Mr. Rheem, who defended the prisoners, says: “My conscience has more than once pricked me for interposing between the rogues and the halter, but I never believed till the last hour of their trial that they would escape hanging.”
The banishment of Moore and Reeves was regarded by the roughs as an encroachment upon the system they had adopted for the government of the country. Long impunity had fostered in them the belief that the citizens would not dare to question their power to do as they pleased. They held a meeting, and it was quietly agreed among them that every active participant in the late trial should be slain. The victims were selected, the work deliberately planned, and each man allotted his part in its performance. This wholesale scheme of vengeance was to be effected secretly, or by provoking those at whom it was aimed into sudden quarrel, and shooting them in assumed self-defence. Any course more culpable would afford the assassin small chance of escaping the vengeance of the law-abiding citizens.
Plummer was the recognized chief of the murderous band. To him was assigned the task of killing Crawford, who, as sheriff, had acted a prominent part in the trial of the exiles. This task was rendered doubly acceptable to Plummer, because he believed it would silence the tongue of the only man in the country who had any knowledge of his guilty career in California. One such person, in Cleveland, had already been slain; but Plummer suspected that on his deathbed, Cleveland had told Crawford everything. Crawford knew intuitively of Plummer’s suspicions, and felt that his life was in danger. He was careful never to be unarmed. His business, as the proprietor of a meat market, was one of constant exposure. It rendered occasional journeys to Deer Lodge, where he purchased cattle, necessary, and his trips to his ranche, several miles from town, were also frequent. Outwardly, Plummer was friendly. One of Crawford’s friends, Harry Phleger, confirmed his worst suspicions, by telling him that he had seen Plummer near the market one night, apparently on the watch for him. He had also noticed some suspicious movements of Plummer and a rough, familiarly called “Old Tex,”[3] which seemed to be directed against Crawford.