Just after they went to bed some people came up to the window and disturbed them. This irritated Robert and he opened the door holding his double-barrelled fowling piece. He fired into the sky to scare them away. This however did not happen as the people became more roudy. He went back in put on his trousers and went back out with his gun. He would fire another shot and never be seen alive again. It's believed he had followed the men down the roadway to where the trolley had been drawn.
He would be found dead on an old pit road leading from the farm to Watstown. He was lying across a track partially on his right side with one arm underneath him. His gun was a few feet away from him resting on the embankment on the road. It was found that he had been shot in the stomach. It's believed he was shot with his own gun.
One theory was that he had stumbled in the dark and accidentally shot himself, but his guy was found several feet away and the locks of the gun were found to be empty of cartridge cases. The other is that Robert and one of the men fought over the gun and he was shot in the struggle. That the killer moved him and his gun from their original positions.
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