ON AMERICAN SOIL 191 



criminals, all of whom were Sydney men, who had 

 been sought in vain for many months. They were 

 five: Robinson, Hamilton, Thompson, Whittaker and 

 MacKenzie. At last the three first named were caught 

 in the neighborhood of Sacramento, while about to 

 add a new crime to their already heavy list. To the 

 sleuths of the Sacramento branch committee belonged the 

 credit of catching Thompson and Hamilton, while Rob- 

 inson was caught by the regular authorities of San Fran- 

 cisco. All three were incendiaries or highway robbers, 

 but owing to the mixed associations in their many mis- 

 deeds the trial lasted considerably longer than it other- 

 wise would have done. The fact that their crimes had 

 been committed in different parts of the state had also 

 delayed matters, as it was the purpose of the committee 

 to lift the veil from all their misdeeds before sentencing 

 them. Finally, toward the middle of August, the other 

 two miscreants, Whittaker and MacKenzie, were caught 

 and taken to the headquarters of the vigilance commit- 

 tee in San Francisco, after which the trial took a quicker 

 turn. As you will have observed, the fact was that the 

 trial against these five malefactors had to be divided 

 into three parts and, still worse, it had to be carried on 

 in different cities and under distinct authorities, virtually 

 on bad footing with each other, which surely did not help 

 nor hasten matters. Robinson was tried in the regular 

 criminal court of San Francisco, Thompson and Hamil- 

 ton stood before the vigilance committee, Sacramento 

 branch, while Whittaker and MacKenzie had to face the 

 main committee in this city. It was on the eighteenth 

 of August when Whittaker and MacKenzie were ad- 

 judged guilty and condemned to be hung the next morn- 

 ing. During the night the unexpected happened. It had 

 not been thought necessary to keep an unusually numer- 

 ous guard on the occasion and it was therefore an easy 

 matter for the sheriff and a few well armed officers to 

 take possession of the two criminal-', whom they led to 

 the prison on Telegraph TTill. Meanwhile the trial against 

 Robinson before the criminal court in Sacramento had 



