The Valley of Fear Page 14

  Chapter 7

  The Trapping of Birdy Edwards

  As McMurdo had said, the house in which he lived was a lonely one andvery well suited for such a crime as they had planned. It was on theextreme fringe of the town and stood well back from the road. In anyother case the conspirators would have simply called out their man, asthey had many a time before, and emptied their pistols into his body;but in this instance it was very necessary to find out how much heknew, how he knew it, and what had been passed on to his employers.

  It was possible that they were already too late and that the work hadbeen done. If that was indeed so, they could at least have theirrevenge upon the man who had done it. But they were hopeful thatnothing of great importance had yet come to the detective's knowledge,as otherwise, they argued, he would not have troubled to write down andforward such trivial information as McMurdo claimed to have given him.However, all this they would learn from his own lips. Once in theirpower, they would find a way to make him speak. It was not the firsttime that they had handled an unwilling witness.

  McMurdo went to Hobson's Patch as agreed. The police seemed to takeparticular interest in him that morning, and Captain Marvin--he who hadclaimed the old acquaintance with him at Chicago--actually addressedhim as he waited at the station. McMurdo turned away and refused tospeak with him. He was back from his mission in the afternoon, and sawMcGinty at the Union House.

  "He is coming," he said.

  "Good!" said McGinty. The giant was in his shirt sleeves, with chainsand seals gleaming athwart his ample waistcoat and a diamond twinklingthrough the fringe of his bristling beard. Drink and politics had madethe Boss a very rich as well as powerful man. The more terrible,therefore, seemed that glimpse of the prison or the gallows which hadrisen before him the night before.

  "Do you reckon he knows much?" he asked anxiously.

  McMurdo shook his head gloomily. "He's been here some time--six weeksat the least. I guess he didn't come into these parts to look at theprospect. If he has been working among us all that time with therailroad money at his back, I should expect that he has got results,and that he has passed them on."

  "There's not a weak man in the lodge," cried McGinty. "True as steel,every man of them. And yet, by the Lord! there is that skunk Morris.What about him? If any man gives us away, it would be he. I've a mindto send a couple of the boys round before evening to give him a beatingup and see what they can get from him."

  "Well, there would be no harm in that," McMurdo answered. "I won't denythat I have a liking for Morris and would be sorry to see him come toharm. He has spoken to me once or twice over lodge matters, and thoughhe may not see them the same as you or I, he never seemed the sort thatsqueals. But still it is not for me to stand between him and you."

  "I'll fix the old devil!" said McGinty with an oath. "I've had my eyeon him this year past."

  "Well, you know best about that," McMurdo answered. "But whatever youdo must be to-morrow; for we must lie low until the Pinkerton affair issettled up. We can't afford to set the police buzzing, to-day of alldays."

  "True for you," said McGinty. "And we'll learn from Birdy Edwardshimself where he got his news if we have to cut his heart out first.Did he seem to scent a trap?"

  McMurdo laughed. "I guess I took him on his weak point," he said. "Ifhe could get on a good trail of the Scowrers, he's ready to follow itinto hell. I took his money," McMurdo grinned as he produced a wad ofdollar notes, "and as much more when he has seen all my papers."

  "What papers?"

  "Well, there are no papers. But I filled him up about constitutions andbooks of rules and forms of membership. He expects to get right down tothe end of everything before he leaves."

  "Faith, he's right there," said McGinty grimly. "Didn't he ask you whyyou didn't bring him the papers?"

  "As if I would carry such things, and me a suspected man, and CaptainMarvin after speaking to me this very day at the depot!"

  "Ay, I heard of that," said McGinty. "I guess the heavy end of thisbusiness is coming on to you. We could put him down an old shaft whenwe've done with him; but however we work it we can't get past the manliving at Hobson's Patch and you being there to-day."

  McMurdo shrugged his shoulders. "If we handle it right, they can neverprove the killing," said he. "No one can see him come to the houseafter dark, and I'll lay to it that no one will see him go. Now seehere, Councillor, I'll show you my plan and I'll ask you to fit theothers into it. You will all come in good time. Very well. He comes atten. He is to tap three times, and me to open the door for him. ThenI'll get behind him and shut it. He's our man then."

