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sp; "I have but to raise my finger," cried McGinty, "and I could put twohundred men into this town that would clear it out from end to end."Then suddenly raising his voice and bending his huge black brows into aterrible frown, "See here, Brother Morris, I have my eye on you, andhave had for some time! You've no heart yourself, and you try to takethe heart out of others. It will be an ill day for you, Brother Morris,when your own name comes on our agenda paper, and I'm thinking thatit's just there that I ought to place it."
Morris had turned deadly pale, and his knees seemed to give way underhim as he fell back into his chair. He raised his glass in histrembling hand and drank before he could answer. "I apologize, EminentBodymaster, to you and to every brother in this lodge if I have saidmore than I should. I am a faithful member--you all know that--and itis my fear lest evil come to the lodge which makes me speak in anxiouswords. But I have greater trust in your judgment than in my own,Eminent Bodymaster, and I promise you that I will not offend again."
The Bodymaster's scowl relaxed as he listened to the humble words."Very good, Brother Morris. It's myself that would be sorry if it wereneedful to give you a lesson. But so long as I am in this chair weshall be a united lodge in word and in deed. And now, boys," hecontinued, looking round at the company, "I'll say this much, that ifStanger got his full deserts there would be more trouble than we needask for. These editors hang together, and every journal in the statewould be crying out for police and troops. But I guess you can give hima pretty severe warning. Will you fix it, Brother Baldwin?"
"Sure!" said the young man eagerly.
"How many will you take?"
"Half a dozen, and two to guard the door. You'll come, Gower, and you,Mansel, and you, Scanlan, and the two Willabys."
"I promised the new brother he should go," said the chairman.
Ted Baldwin looked at McMurdo with eyes which showed that he had notforgotten nor forgiven. "Well, he can come if he wants," he said in asurly voice. "That's enough. The sooner we get to work the better."
The company broke up with shouts and yells and snatches of drunkensong. The bar was still crowded with revellers, and many of thebrethren remained there. The little band who had been told off for dutypassed out into the street, proceeding in twos and threes along thesidewalk so as not to provoke attention. It was a bitterly cold night,with a half-moon shining brilliantly in a frosty, star-spangled sky.The men stopped and gathered in a yard which faced a high building. Thewords "Vermissa Herald" were printed in gold lettering between thebrightly lit windows. From within came the clanking of the printingpress.
"Here, you," said Baldwin to McMurdo, "you can stand below at the doorand see that the road is kept open for us. Arthur Willaby can stay withyou. You others come with me. Have no fears, boys; for we have a dozenwitnesses that we are in the Union Bar at this very moment."
It was nearly midnight, and the street was deserted save for one or tworevellers upon their way home. The party crossed the road, and, pushingopen the door of the newspaper office, Baldwin and his men rushed inand up the stair which faced them. McMurdo and another remained below.From the room above came a shout, a cry for help, and then the sound oftrampling feet and of falling chairs. An instant later a gray-hairedman rushed out on the landing.
He was seized before he could get farther, and his spectacles cametinkling down to McMurdo's feet. There was a thud and a groan. He wason his face, and half a dozen sticks were clattering together as theyfell upon him. He writhed, and his long, thin limbs quivered under theblows. The others ceased at last; but Baldwin, his cruel face set in aninfernal smile, was hacking at the man's head, which he vainlyendeavoured to defend with his arms. His white hair was dabbled withpatches of blood. Baldwin was still stooping over his victim, puttingin a short, vicious blow whenever he could see a part exposed, whenMcMurdo dashed up the stair and pushed him back.
"You'll kill the man," said he. "Drop it!"
Baldwin looked at him in amazement. "Curse you!" he cried. "Who are youto interfere--you that are new to the lodge? Stand back!" He raised hisstick; but McMurdo had whipped his pistol out of his hip pocket.
"Stand back yourself!" he cried. "I'll blow your face in if you lay ahand on me. As to the lodge, wasn't it the order of the Bodymaster thatthe man was not to be killed--and what are you doing but killing him?"
"It's truth he says," remarked one of the men.
"By Gar! you'd best hurry yourselves!" cried the man below. "Thewindows are all lighting up, and you'll have the whole town here insideof five minutes."
There was indeed the sound of shouting in the street, and a littlegroup of compositors and pressmen was forming in the hall below andnerving itself to action. Leaving the limp and motionless body of theeditor at the head of the stair, the criminals rushed down and madetheir way swiftly along the street. Having reached the Union House,some of them mixed with the crowd in McGinty's saloon, whisperingacross the bar to the Boss that the job had been well carried through.Others, and among them McMurdo, broke away into side streets, and so bydevious paths to their own homes.
Chapter 4
The Valley of Fear
When McMurdo awoke next morning he had good reason to remember hisinitiation into the lodge. His head ached with the effect of the drink,and his arm, where he had been branded, was hot and swollen. Having hisown peculiar source of income, he was irregular in his attendance athis work; so he had a late breakfast, and remained at home for themorning writing a long letter to a friend. Afterwards he read the DailyHerald. In a special column put in at the last moment he read:
OUTRAGE AT THE HERALD OFFICE--EDITOR SERIOUSLY INJURED.
It was a short account of the facts with which he was himself morefamiliar than the writer could have been. It ended with the statement:
The matter is now in the hands of the police; but it can hardly be hoped that their exertions will be attended by any better results than in the past. Some of the men were recognized, and there is hope that a conviction may be obtained. The source of the outrage was, it need hardly be said, that infamous society which has held this community in bondage for so long a period, and against which the Herald has taken so uncompromising a stand. Mr. Stanger's many friends will rejoice to hear that, though he has been cruelly and brutally beaten, and though he has sustained severe injuries about the head, there is no immediate danger to his life.
Below it stated that a guard of police, armed with Winchester rifles,had been requisitioned for the defense of the office.
McMurdo had laid down the paper, and was lighting his pipe with a handwhich was shaky from the excesses of the previous evening, when therewas a knock outside, and his landlady brought to him a note which hadjust been handed in by a lad. It was unsigned, and ran thus:
I should wish to speak to you, but would rather not do so in your house. You will find me beside the flagstaff upon Miller Hill. If you will come there now, I have something which it is important for you to hear and for me to say.
McMurdo read the note twice with the utmost surprise; for he could notimagine what it meant or who was the author of it. Had it been in afeminine hand, he might have imagined that it was the beginning of oneof those adventures which had been familiar enough in his past life.But it was the writing of a man, and of a well educated one, too.Finally, after some hesitation, he determined to see the matter through.
Miller Hill is an ill-kept public park in the very centre of the town.In summer it is a favourite resort of the people; but in winter it isdesolate enough. From the top of it one has a view not only of thewhole straggling, grimy town, but of the winding valley beneath, withits scattered mines and factories blackening the snow on each side ofit, and of the wooded and white-capped ranges flanking it.