ver came back to the country. Plummer went on practising
with the six-shooter with his left hand, and became a very good
left-hand shot. He knew that his only safety lay in his skill with
weapons.

Plummer's physician was Dr. Glick, who operated under cover of a
shotgun, and with the cheerful assurance that if he killed Plummer by
accident, he himself would be killed. After that Glick dressed the
wounds of more than one outlaw, but dared not tell of it. Plummer
admitted to him at last that these were his men and told Glick he would
kill him if he ever breathed a word of this confidence. So the knowledge
of the existence of the banditti was known to one man for a long time.

As to Bannack, it was one of the wildest camps ever known in any land.
Pistol fire was heard incessantly, and one victim after another was
added to the list. George Ives, Johnny Cooper, George Carrhart, Hayes
Lyons, Cy Skinner, and others of the toughs were now open associates of
the leading spirit, Plummer. The condition of lawlessness and terror was
such that all the decent men would have gone back to the States, but the
same difficulties that had kept them from getting across to Florence now
kept them from getting back East. The winter held them prisoners.

Henry Plummer was now elected sheriff for the Bannack mining district,
to succeed Crawford, whom he had run out of the country. It seems very
difficult to understand how this could have occurred; but it will serve
to show the numerical strength of Plummer's party. The latter, now
married, professed to have reformed. In reality, he was deeper in
deviltry than ever in his life.

The diggings at Gold Creek and Bannack were now eclipsed by the
sensational discoveries on the famous Alder Gulch, one of the phenomenal
placers of the world, and the most productive ever known in America. The
stampede was fast and furious to these new diggings. In ten days the
gulch was staked out for twelve miles, and the cabins of the miners
were occupied for all of that distance, and scattered over a long, low
flat, whose vegetation was quickly swept away. The new camp that sprung
up on one end of this bar was called Virginia City. It need not be said
that among the first settlers there were the outlaws earlier mentioned,
with several others: Jack Gallagher, Buck Stinson, Ned Ray, and others,
these three named being "deputies" of "Sheriff" Plummer. A sort of court
was formed for trying disputed mining claims. Charl