  "That's all easy and plain."

  "Yes; but the next step wants considering. He's a hard proposition.He's heavily armed. I've fooled him proper, and yet he is likely to beon his guard. Suppose I show him right into a room with seven men in itwhere he expected to find me alone. There is going to be shooting, andsomebody is going to be hurt."

  "That's so."

  "And the noise is going to bring every damned copper in the township ontop of it."

  "I guess you are right."

  "This is how I should work it. You will all be in the big room--same asyou saw when you had a chat with me. I'll open the door for him, showhim into the parlour beside the door, and leave him there while I getthe papers. That will give me the chance of telling you how things areshaping. Then I will go back to him with some faked papers. As he isreading them I will jump for him and get my grip on his pistol arm.You'll hear me call and in you will rush. The quicker the better; forhe is as strong a man as I, and I may have more than I can manage. ButI allow that I can hold him till you come."

  "It's a good plan," said McGinty. "The lodge will owe you a debt forthis. I guess when I move out of the chair I can put a name to the manthat's coming after me."

  "Sure, Councillor, I am little more than a recruit," said McMurdo; buthis face showed what he thought of the great man's compliment.

  When he had returned home he made his own preparations for the grimevening in front of him. First he cleaned, oiled, and loaded his Smith& Wesson revolver. Then he surveyed the room in which the detective wasto be trapped. It was a large apartment, with a long deal table in thecentre, and the big stove at one side. At each of the other sides werewindows. There were no shutters on these: only light curtains whichdrew across. McMurdo examined these attentively. No doubt it must havestruck him that the apartment was very exposed for so secret a meeting.Yet its distance from the road made it of less consequence. Finally hediscussed the matter with his fellow lodger. Scanlan, though a Scowrer,was an inoffensive little man who was too weak to stand against theopinion of his comrades, but was secretly horrified by the deeds ofblood at which he had sometimes been forced to assist. McMurdo told himshortly what was intended.

  "And if I were you, Mike Scanlan, I would take a night off and keepclear of it. There will be bloody work here before morning."

  "Well, indeed then, Mac," Scanlan answered. "It's not the will but thenerve that is wanting in me. When I saw Manager Dunn go down at thecolliery yonder it was just more than I could stand. I'm not made forit, same as you or McGinty. If the lodge will think none the worse ofme, I'll just do as you advise and leave you to yourselves for theevening."

  The men came in good time as arranged. They were outwardly respectablecitizens, well clad and cleanly; but a judge of faces would have readlittle hope for Birdy Edwards in those hard mouths and remorselesseyes. There was not a man in the room whose hands had not been reddeneda dozen times before. They were as hardened to human murder as abutcher to sheep.

  Foremost, of course, both in appearance and in guilt, was theformidable Boss. Harraway, the secretary, was a lean, bitter man with along, scraggy neck and nervous, jerky limbs, a man of incorruptiblefidelity where the finances of the order were concerned, and with nonotion of justice or honesty to anyone beyond. The treasurer, Carter,was a middle-aged man, with an impassive, rather sulky expression, anda yellow parchment skin. He was a cap
able organizer, and the actualdetails of nearly every outrage had sprung from his plotting brain. Thetwo Willabys were men of action, tall, lithe young fellows withdetermined faces, while their companion, Tiger Cormac, a heavy, darkyouth, was feared even by his own comrades for the ferocity of hisdisposition. These were the men who assembled that night under the roofof McMurdo for the killing of the Pinkerton detective.

  Their host had placed whisky upon the table, and they had hastened toprime themselves for the work before them. Baldwin and Cormac werealready half-drunk, and the liquor had brought out all their ferocity.Cormac placed his hands on the stove for an instant--it had beenlighted, for the nights were still cold.

  "That will do," said he, with an oath.

