So I felt I must go to her help and opened
the door, and such a scene, Mamma! There were seven of the most awful
looking men you ever saw, the ones who, I told you, had come into the
dance hall at Osages. Among them Lola and Randolph in night clothes,
were already lined up against the wall, with their hands above their
heads. While one brute stood at the end of the passage pointing his gun
at them, one of the others was rifling their room, others had kicked
down the girls' door and one was at the end by Octavia's. None of the
other people, miners of sorts, except one man's wife, had come in yet,
as it was not more than half past ten o'clock! She was soon pulled out,
too, and one brute seized me and roughly threw my hands up while he held
a gun to my head. I did feel very frightened, Mamma, but it was all
so terribly exciting, it was quite worth while. I wish I had had a
revolver. I would have used it in a minute. As it was I just watched
from under the brute's arm. Every door was broken down then, and as
noiselessly as they could they ransacked each room. If we had attempted
to scream they would have shot us dead. The girls were speechless with
terror, only Octavia looked a contemptuous tragedy queen in her white
nighty, and the miner's wife had a face of petrified rage; she wasn't
a bit frightened, either.
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