Such of the population as were not, to a greater or less degree, involved in the gambling operations of the community, although perfectly cognizant of the designs of the robbers, were too insignificant in numbers to offer any active opposition. Being without organization, they hardly knew each other. Such was the state of feeling that, if a gambler or rough desired to possess any of the articles on sale by merchants or grocers, he entered a store, selected for himself the best the assortment afforded, and took it away with a request that it should be charged, or stated that some day when he was in luck he would pay for it. Rather than risk an affray, the dealer submitted to the imposition. Payment was generally made, the gamblers entertaining, among themselves, a standard of honor in such matters which it was considered disgraceful to violate.
The two roads upon which the shebangs were located were the only thoroughfares in the country, and not a day passed that they were not traversed by people in going to and returning from the interior mining camps, and in coming into and departing from the country. The number of robberies and murders committed by the banditti will never be known. Mysterious disappearances soon became of almost weekly occurrence. The danger which every man incurred of being robbed or killed was demonstrated by numerous escapes made by horsemen who had been assaulted and fired upon, and escaped by the fleetness of their horses. It was fully understood that whoever passed over either of these roads would have to run the gantlet in the neighborhood of the shebangs, and people generally went prepared. Crime was fearfully on the increase all through the secluded districts which separated the river from the distant mining camps. The country itself, about equally made up of mountains, foothills, cañons, dense pine forests, lava beds, and deep river-channels, was as favorable for the commission of crime as for the concealment of its perpetrators.
The two shebangs swarmed with ruffians. On one occasion a party of half a dozen, while riding in the vicinity of Craig’s Mountain, were stopped by a volley from the shebang, which, being harmless, was returned. A number of well-mounted robbers started in pursuit. The party escaped by hard spurring, one of the number, to lighten his burden, throwing several large bags of gold dust into the grass. They were afterwards recovered. A butcher by the name of Harkness, of Oro Fino, was also assaulted, and fired upon, who owed his deliverance to the fleetness of his horse. Owners of pack trains never attempted to pass without force sufficient to intimidate the robbers.