Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 11.djvu/187

Rh which he did in confidential tones. Plummer, equally confidential, agreed that the plan was quite commendable. The second day out from Virginia City, Brown was overtaken by a posse of Plummer's gang and murdered and his gold carried back to be divided among the murderers.

One more incident, that happened while Stockman was living at Bozeman, deserves to be mentioned: A man named Davidson was ranching about two* miles out from town. He was a man of excellent character whose circle of friendship was widely extended and who was well connected in a social and fraternal way. He had hailed from Wellsville, Ohio, near which place Stockman himself was born and grew to manhood, and at this time was making preparations to visit his old home. He had collected some valuable presents to carry to his sister and other relatives and kept them at his ranch.

One Saturday afternoon, while standing on a street of the town looking over the near-by landscape, he exclaimed, with reference to a beautiful stretch of table land: "Boys, what a beautiful spot for a burying ground that would be!"

That night, at his ranch, he was awakened from sleep by a knock upon his door. On demanding to know who was there, a voice replied: "We have just come from Virginia City and are very tired and would like to get a little coffee." A young man who was staying with Davidson arose and let the party, a half dozen men, in and proceeded to light a fire, taking a hatchet to cut the kindlings for the fireplace. Davidson did not arise, but sat up in his bed and conversed with his visitors. After lighting the fire, the young man stepped outside to get more wood, and while on the outside heard Davidson cry out. Hurrying back to the door, he was met by a man who snapped a revolver in his face, whereupon he ran for safety and making his way quickly to a neighbor's place, reported the occurrence. With the least possible delay a band of determined men were gotten together, who, armed for desperate work, repaired to Davidson's house, where they found abundant evidence of murder; but the dead had been removed. Search was insti-