“MURDER!”
The man at once struck him with a pistol and knocked him down, and, dragging him to the safe door, commanded him to open it. But the intrepid clerk stolidly refused, when the villain shot at him, but did not hit him.
Evidently the shot was intended rather to intimidate him than injure, but the scoundrel had reckoned without his host, for the effect was lost upon Heywood.
But upon the discharge of the pistol Bunker made a start for the back door and ran for dear life, one of the robbers pursuing and firing, the shot taking effect in the shoulder. Bunker, however, reached the street (Water street) and ran to Dr. Coombs' office.
During the whole of this time four or five men were riding up and down the street, shooting in every direction, and keeping up an incessant fusilade.
One of the men outside came riding up furiously and called for the men to leave the bank.
“THE GAME'S UP.”
he said, “and we are beaten.”
The three men in the bank then sprang over the counter and rushed to the door, and Heywood staggered to the chair, but, as the last one [pg 18] was getting over the counter, with one hand on the cashier's desk, he turned round and deliberately fired. Heywood fell senseless to the floor! The man then sprang on the rail and out at the front door, and he (Wilcox) cleared out of the back door into Manning's hardware store.
Wilcox was not sure whether the ruffian struck Heywood when the latter staggered to the cashier's chair, and he did not stop to see if he was dead when he fell. He said the reason he did not try to get out or help Heywood was that one of the men stood over him with a pistol in his hand.
Mr. Allen said he saw three men cross the bridge and go toward the bank. They were all big, powerful men, well dressed. One had sandy side-whiskers, shaved chin and blue eyes. Another, wore a black mustache, and was a slight but tall man, and better dressed than the others. The third man was heavy set, with curly brown hair, and beard of about one week's growth. They had tied their horses and talked a while, when another came up, and he went into the bank. Mr. Allen then waited half a minute, and then walked up to the bank to see what was up.
“As I got to the back door,” he says, “one man came out and grabbed me by the collar, and said ‘you son of a——, don't holler,’ drawing a revolver. I got out and made tracks as fast as I could, two shots feeing fired after me.”
Mr. Ben Henry says that he was first attracted to the strangers by seeing the horses tied, and he went up to one and was examining the saddle, when one of the men came up and said,
“What are you doing here?”
“Looking at this saddle,” was the reply “I want an article like that, and thought perhaps I could strike a bargain with the owner.”
Drawing a pistol, the fellow cried out:
“Now you git'” And he did “git,” but as he walked away a bullet came hissing by his head and struck a wall close by. Henry deliberately picked up the ball and put it in his pocket, but made long strides for home.
It appeared that the object of the men on the street was at first only to keep people back from the bank, and not a desire to murder indiscriminately, but when they found that the Northfield people would not scare worth a cent, and that real work was before them, they showed all the
SAVAGE BLOODTHIRSTY PROPENSITY
of their nature, and wherever a face showed itself, whether it was man, woman or child, the robbers fired murderously at it, crashing in windows in a lively style.
Early Friday morning it was reported in Northfield that Brissette and Hoy had joined their forces at Morristown and had a hot encounter with the gang, which had been reinforced by three others. The [pg 19] police succeeded in killing one man and capturing the wounded man carried from Northfield. The robbers then took to the woods and the police held them there. This report was proved at a later date to be a complete fabrication, but so excited were the people that every rumor received credence and grew in dimensions as it was handed round by the busy throng of news seekers.