For brevity, succinctness, and concentration, it is perhaps without its peer in the literature of murder.

There are no waste words in it; there is no obtrusion of matter not pertinent to the occasion, nor any departure from the dispassionate tone proper to a formal business statement--for that is what it is: a business statement of a murder, by the chief engineer of it, or superintendent, or foreman, or whatever one may prefer to call him.
"We were getting impatient, when we saw four men and a pack-horse coming.

I left my cover and had a look at the men, for Levy had told me that Mathieu was a small man and wore a large beard, and that it was a chestnut horse.

I said, 'Here they come.' They were then a good distance away; I took the caps off my gun, and put fresh ones on.

I said, 'You keep where you are, I'll put them up, and you give me your gun while you tie them.' It was arranged as I have described.