Nothing thus far had been accomplished. Hence the meeting over
Haggerty's store. Dr. Mason and Mat Bailey were present. The doctor came
because of a sense of civic duty. His British sense of justice had been
outraged beyond endurance.
"You know, Mr. Francis," he said, "I have performed autopsies upon
eleven murdered men within the last ten years; and in no case has one of
the murderers been brought to justice. It is outrageous, scandalous.
Decent men cannot afford to live in a community where people are more
interested in making money than in enforcing the law. Decent men become
marked men--marked for slaughter as Cummins was. We must do something,
if only to protect ourselves."
"You are quite right, Doctor," replied Francis, "and we propose to
investigate for ourselves. Did you notice any suspicious circumstance
when you rode down from Eureka South the other day?"
The doctor could not think of anything important unless it was the
remarks of the gamblers at Moore's Flat about shipping gold dust out of
the country. But if they were accomplices they would hardly have spoken
so carelessly. And why did they leave the stage at North Bloomfield?
They were still there; but no one had observed anything remarkable in
their behavior.
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