The Valley of Fear Page 9

  Chapter 2

  The Bodymaster

  McMurdo was a man who made his mark quickly. Wherever he was the folkaround soon knew it. Within a week he had become infinitely the mostimportant person at Shafter's. There were ten or a dozen boardersthere; but they were honest foremen or commonplace clerks from thestores, of a very different calibre from the young Irishman. Of anevening when they gathered together his joke was always the readiest,his conversation the brightest, and his song the best. He was a bornboon companion, with a magnetism which drew good humour from all aroundhim.

  And yet he showed again and again, as he had shown in the railwaycarriage, a capacity for sudden, fierce anger, which compelled therespect and even the fear of those who met him. For the law, too, andall who were connected with it, he exhibited a bitter contempt whichdelighted some and alarmed others of his fellow boarders.

  From the first he made it evident, by his open admiration, that thedaughter of the house had won his heart from the instant that he hadset eyes upon her beauty and her grace. He was no backward suitor. Onthe second day he told her that he loved her, and from then onward herepeated the same story with an absolute disregard of what she mightsay to discourage him.

  "Someone else?" he would cry. "Well, the worse luck for someone else!Let him look out for himself! Am I to lose my life's chance and all myheart's desire for someone else? You can keep on saying no, Ettie: theday will come when you will say yes, and I'm young enough to wait."

  He was a dangerous suitor, with his glib Irish tongue, and his pretty,coaxing ways. There was about him also that glamour of experience andof mystery which attracts a woman's interest, and finally her love. Hecould talk of the sweet valleys of County Monaghan from which he came,of the lovely, distant island, the low hills and green meadows of whichseemed the more beautiful when imagination viewed them from this placeof grime and snow.

  Then he was versed in the life of the cities of the North, of Detroit,and the lumber camps of Michigan, and finally of Chicago, where he hadworked in a planing mill. And afterwards came the hint of romance, thefeeling that strange things had happened to him in that great city, sostrange and so intimate that they might not be spoken of. He spokewistfully of a sudden leaving, a breaking of old ties, a flight into astrange world, ending in this dreary valley, and Ettie listened, herdark eyes gleaming with pity and with sympathy--those two qualitieswhich may turn so rapidly and so naturally to love.

  McMurdo had obtained a temporary job as bookkeeper; for he was awell-educated man. This kept him out most of the day, and he had notfound occasion yet to report himself to the head of the lodge of theEminent Order of Freemen. He was reminded of his omission, however, bya visit one evening from Mike Scanlan, the fellow member whom he hadmet in the train. Scanlan, the small, sharp-faced, nervous, black-eyedman, seemed glad to see him once more. After a glass or two of whiskyhe broached the object of his visit.

  "Say, McMurdo," said he, "I remembered your address, so I made bold tocall. I'm surprised that you've not reported to the Bodymaster. Whyhaven't you seen Boss McGinty yet?"

  "Well, I had to find a job. I have been busy."

  "You must find time for him if you have none for anything else. GoodLord, man! you're a fool not to have been down to the Union House andregistered your name the first morning after you came here! If you runagainst him--well, you mustn't, that's all!"

  McMurdo showed mild surprise. "I've been a member of the lodge for overtwo years, Scanlan, but I never heard that duties were so pressing asall that."

  "Maybe not in Chicago."

  "Well, it's the same society here."

  "Is it?"

  Scanlan looked at him long and fixedly. There was something sinister inhis eyes.

  "Isn't it?"

  "You'll tell me that in a month's time. I hear you had a talk with thepatrolmen after I left the train."

  "How did you know that?"

  "Oh, it got about--things do get about for good and for bad in thisdistrict."

  "Well, yes. I told the hounds what I thought of them."

  "By the Lord, you'll be a man after McGinty's heart!"

  "What, does he hate the police too?"

  Scanlan burst out laughing. "You go and see him, my lad," said he as hetook his leave. "It's not the police but you that he'll hate if youdon't! Now, take a friend's advice and go at once!"

