Then came one of those fierce terrible oaths which bind members of
Trades' Unions to any given purpose. Then under the flaring
gaslight, they met together to consult further. With the distrust
of guilt, each was suspicious of his neighbour; each dreaded the
treachery of another. A number of pieces of paper (the identical
letter on which the caricature had been drawn that very morning)
were torn up, and one was marked. Then all were folded up again,
looking exactly alike. They were shuffled together in a hat. The
gas was extinguished; each drew out a paper. The gas was
re-lighted. Then each went as far as he could from his fellows, and
examined the paper he had drawn without saying a word, and with a
countenance as stony and immovable as he could make it.
Then, still rigidly silent, they each took up their hats and went
every one his own way.
He who had drawn the marked paper had drawn the lot of the assassin!
and he had sworn to act according to his drawing! But no one, save
God and his own conscience, knew who was the appointed murderer.
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