The train drew up on the camping ground a little before dark. The sky was overcast with snow clouds, and the wind blew chill and bleak. Every sign indicated the approach of one of those fearful snowstorms common at all seasons in these high altitudes. All the men except Page, who was with the herd, were gathered around the camp-fire, awaiting supper. As Page, staggering under the burden of his guilty secret, came to the camp in answer to a call to supper, Howard met him, and in an ominous whisper, warned him to retire as soon as his meal was finished, and not to be seen about the camp until he was wanted. Magruder and Lowry were assigned to stand guard and watch the herd until ten o’clock,—the hour agreed upon for the commission of the crime. Page had built a fire for their accommodation. As they rose to leave the camp, Lowry, picking up an axe, remarked, “We shall probably need some wood, and I’ll take the axe along.” Their departure was regarded as a signal for all to retire. Page had spread his blankets and lain down some time before, “not,” as he afterwards said, “to sleep, but to await the course of events.” Allen crept in by his side. The Chalmers brothers had made their bed twenty yards distant from the camp-fire; and Romaine, armed to perform the part assigned to him, stretched himself beside Phillips, his unsuspecting victim. Howard, the arch and bloody instigator of the brutal tragedy, demon-like, roamed at large, ready for any service, when the hour came, necessary to finish the deed. The evening wore on. The sleep of toil-worn men comes when it is sought; and soon the only wakeful eyes in the camp were those of the watchers at the herd, Howard, Romaine, and the wretched Page. The friendly conversation between Magruder and Lowry, as they sat side by side at the fire, was not interrupted, until the former looked at his watch. “It is nearly ten,” said he, filling his meerschaum, while unconsciously announcing the hour of his doom. “I will put some wood on the fire,” said Lowry, picking up the axe, and rising. Magruder bent forward towards the fire to light his meerschaum, when the axe wielded by Lowry descended with a fearful crash into his brain. Howard, who had been concealed near, sprung forward, and snatching the axe from Lowry, who seemed for the moment paralyzed at the deed he had committed, struck several additional blows upon the already lifeless body of the unfortunate man. The villains then hurried to the spot where the Chalmers brothers were lying, and while they were despatching them with the axe, Romaine plunged a bowie-knife into the abdomen of Phillips, exclaiming at the moment, with an oath, “You old fool, I have to kill you. I told you at Virginia City not to come.”