me--Justice Field
thought it a moment or two, Neagle thought it three or four
minutes--when he arose and moved down towards the door, this time
walking through the aisle _behind_ Justice Field, instead of the one
in front of him as before. Justice Field supposed, when he arose, that
he was going out to meet his wife, as she had not returned, and went
on with his breakfast; but when Terry had reached a point behind him,
and a little to the right, within two or three feet of him, he halted.
Justice Field was not aware of this, nor did he know that Terry had
stopped, until he was struck by him a violent blow in the face from
behind, followed instantaneously by another blow at the back of his
head. Neagle had seen Terry stop and turn. Between this and Terry's
assault there was a pause of four or five seconds. Instantaneously
upon Terry's dealing a blow, Neagle leaped from his chair and
interposed his diminutive form between Justice Field and the enraged
and powerful man, who now sought to execute his long-announced and
murderous purpose. Terry gave Justice Field no warning of his presence
except a blow from behind with his right hand.

As Neagle rose, he shouted: "Stop, stop, I am an officer." Judge Terry
had drawn back his right arm for a third blow at Justice Field, and with
clinched fist was about to strike, when his attention was thus arrested
by Neagle, and looking at him he evidently recognized in him the man who
had drawn the knife from his hand in the corridor before the marshal's
office on the third of September of the preceding year, while he was
attempting to cut his way into the marshal's office. Neagle put his right
hand up as he ordered Terry to stop, when Terry carried his right hand at
once to his breast, evidently to seize the knife which he had told the
Alameda county jailer he "always carried." Says Neagle:

"This hand came right to his breast. It went a good deal
quicker than I can explain it. He continued looking at me in a
desperate manner and his hand got there."

The expression of Terry's face at that time was described by Neagle in
these words:

"The most desperate expression that I ever saw on a man's
face, and I have seen a good many in my time. It meant life or
death to me or him."

Having thus for a moment diverted the blow aimed at Justice Field and
engaged Terry himself, Neagle did not wait to be butchered with the
latter's ready knife, which he was now attempting