  "Ay," said Baldwin, catching his meaning. "If he is strapped to that,we will have the truth out of him."

  "We'll have the truth out of him, never fear," said McMurdo. He hadnerves of steel, this man; for though the whole weight of the affairwas on him his manner was as cool and unconcerned as ever. The othersmarked it and applauded.

  "You are the one to handle him," said the Boss approvingly. "Not awarning will he get till your hand is on his throat. It's a pity thereare no shutters to your windows."

  McMurdo went from one to the other and drew the curtains tighter. "Sureno one can spy upon us now. It's close upon the hour."

  "Maybe he won't come. Maybe he'll get a sniff of danger," said thesecretary.

  "He'll come, never fear," McMurdo answered. "He is as eager to come asyou can be to see him. Hark to that!"

  They all sat like wax figures, some with their glasses arrested halfwayto their lips. Three loud knocks had sounded at the door.

  "Hush!" McMurdo raised his hand in caution. An exulting glance wentround the circle, and hands were laid upon hidden weapons.

  "Not a sound, for your lives!" McMurdo whispered, as he went from theroom, closing the door carefully behind him.

  With strained ears the murderers waited. They counted the steps oftheir comrade down the passage. Then they heard him open the outerdoor. There were a few words as of greeting. Then they were aware of astrange step inside and of an unfamiliar voice. An instant later camethe slam of the door and the turning of the key in the lock. Their preywas safe within the trap. Tiger Cormac laughed horribly, and BossMcGinty clapped his great hand across his mouth.

  "Be quiet, you fool!" he whispered. "You'll be the undoing of us yet!"

  There was a mutter of conversation from the next room. It seemedinterminable. Then the door opened, and McMurdo appeared, his fingerupon his lip.

  He came to the end of the table and looked round at them. A subtlechange had come over him. His manner was as of one who has great workto do. His face had set into granite firmness. His eyes shone with afierce excitement behind his spectacles. He had become a visible leaderof men. They stared at him with eager interest; but he said nothing.Still with the same singular gaze he looked from man to man.

  "Well!" cried Boss McGinty at last. "Is he here? Is Birdy Edwards here?"

  "Yes," McMurdo answered slowly. "Birdy Edwards is here. I am BirdyEdwards!"

  There were ten seconds after that brief speech during which the roommight have been empty, so profound was the silence. The hissing of akettle upon the stove rose sharp and strident to the ear. Seven whitefaces, all turned upward to this man who dominated them, were setmotionless with utter terror. Then, with a sudden shivering of glass, abristle of glistening rifle barrels broke through each window, whilethe curtains were torn from their hangings.

  At the sight Boss McGinty gave the roar of a wounded bear and plungedfor the half-opened door. A levelled revolver met him there with thestern blue eyes of Captain Marvin of the Mine Police gleaming behindthe sights. The Boss recoiled and fell back into his chair.

  "You're safer there, Councillor," said the man whom they had known asMcMurdo. "And you, Baldwin, if you don't take your hand off yourpistol, you'll cheat the hangman yet. Pull it out, or by the Lord thatmade me--There, that will do. There are forty armed men round thishouse, and you can figure it out for yourself what chance you have.Take their pistols, Marvin!"

  There was no possible resistance under the menace of those rifles. Themen were disarmed. Sulky, sheepish, and amazed, they still sat roundthe table.

  "I'd like to say a word to you before we separate," said the man whohad trapped them. "I guess we may not meet again until you see me onthe stand in the courthouse. I'll give you something to think overbetween now and then. You know me now for what I am. At last I can putmy cards on the table. I am Birdy Edwards of Pinkerton's. I was chosento break up your gang. I had a hard and dangerous game to play. Not asoul, not one soul, not my nearest and dearest, knew that I was playingit. Only Captain Marvin here and my employers knew that. But it's overto-night, thank God, and I am the winner!"

  The seven pale, rigid faces looked up at him. There was unappeasablehatred in their eyes. He read the relentless threat.