  It chanced that on the same evening McMurdo had another more pressinginterview which urged him in the same direction. It may have been thathis attentions to Ettie had been more evident than before, or that theyhad gradually obtruded themselves into the slow mind of his good Germanhost; but, whatever the cause, the boarding-house keeper beckoned theyoung man into his private room and started on the subject without anycircumlocution.

  "It seems to me, mister," said he, "that you are gettin' set on myEttie. Ain't that so, or am I wrong?"

  "Yes, that is so," the young man answered.

  "Vell, I vant to tell you right now that it ain't no manner of use.There's someone slipped in afore you."

  "She told me so."

  "Vell, you can lay that she told you truth. But did she tell you who itvas?"

  "No, I asked her; but she wouldn't tell."

  "I dare say not, the leetle baggage! Perhaps she did not vish tofrighten you avay."

  "Frighten!" McMurdo was on fire in a moment.

  "Ah, yes, my friend! You need not be ashamed to be frightened of him.It is Teddy Baldwin."

  "And who the devil is he?"

  "He is a boss of Scowrers."

  "Scowrers! I've heard of them before. It's Scowrers here and Scowrersthere, and always in a whisper! What are you all afraid of? Who are theScowrers?"

  The boarding-house keeper instinctively sank his voice, as everyone didwho talked about that terrible society. "The Scowrers," said he, "arethe Eminent Order of Freemen!"

  The young man stared. "Why, I am a member of that order myself."

  "You! I vould never have had you in my house if I had known it--not ifyou vere to pay me a hundred dollar a week."

  "What's wrong with the order? It's for charity and good fellowship. Therules say so."

  "Maybe in some places. Not here!"

  "What is it here?"

  "It's a murder society, that's vat it is."

  McMurdo laughed incredulously. "How can you prove that?" he asked.

  "Prove it! Are there not fifty murders to prove it? Vat about Milmanand Van Shorst, and the Nicholson family, and old Mr. Hyam, and littleBilly James, and the others? Prove it! Is there a man or a voman inthis valley vat does not know it?"

  "See here!" said McMurdo earnestly. "I want you to take back whatyou've said, or else make it good. One or the other you must do beforeI quit this room. Put yourself in my place. Here am I, a stranger inthe town. I belong to a society that I know only as an innocent one.You'll find it through the length and breadth of the States, but alwaysas an innocent one. Now, when I am counting upon joining it here, youtell me that it is the same as a murder society called the Scowrers. Iguess you owe me either an apology or else an explanation, Mr. Shafter."

  "I can but tell you vat the whole vorld knows, mister. The bosses ofthe one are the bosses of the other. If you offend the one, it is theother vat vill strike you. We have proved it too often."

  "That's just gossip--I want proof!" said McMurdo.

  "If you live here long you vill get your proof. But I forget that youare yourself one of them. You vill soon be as bad as the rest. But youvill find other lodgings, mister. I cannot have you here. Is it not badenough that one of these people come courting my Ettie, and that I darenot turn him down, but that I should have another for my boarder? Yes,indeed, you shall not sleep here after to-night!"

  McMurdo found himself under sentence of banishment both from hiscomfortable quarters and from the girl whom he loved. He found heralone in the sitting-room that same evening, and he poured his troublesinto her ear.

  "Sure, your father is after giving me notice," he said. "It's
little Iwould care if it was just my room, but indeed, Ettie, though it's onlya week that I've known you, you are the very breath of life to me, andI can't live without you!"

  "Oh, hush, Mr. McMurdo, don't speak so!" said the girl. "I have toldyou, have I not, that you are too late? There is another, and if I havenot promised to marry him at once, at least I can promise no one else."

  "Suppose I had been first, Ettie, would I have had a chance?"

  The girl sank her face into her hands. "I wish to heaven that you hadbeen first!" she sobbed.

