They were captured,
outraged, and put to death with almost inconceivable tortures, and the
roughest of the trappers or woodsmen gave the cañon a wide berth even in
the day-time. As I crushed through the dense brushwood which grew above
the cañon, I heard voices, and wondering who could be in such a place at
such a time, I went on, walking more carefully and making as little
noise as possible. There was a great tree growing on the very edge of
the rocks, and I lay down and looked out from behind the trunk. Black
Gulf Cañon was below me, the moonlight shining bright into its very
depths from midheaven, and casting shadows as black as death from the
pointed rock, and all the sheer rock on the other side, overhanging the
cañon, was in darkness. At intervals a light veil obscured the
moonlight, as a filmy cloud fleeted across the moon; and a bitter wind
blew shrill across the gulf. I looked down as I have said, and saw
twenty men standing in a semicircle round a rock; I counted them one by
one, and knew most of them. They were the very vilest of the vile, more
vile than any den in London could show, and there was murder and worse
than murder on the heads of not a few. Facing them and me stood Mr.
Smith with the rock before him, and on the rock was a great pair of
scales, such, as are used in the stores. I heard his voice ringing down
the cañon as I lay beside the tree, and my heart turned cold as I heard
it. "Life for gold," he cried, "a life for gold. The blood and the life of
an enemy for every pound of gold." A man stepped out and raised one hand, and with the other flung a bright
lump of something into the pan of the scales, which clanged down, and
Smith muttered something in his ear. Then he cried again:--

"Blood for gold; for a pound of gold, the life of an enemy. For every
pound of gold upon the scales, a life." One by one the men came forward, each lifting up his right hand; and the
gold was weighed in the scales, and each time Smith leaned forward and
spoke to each man in his ear. Then he cried again:--

"Desire and lust, for gold on the scales. For every pound of gold,
enjoyment of desire." I saw the same thing happen as before; the uplifted hand, and the metal
weighed, and the mouth whispering, and black passion on every face. Then, one by one, I saw the men again step up to Smith. A muttered
conversation seemed to take place; I could see that Smith was explaining
and directing, and I noticed that he gesticulated a little as one who
points out the way, and once or twice he moved his hands quickly as if
he would show that the path was clear and could not be missed. I kept my
eyes so intently on his figure that I noted little else, and at last it
was with a start that I realized that the cañon was empty. A moment
before I thought I had seen the group of villainous faces, and the two
standing, a little apart by the rock; I had looked down a moment, and
when I glanced again into the cañon there was no one there. In dumb
terror I made my way home, and I fell asleep in an instant from
exhaustion. No doubt I should have slept on for many hours, but when I
woke up, the sun was only rising, and the light shone in on my bed. I
had started up from sleep with the sensation of having received a
violent shock, and as I looked in confusion about me I saw to my
amazement that there were three men in the room. One of them had his
hand on my shoulder and spoke to me. "Come, mister, wake up. Your time's up now, I reckon, and the boys are
waiting for you outside, and they 're in a big hurry. Come on; you can
put on your clothes, it's kind of chilly this morning." I saw the other two men smiling sourly at each other, but I understood
nothing. I simply pulled on my clothes, and said I was ready. "All right, come on then. You go first, Nichols, and Jim and I will give
the gentleman an arm." They took me out into the sunlight, and then I understood the meaning of
a dull murmur that had vaguely perplexed me while I was dressing. There
were about two hundred men waiting outside, and some women too, and when
they saw me there was a low muttering growl. I did not know what I had
done, but that noise made my heart beat and the sweat come out on my
face. I saw confusedly, as through a veil, the tumult and tossing of the
crowd, discordant voices were speaking, and amongst all those faces
there was not one glance of mercy, but a fury of lust that I did not
understand. I found myself presently walking in a sort of procession up
the slope of the valley, and on every side of me there were men with
revolvers in their hands. Now and then a voice struck me, and I heard
words and sentences of which I could form no connected story. But I
understood that there was one sentence of execration; I heard scraps of
stories that seemed strange and improbable. Some one was talking of men,
lured by cunning devices from their homes and murdered with hideous
tortures, found writhing like wounded snakes in dark and lonely places,
only crying for some one to stab them to the heart, and so end their
torments; and I heard another voice speaking of innocent girls who had
vanished for a day or two, and then had come back and died, blushing red
with shame even in the agonies of death. I wondered what it all meant,
and what was to happen, but I was so weary that I walked on in a dream,
scarcely longing for anything but sleep. At last we stopped. We had
reached the summit of the hill, overlooking Blue Rock Valley, and I saw
that I was standing beneath a clump of trees where I had often sat. I
was in the midst of a ring of armed men, and I saw that two or three men
were very busy with piles of wood, while others were fingering a rope. Then there was a stir in the crowd, and a man was pushed forward. His
hands and feet were tightly bound with cord, and though his face was
unutterably villainous I pitied him for the agony that worked his
features and twisted his lips. I knew him; he was amongst those that had
gathered round Smith in Black Gulf Cañon. In an instant he was unbound,
and stripped naked; and borne beneath one of the trees, and his neck
encircled by a noose that went around the trunk. A hoarse voice gave
some kind of order; there was a rush of feet, and the rope tightened;
and there before me I saw the blackened face and the writhing limbs and
the shameful agony of death. One after another, half a dozen men, all of
whom I had seen in the cañon the night before, were strangled before me,
and their bodies were flung forth on the ground. Then there was a pause,
and the man who had roused me a short while before, came up to me and
said:--

"Now, mister, it's your turn. We give you five minutes to cast up your
accounts, and when that's clocked, by the living God we will burn you
alive at that tree." It was then I awoke and understood. I cried out:--

"Why, what have I done? Why should you hurt me? I am a harmless man, I
never did you any wrong."