Though thus scattered about, it was not a matter of difficulty to call
the outlaws together upon an emergency. One or more of the most
trustworthy among them had only to make a tour over the road, and
through the hamlets in which they were harbored within the circuit of
ten or twenty miles, and as they kept usually with rigid punctuality to
their several stations, they were soon apprized, and off at the first
signal. A whisper in the ear of the hostler who brought out your horse,
or the drover who put up the cattle, was enough; and the absence of a
colt from pasture, or the missing of a stray young heifer from the
flock, furnished a sufficient reason to the proprietor for the
occasional absence of Tom, Dick, or Harry: who, in the meanwhile, was,
most probably, crying "stand" to a true man, or cutting a trunk from a
sulkey, or, in mere wantonness, shooting down the traveller who had
perhaps given him a long chase, yet yielded nothing by way of
compensation for the labor.
Dillon, or, to speak more to the card, Lieutenant Dillon, arrived at the
place of assemblage just as the day was breaking.
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