At the hearing on the conspiracy charge against Hugh O'Donnell, George W. Sarver, David Lynch, William T. Roberts and William McConegy, before Alderman McMasters, a sensation was created by the testimony of George S. Hotchkiss, an assistant superintendent in the employ of the Pinkerton agency. Hotchkiss swore that he had held several conferences with Jack Clifford, of the Homestead advisory board, and obtained from Clifford information incriminating O'Donnell and others. The nature of Clifford's revelations was not made known, objection to the admission of second-hand testimony being raised by attorney Brennen for the defense and sustained by the magistrate; but the report went out that Clifford had turned informer and caused consternation among the strikers. The members of the advisory board, however, defended their associate and explained that he had conferred with the Pinkerton man solely for the purpose of "pumping" him. Subsequent events bore out this assertion. The five men heard before 'Squire McMasters were held for a court trial. Shortly after O'Donnell and his companions had been disposed of, Clifford was arrested on a second charge of murder, preferred by the industrious Lovejoy, and committed to jail. He was also held for conspiracy, but gave bail on this charge. Next day his application for bail on the murder charge was brought before Judge Ewing, as was also that of Matthew Foy. Foy, against whom there was practically no evidence, was released on $10,000 bail. The testimony against Clifford, however, was very damaging. Captain John Cooper, of the Pinkerton agency, swore that when the Pinkerton barges approached the mill landing at Homestead, he saw Clifford among a crowd of strikers with a pistol in his hand, and heard him shout, "You ---- ---- ----, don't come ashore, or we'll kill all of you." Clifford, he said, was the man who approached the barges with a white flag and arranged for the surrender. Samuel Stewart, a clerk in the employ of the Carnegie Company, testified that he saw Clifford attach a fuse to a piece of dynamite fixed in an iron pipe and hurl this crude bomb at the barges, and that he noticed a revolver sticking out of the defendant's pocket. On the strength of this testimony, Clifford was committed for trial without bail. Judge Ewing refused to hear evidence as to who fired the first shot and said in his opinion: "The parties on the shore had no duties to perform except to go away, or as good citizens, to put down the crowd that this defendant, Clifford, was with. There is no question--there _can_ be no question--of self-defense about it. I say that we will not go into it, especially in this preliminary matter." On September 21, the grand jury returned true bills in all the Homestead cases presented to that body, 167 in number. The following is the list: