‘I could have raised twice the force in a quarter of the time he took!’ cried Ben, intercepting some remark which it was evident the president was about to make. ‘And why I did not come straight here was because there was something in my tent I thought I had best look after. I had left my tent in the care of a friend; but you don’t know what may happen, with such loafers and scoundrels hanging around.’ ‘Wal, fellow-citizens,’ said the president, ‘this convention didn’t assemble, I reckon, to hear the rights of any difference between two pardners; and it ain’t our business nohow. We are here to discuss the existence of thieves and scallawags amongst us, and to decide upon the beet means of clearing them out—that is all.’ Thus recalled to business, the assembly resumed its former discussion, and the quarrel between the partners was not again openly referred to; but it coloured all that was said, and many remarks upon it were made in the body of the meeting. It was clear that public feeling was much against Rube Steele, although a few of those present were his partisans; but these latter appeared to consist only of the ‘bunch’ of citizens he had referred to, and were not altogether free from suspicion themselves. The gathering separated without having come to any formal resolve, beyond appointing a few of their members to act in committee and to decide what steps should be taken; but as it was notorious that each of the chosen ones was a leader among the Regulators, as they were once called—or the Vigilantes, to use their now familiar Spanish name—there was probably more significance in their appointment than at first appeared. For that night at anyrate no fresh outrages were apprehended; the thieves, whoever they were, possessed information too prompt and too certain to allow them to venture on a renewal of their attempts during the excitement and watchfulness which would prevail for a time in the vicinity of Flume City. In its neighbourhood, few persons were abroad after nightfall; it was dangerous, indeed, for any one to approach a tent without making his presence loudly known; a shot would probably be the first intimation that he was trespassing on dangerous ground; while a few of the miners possessed large and savage dogs, which would be loosed on hearing a footstep near the tent. So those who had business which led them abroad, were careful to confine themselves to the main street of Flume City, if such a title could fitly be applied to the straggling avenue which ran from end to end of the place. But spite of these drawbacks, a few persons were moving in the environs of the city, and even at a good distance beyond its boundaries, dark though the night was, and only relieved from utter gloom by the starlight, for moon there was none.