WESTERN ADDITION
APRIL 17, 1906. 7:40 P.M.
At their tiny cottage on Webster Street, Francis Fagen's wife, Eleanor, went to the back porch where her brother-in-law Patrick rested on a cot, reading his Bible.
"Patrick," Eleanor said. "You better come eat."
Patrick stretched his long legs and walked to the small kitchen table where Eleanor set down plates of rabbit stew and potatoes. The three of them joined hands in prayer.
A half block away, near the corner of Webster and Golden Gate, Carlo Rinaldi sat at the kitchen table cleaning his revolver.
His mother Cecilia entered and removed a macaroni casserole from the wood-burning oven. "Carlo, per favore, porta via la pistola dalla cucina. Chiama il fratello a' pranzare."
Obediently, Carlo stowed his weapon and walked to the stable. Max lay on a crude wooden bench, huffing as he pressed a rusty barbell up and down.
"Max. M-m-mom wants you to c-c-come eat."
Max lowered the barbell, sat up and caught his breath.
"Y-y-you b-better sa-save som-some strength for tonight."
"Worry about the other guys when I get my hands on them," Max replied, wiping his sweaty brow on his shirt.
The brothers joined their mother at the kitchen table and bowed their heads as she prayed for their safety. They were distracted by horses kicking at their stalls.
"I cavalli sono pazzi," Cecilia said. "Morning, noon, nights, crazy all the times the horses."
When they finished eating, Max and Carlo kissed their mother. They donned their pistol belts and stuffed their pockets with extra cartridges. They pulled on long black dusters and slid sawed-off shotguns into long narrow pockets inside, then distributed extra manacles in the pockets of their coats.
Max and Carlo joined Francis and Patrick for the walk to the United Railway trolley line, several blocks away on Geary Street.
In the dummy car at the rear, empty save for the four of them, Patrick produced a Biblical passage he had hand-copied and read aloud.
"But it is good to be zealously affected, always in a good thing and not only when I am present with you. Tell me ye that desire to be under the law, do you not hear the law? Now we, brethren as Isaac was, are the children of promise. Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage."
The four earnest young officers muttered "Amen."
It would be the last such moment they shared.