Magruder was disappointed, on his arrival at Bannack, to learn that the camp had been deserted by most of the miners, who had gone to the extensive placer mines in Alder Gulch at Virginia City, seventy-five miles distant, where the writer was then residing. Three days afterwards, however, he was well satisfied, on his arrival there, to find an active mining camp of six thousand inhabitants, all eager to purchase his wares as rapidly as they could be displayed. Howard, Lowry, Romaine, and Page found comfortable quarters in the building occupied by Magruder, and were provided by him with employment during his six weeks’ stay in Virginia City. No one, except himself, knew better than they the amount of his accumulations. His confidence in them was unbounded. On his offer to pay them two hundred dollars each, they had agreed to accompany him as assistants and guards on his return to Lewiston. The negotiations with Magruder for their employment were conducted by Howard, who was a physician of marked ability, and whose pleasing address was well calculated to allay all suspicion concerning their real motives in joining the party. Howard, Lowry, and Romaine, while at Lewiston, were classed among the vilest roughs of the town. The former two were understood to be escaped convicts from the California penitentiary. They had been concerned in numerous robberies, and were suspected of connection with Plummer’s infamous gang. Magruder, whose residence was at Elk City, was entirely unacquainted with their history, and, from the simulated fidelity of their conduct while in his employ, had no reason to suspect them of criminal designs. He was very fortunate in the disposition of his merchandise, realizing therefor twenty-four thousand dollars in gold dust, and a drove of seventy fine mules.
A few days before his departure from Virginia City, Charley Allen, a successful miner, and two young men, brothers, by the name of Horace and Robert Chalmers, who had just arrived in the mountains from Booneville, Missouri, and William Phillips, an old pioneer in the country, arranged to unite their trains with his, and all make the trip together as one company. Romaine tried to dissuade Phillips from going with the others, but gave no reason for what seemed to the latter a strange request.