Menzies, the Scotchman, gave a roar of rage at the sight and
rushed with an iron spanner at the murderers; but was met by two
balls in the face which dropped him dead at their very feet.
There was a surge forward of some of the miners, and an
inarticulate cry of pity and of anger; but a couple of the
strangers emptied their six-shooters over the heads of the crowd,
and they broke and scattered, some of them rushing wildly back to
their homes in Vermissa.
When a few of the bravest had rallied, and there was a return to
the mine, the murderous gang had vanished in the mists of
morning, without a single witness being able to swear to the
identity of these men who in front of a hundred spectators had
wrought this double crime.
Scanlan and McMurdo made their way back; Scanlan somewhat
subdued, for it was the first murder job that he had seen with
his own eyes, and it appeared less funny than he had been led to
believe. The horrible screams of the dead manager's wife pursued
them as they hurried to the town. McMurdo was absorbed and
silent; but he showed no sympathy for the weakening of his
companion.
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