  "Maybe you think that the game is not over yet. Well, I take my chanceof that. Anyhow, some of you will take no further hand, and there aresixty more besides yourselves that will see a jail this night. I'lltell you this, that when I was put upon this job I never believed therewas such a society as yours. I thought it was paper talk, and that Iwould prove it so. They told me it was to do with the Freemen; so Iwent to Chicago and was made one. Then I was surer than ever that itwas just paper talk; for I found no harm in the society, but a deal ofgood.

  "Still, I had to carry out my job, and I came to the coal valleys. WhenI reached this place I learned that I was wrong and that it wasn't adime novel after all. So I stayed to look after it. I never killed aman in Chicago. I never minted a dollar in my life. Those I gave youwere as good as any others; but I never spent money better. But I knewthe way into your good wishes and so I pretended to you that the lawwas after me. It all worked just as I thought.

  "So I joined your infernal lodge, and I took my share in your councils.Maybe they will say that I was as bad as you. They can say what theylike, so long as I get you. But what is the truth? The night I joinedyou beat up old man Stanger. I could not warn him, for there was notime; but I held your hand, Baldwin, when you would have killed him. Ifever I have suggested things, so as to keep my place among you, theywere things which I knew I could prevent. I could not save Dunn andMenzies, for I did not know enough; but I will see that their murderersare hanged. I gave Chester Wilcox warning, so that when I blew hishouse in he and his folk were in hiding. There was many a crime that Icould not stop; but if you look back and think how often your man camehome the other road, or was down in town when you went for him, orstayed indoors when you thought he would come out, you'll see my work."

  "You blasted traitor!" hissed McGinty through his closed teeth.

  "Ay, John McGinty, you may call me that if it eases your smart. You andyour like have been the enemy of God and man in these parts. It took aman to get between you and the poor devils of men and women that youheld under your grip. There was just one way of doing it, and I did it.You call me a traitor; but I guess there's many a thousand will call mea deliverer that went down into hell to save them. I've had threemonths of it. I wouldn't have three such months again if they let meloose in the treasury at Washington for it. I had to stay till I had itall, every man and every secret right here in this hand. I'd havewaited a little longer if it hadn't come to my knowledge that my secretwas coming out. A letter had come into the town that would have set youwise to it all. Then I had to act and act quickly.

  "I've nothing more to say to you, except that when my time comes I'lldie the easier when I think of the work I have done in this valley.Now, Marvin, I'll keep you no more. Take them in and get it over."

  There is little more to tell. Scanlan had been given a sealed note tobe left at the address of Miss Ettie Shafter, a mission which he hadaccepted with a wink and a knowing smile. In the early hours of themorning a beautiful woman and a much muffled man boarded a specialtrain which had been sent by the railr
oad company, and made a swift,unbroken journey out of the land of danger. It was the last time thatever either Ettie or her lover set foot in the Valley of Fear. Ten dayslater they were married in Chicago, with old Jacob Shafter as witnessof the wedding.

  The trial of the Scowrers was held far from the place where theiradherents might have terrified the guardians of the law. In vain theystruggled. In vain the money of the lodge--money squeezed by blackmailout of the whole countryside--was spent like water in the attempt tosave them. That cold, clear, unimpassioned statement from one who knewevery detail of their lives, their organization, and their crimes wasunshaken by all the wiles of their defenders. At last after so manyyears they were broken and scattered. The cloud was lifted forever fromthe valley.

  McGinty met his fate upon the scaffold, cringing and whining when thelast hour came. Eight of his chief followers shared his fate. Fifty-oddhad various degrees of imprisonment. The work of Birdy Edwards wascomplete.

  And yet, as he had guessed, the game was not over yet. There wasanother hand to be played, and yet another and another. Ted Baldwin,for one, had escaped the scaffold; so had the Willabys; so had severalothers of the fiercest spirits of the gang. For ten years they were outof the world, and then came a day when they were free once more--a daywhich Edwards, who knew his men, was very sure would be an end of hislife of peace. They had sworn an oath on all that they thought holy tohave his blood as a vengeance for their comrades. And well they stroveto keep their vow!