  McMurdo was down on his knees before her in an instant. "For God'ssake, Ettie, let it stand at that!" he cried. "Will you ruin your lifeand my own for the sake of this promise? Follow your heart, acushla!'Tis a safer guide than any promise before you knew what it was thatyou were saying."

  He had seized Ettie's white hand between his own strong brown ones.

  "Say that you will be mine, and we will face it out together!"

  "Not here?"

  "Yes, here."

  "No, no, Jack!" His arms were round her now. "It could not be here.Could you take me away?"

  A struggle passed for a moment over McMurdo's face; but it ended bysetting like granite. "No, here," he said. "I'll hold you against theworld, Ettie, right here where we are!"

  "Why should we not leave together?"

  "No, Ettie, I can't leave here."

  "But why?"

  "I'd never hold my head up again if I felt that I had been driven out.Besides, what is there to be afraid of? Are we not free folks in a freecountry? If you love me, and I you, who will dare to come between?"

  "You don't know, Jack. You've been here too short a time. You don'tknow this Baldwin. You don't know McGinty and his Scowrers."

  "No, I don't know them, and I don't fear them, and I don't believe inthem!" said McMurdo. "I've lived among rough men, my darling, andinstead of fearing them it has always ended that they have fearedme--always, Ettie. It's mad on the face of it! If these men, as yourfather says, have done crime after crime in the valley, and if everyoneknows them by name, how comes it that none are brought to justice? Youanswer me that, Ettie!"

  "Because no witness dares to appear against them. He would not live amonth if he did. Also because they have always their own men to swearthat the accused one was far from the scene of the crime. But surely,Jack, you must have read all this. I had understood that every paper inthe United States was writing about it."

  "Well, I have read something, it is true; but I had thought it was astory. Maybe these men have some reason in what they do. Maybe they arewronged and have no other way to help themselves."

  "Oh, Jack, don't let me hear you speak so! That is how he speaks--theother one!"

  "Baldwin--he speaks like that, does he?"

  "And that is why I loathe him so. Oh, Jack, now I can tell you thetruth. I loathe him with all my heart; but I fear him also. I fear himfor myself; but above all I fear him for father. I know that some greatsorrow would come upon us if I dared to say what I really felt. That iswhy I have put him off with half-promises. It was in real truth ouronly hope. But if you would fly with me, Jack, we could take fatherwith us and live forever far from the power of these wicked men."

  Again there was the struggle upon McMurdo's face, and again it set likegranite. "No harm shall come to you, Ettie--nor to your father either.As to wicked men, I expect you may find that I am as bad as the worstof them before we're through."

  "No, no, Jack! I would trust you anywhere."

  McMurdo laughed bitterly. "Good Lord! how little you know of me! Yourinnocent soul, my darling, could not even guess what is passing inmine. But, hullo, who's the visitor?"

  The door had opened suddenly, and a young fellow came swaggering inwith the air of one who is the master. He was a handsome, dashing youngman of about the same age and build as McMurdo himself. Under hisbroad-brimmed black felt hat, which he had not troubled to remove, ahandsome face with fierce, domineering eyes and a curved hawk-bill of anose looked savagely at the pair who sat by the stove.

  Ettie had jumped to her feet full of confusion and alarm. "I'm glad tosee you, Mr. Baldwin," said she. "You're earlier than I had thought.Come and sit down."

  Baldwin stood with his hands on his hips looking at McMurdo. "Who isthis?" he asked curtly.

  "It's a friend of mine, Mr. Baldwin, a new boarder here. Mr. McMurdo,may I introduce you to Mr. Baldwin?"

  The young men nodded in surly fashion to each other.

  "Maybe Miss Ettie has told you how it is with us?" said Baldwin.

  "I didn't understand that there was any relation between you."

  "Didn't you? Well, you can understand it now. You can take it from methat this young lady is mine, and you'll find it a very fine eveningfor a walk."

  "Thank you, I am in no humour for a walk."

