinery of the law was there to hinder
Plummer and his men? What better field than this one, literally
overflowing with gold, could they have asked for their operations? And
what better chief than Plummer?

His next effort was to be appointed deputy United States marshal, and he
received the indorsement of the leading men of Bannack. Plummer
afterward tried several times to kill Nathaniel P. Langford, who caused
his defeat, but was unsuccessful in getting the opportunity he sought.

From Bannack to Salt Lake City was about five hundred miles. Mails by
thi