  From Chicago he was chased, after two attempts so near success that itwas sure that the third would get him. From Chicago he went under achanged name to California, and it was there that the light went for atime out of his life when Ettie Edwards died. Once again he was nearlykilled, and once again under the name of Douglas he worked in a lonelycanyon, where with an English partner named Barker he amassed afortune. At last there came a warning to him that the bloodhounds wereon his track once more, and he cleared--only just in time--for England.And thence came the John Douglas who for a second time married a worthymate, and lived for five years as a Sussex county gentleman, a lifewhich ended with the strange happenings of which we have heard.

  Epilogue

  The police trial had passed, in which the case of John Douglas wasreferred to a higher court. So had the Quarter Sessions, at which hewas acquitted as having acted in self-defense.

  "Get him out of England at any cost," wrote Holmes to the wife. "Thereare forces here which may be more dangerous than those he has escaped.There is no safety for your husband in England."

  Two months had gone by, and the case had to some extent passed from ourminds. Then one morning there came an enigmatic note slipped into ourletter box. "Dear me, Mr. Holmes. Dear me!" said this singular epistle.There was neither superscription nor signature. I laughed at the quaintmessage; but Holmes showed unwonted seriousness.

  "Deviltry, Watson!" he remarked, and sat long with a clouded brow.

  Late last night Mrs. Hudson, our landlady, brought up a message that agentleman wished to see Holmes, and that the matter was of the utmostimportance. Close at the heels of his messenger came Cecil Barker, ourfriend of the moated Manor House. His face was drawn and haggard.

  "I've had bad news--terrible news, Mr. Holmes," said he.

  "I feared as much," said Holmes.

  "You have not had a cable, have you?"

  "I have had a note from someone who has."

  "It's poor Douglas. They tell me his name is Edwards; but he willalways be Jack Douglas of Benito Canyon to me. I told you that theystarted together for South Africa in the Palmyra three weeks ago."

  "Exactly."

  "The ship reached Cape Town last night. I received this cable from MrsDouglas this morning:--

  "Jack has been lost overboard in gale off St Helena. No one knows howaccident occurred.--Ivy Douglas."

  "Ha! It came like that, did it?" said Holmes, thoughtfully. "Well, I'veno doubt it was well stage-managed."

  "You mean that you think there was no accident?"

  "None in the world."

  "He was murdered?"

  "Surely!"

  "So I think also. These infernal Scowrers, this cursed vindictive nestof criminals--"

  "No, no, my good sir," said Holmes. "There is a master hand here. It isno case of sawed-off shot-guns and clumsy six-shooters. You can tell anold master by the sweep of his brush. I can tell a Moriarty when I seeone. This crime is from London, not from America."

  "But for what motive?"

  "Because it is done by a man who cannot afford to fail--one whose wholeunique position depends upon the fact that all he does must succeed. Agreat brain and a huge organization have been turned to the extinctionof one man. It is crushing the nut with the hammer--an absurdextravagance of energy--but the nut is very effectually crushed all thesame."

  "How came this man to have anything to do with it?"

  "I can only say that the first word that ever came to us of thebusiness was from one of his lieutenants. These Americans were welladvised. Having an English job to do, they took into partnership, asany foreign criminal could do, this great consultant in crime. Fromthat moment their man was doomed. At first he would content himself byusing his machinery in order to find their victim. Then he wouldindicate how the matter might be treated. Finally, when he read in thereports of the failure of this agent, he would step in himself with amaster touch. You heard me warn this man at Birlstone Manor House thatthe coming danger was greater than the past. Was I right?"

  Barker beat his head with his clenched fist in his impotent anger.

  "Do you tell me that we have to sit down under this? Do you say that noone can ever get level with this king-devil?"

  "No, I don't say that," said Holmes, and his eyes seemed to be lookingfar into the future. "I don't say that he can't be beat. But you mustgive me time--you must give me time!"

  We all sat in silence for some minutes, while those fateful eyes stillstrained to pierce the veil.