“Did they make any resistance?”
“No; they had no opportunity.”
Arriving at the committee-room, the prisoner was immediately confronted with the officers.
“We have condemned you to death for the murder of Dillingham, and being associated in membership with Plummer’s band of road agents. Have you anything to say in extenuation?”
“That I am not guilty. I have committed no crimes, and formed no associations that call for such severity. I am as innocent as you are.”
And yet, but a short time before, the wretched man had confessed to a leader of one of the police committees, in presence of several witnesses, that he was the murderer of Dillingham. His complicity with Plummer’s band was known to all.
Scarcely was Lyons’s examination concluded, when word was brought to the Committee that two suspicious persons, who had gone hurriedly to Highland district, three miles above Virginia City, the evening before, were concealed in one of the unoccupied cabins there. An officer with fifteen men was sent to arrest them. They were disarmed, and brought before the Committee, but, no evidence appearing against them, they were discharged.
The examination being over, preparations were made for the execution of the convicts. These were very simple. The central cross-beam of an unfinished log store, cornering upon two of the principal streets, was selected for a scaffold. The building was roofless, and its spacious open front exposed the interior to the full view of the crowd. The ropes, five in number, were drawn across the beam to a proper length, and fastened firmly to the logs in the rear basement. Under each noose was placed a large, empty dry-goods box, with cord attached, for the drops.
Beside the large body of armed Vigilantes, a great number of eager spectators had assembled from all parts of the gulch to witness the execution. Six or eight thousand persons, comprehending the larger portion of the population of the Territory, gathered into a compact mass, when the prisoners, with their armed escort, marched from the committee-rooms into the street, and were ranged in front of the guard.
“You are now,” said the president, addressing them, “to be conducted to the scaffold. An opportunity is given you to make your last requests and communications. You will do well to improve it by making a confession of your own crimes, and putting the Committee in possession of information as to the crimes of others.”