An incident, which may be given in this connection, was related by Lawler to McKenna, one night, after his return from a meeting of the Miners’ and Laborers’ Association, to which Muff also belonged. It was about a Welsh boss in one of the mines, not far from Shenandoah, and had only recently occurred. According to Lawler, this superintendent, whose name was not given, had been discharging all the Irishmen operating under him and putting his country men in their places. The natural result was, the Mollies notified the boss that he must leave. He disregarded the injunction, saying that it would “make no difference, if he obeyed, as the proprietors would run the colliery if he were in h—l!” A few days after using this language, a man visited the exasperated Welshman and gave him a warning letter. “Where are you from?” asked the boss. “From h—l!” answered the messenger, and quickly disappeared. This boss did not listen to the warning, and as a consequence, the Mollies, in a body, demons as they were, went to his house, at the dead hour of night, broke up his furniture, ill-treated his family, and taking the stubborn fellow into the yard, in his night garments, beat him with clubs until he was nearly dead. He was satisfied from this treatment, which might be called striking evidence, that the colliery was not exactly a healthy place of residence or refuge for him, and, as soon as able to do so, removed to Pottsville. In this case, as in many others, no arrests were made, and no efforts put forth to hunt up the guilty parties. It could hardly be expected that there would be, when it is considered that the Mollies controlled the magistrates and other officials of the city, and partly those of the county. McKenna, judging from Lawler’s manner while relating the story, more than from the words he used, suspected that the beating of the Welshman had been performed by him, or at least by men acting under his orders. Still, as he was not yet a member of the Mollies, he could not be expected to have reliable information on the subject. Mike concluded his story by saying that he never allowed his men to know about his movements, and ordinarily, when anything was to be done, he preferred attending to it himself rather than let others into the secret. “So there’s a ring within a ring!” mentally ejaculated the detective, as Lawler left him to attend upon a customer at the bar. The strike of that winter, which has before been alluded to, ended nigh the first of April, 1874. About this time McKenna heard, from one Foley, living near Indian Ridge colliery, that at the water station a man named Keating had been shot and instantly killed. The event occurred about five o’clock in the afternoon, and, as usual, the murderer made his escape. It was again charged that the Sheet Iron lads were the guilty parties. Lawler and the detective were at the colliery looking for work to do, when they learned about Keating’s death.