After canvassing the subject, it was decided that Gibbons, Doyle, Hurley, and James McKenna should go to Mahanoy City on the business. At least the three mentioned were selected, and they desired the Secretary’s company, which he could not refuse to give. The date fixed for departure was the evening of the fifth of the month. When this proceeding was ended the body adjourned, at nigh eleven o’clock, the conspirators going into town, one by one, as on former occasions, in order that the citizens might not see too many Mollies together. The next morning the streets were filled with soldiers and Coal and Iron Police, among the latter being Capt. Heisler, but that made no difference. The arrangement to shoot Thomas must be carried out. Gibbons came along about four in the afternoon, armed with two navy revolvers, secured from Thompson and McCormick, and, at about half-past four, the same day, the Mollies set out on foot over the mountain for Mahanoy City. They could not have selected a more congenial and yet more unpleasant night for the journey. The rain was falling in torrents and there were heavy shocks of thunder and sharp bolts of lightning in the sky. But, after walking more than three hours, the men reached Clark’s hotel, in Mahanoy, where they found O’Brien prepared to receive them. While trudging over the wet earth and slippery rocks the operative had concocted a scheme, which he believed would surely save the life of the man, Thomas, and relieve his mind of an oppressive weight. As soon as all were well seated in Clark’s kitchen, beyond the bar, he called O’Brien away for a short stroll. They went around the corner, and McKenna said to the leader of the clan in Mahanoy City: “Do you mind the soldiers in the strates, an’ the Coal Polace?” “Yes, I do!” answered the Bodymaster, “an’ I don’t half like the appearance of aither! Its all owin’ to the mob, I suppose!” “Now, O’Brien, I’m as willin’ to sell my life for the good of the order as you are, or as any man can be, but it looks the height of folly for us to undertake this job on Thomas while the soldiers are around! If we kill him, as we may, an’ make the laste noise over it, we’ll be pounced upon at once by the Militia or old Heisler—or both, perhaps—an’ then we’ll be caught and hanged! Isn’t the life of any wan of us worth that of a dozen like Bully Bill? To spake truth, I’m in favor of all of us goin’ quietly home, an’ trying for Thomas on another occasion. The odds are too many against us this time!” O’Brien cogitated over the change suggested for a moment and then responded: “You’re right, McKenna, as you always are! Troth! as you say, my life is better nor those of a dozen like Bill Thomas, an’ I quite agree wid you that the very best thing to be done is to do nothing—at laste for this night!”