When We Got To The Further Gang,
He Went So Far As To Point Out The Two Men Who,
He Said, Had Refused To Do What He Told Them - I
Suppose He Thought That As I Was Never To Leave
The Place Alive, It Did Not Matter Whom He
Complained Of.
I noted their names in my
pocket-book in my usual manner, and turned to
retrace my steps.
Immediately a yell of rage
was raised by the whole body of some sixty men,
answered by a similar shout from those I had
first passed, and who numbered about a hundred.
Both groups of men, carrying crowbars and
flourishing their heavy hammers, then closed in
on me in the narrow part of the ravine. I stood
still, waiting for them to act, and one man rushed
at me, seizing both my wrists and shouting out
that he was going to "be hung and shot for me" -
rather a curious way of putting it, but that was his
exact expression. I easily wrenched my arms
free, and threw him from me; but by this time
I was closely hemmed in, and everywhere I looked
I could see nothing but evil and murderous-looking
faces. One burly brute, afraid to be the
first to deal a blow, hurled the man next him at
me; and if he had succeeded in knocking me
down, I am certain that I should never have got
up again alive. As it was, however, I stepped
quickly aside, and the man intended to knock
me down was himself thrown violently against
a rock, over which he fell heavily.
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