heir camp, and among their long list of weapons were
some that had been taken from men who had been robbed or murdered. These
weapons were identified by friends. Old Tex was another man taken in
charge, and George Hilderman yet another. All these men wanted a "jury
trial," and wanted it at Virginia City, where Plummer would have
official influence enough to get his associates released! The captors,
however, were men from Nevada, the other leading camp in Alder Gulch,
and they took their prisoners there.

At once a Plummer man hastened out on horseback to get the chief on the
ground, riding all night across the mountains to Bannack to carry the
news that the citizens had at last rebelled against anarchy, robbery,
and murder. On the following morning, two thousand men had gathered at
Nevada City, and had resolved to try the outlaws. As there was rivalry
between Virginia and Nevada camps, a jury was made up of twenty-four
men, twelve from each camp. The miners' court, most dread of all
tribunals, was in session.

Some forms of the law were observed. Long John was allowed to turn
state's evidence. He swore that George Ives had killed Tiebalt, and
declared that he shot him while Tiebalt was on his knees praying, after
he had been told that he must die. Then a rope was put around his neck
and he was dragged to a place of concealment in the thicket where the
body was found. Tiebalt was not dead while so dragged, for his hands
were found full of grass and twigs which he had clutched. Ives was
condemned to death, and the law and order men were strong enough to
suppress the armed disturbance at once started by his friends, none of
whom could realize that the patient citizens were at last taking the law
into their own hands. A scaffold was improvised and Ives was hung,--the
first of the Plummer gang to meet retribution. The others then in
custody were allowed to go under milder sentences.

The Vigilantes now organized with vigor and determination. One bit of
testimony was added to another, and one man now dared to voice his
suspicions to another. Twenty-five determined men set out to secure
others of the gang now known to have been united in this long
brotherhood. Some of these men were now fleeing the country, warned by
the fate of Ives; but the Vigilantes took Red Yager and Buck Stinson and
Ned Ray, two of them Plummer's deputies, as well as another confederate
named Brown. The party stopped at the Lorain Ranch, near a cottonw