  "Aren't you?" The man's savage eyes were blazing with anger. "Maybe youare in a humour for a fight, Mr. Boarder!"

  "That I am!" cried McMurdo, springing to his feet. "You never said amore welcome word."

  "For God's sake, Jack! Oh, for God's sake!" cried poor, distractedEttie. "Oh, Jack, Jack, he will hurt you!"

  "Oh, it's Jack, is it?" said Baldwin with an oath. "You've come to thatalready, have you?"

  "Oh, Ted, be reasonable--be kind! For my sake, Ted, if ever you lovedme, be big-hearted and forgiving!"

  "I think, Ettie, that if you were to leave us alone we could get thisthing settled," said McMurdo quietly. "Or maybe, Mr. Baldwin, you willtake a turn down the street with me. It's a fine evening, and there'ssome open ground beyond the next block."

  "I'll get even with you without needing to dirty my hands," said hisenemy. "You'll wish you had never set foot in this house before I amthrough with you!"

  "No time like the present," cried McMurdo.

  "I'll choose my own time, mister. You can leave the time to me. Seehere!" He suddenly rolled up his sleeve and showed upon his forearm apeculiar sign which appeared to have been branded there. It was acircle with a triangle within it. "D'you know what that means?"

  "I neither know nor care!"

  "Well, you will know, I'll promise you that. You won't be much older,either. Perhaps Miss Ettie can tell you something about it. As to you,Ettie, you'll come back to me on your knees--d'ye hear, girl?--on yourknees--and then I'll tell you what your punishment may be. You'vesowed--and by the Lord, I'll see that you reap!" He glanced at themboth in fury. Then he turned upon his heel, and an instant later theouter door had banged behind him.

  For a few moments McMurdo and the girl stood in silence. Then she threwher arms around him.

  "Oh, Jack, how brave you were! But it is no use, you must fly!To-night--Jack--to-night! It's your only hope. He will have your life.I read it in his horrible eyes. What chance have you against a dozen ofthem, with Boss McGinty and all the power of the lodge behind them?"

  McMurdo disengaged her hands, kissed her, and gently pushed her backinto a chair. "There, acushla, there! Don't be disturbed or fear forme. I'm a Freeman myself. I'm after telling your father about it. MaybeI am no better than the others; so don't make a saint of me. Perhapsyou hate me too, now that I've told you as much?"

  "Hate you, Jack? While life lasts I could never do that! I've heardthat there is no harm in being a Freeman anywhere but here; so whyshould I think the worse of you for that? But if you are a Freeman,Jack, why should you not go down and make a friend of Boss McGinty? Oh,hurry, Jack, hurry! Get your word in first, or the hounds will be onyour trail."

  "I was thinking the same thing," said McMurdo. "I'll go right now andfix it. You can tell your father that I'll sleep here to-night and findsome other quarters in the morning."

  The bar of McGinty's saloon was crowded as usual, for it was thefavourite loafing place of all the rougher elements of the town. Theman was popular; for he had a rough, jovial disposition which formed amask, covering a great deal which lay behind it. But apart from thispopularity, the fear in which he was held throughout the township, andindee
d down the whole thirty miles of the valley and past the mountainson each side of it, was enough in itself to fill his bar; for nonecould afford to neglect his good will.

  Besides those secret powers which it was universally believed that heexercised in so pitiless a fashion, he was a high public official, amunicipal councillor, and a commissioner of roads, elected to theoffice through the votes of the ruffians who in turn expected toreceive favours at his hands. Assessments and taxes were enormous; thepublic works were notoriously neglected, the accounts were slurred overby bribed auditors, and the decent citizen was terrorized into payingpublic blackmail, and holding his tongue lest some worse thing befallhim.

  Thus it was that, year by year, Boss McGinty's diamond pins became moreobtrusive, his gold chains more weighty across a more gorgeous vest,and his saloon stretched farther and farther, until it threatened toabsorb one whole side of the Market Square.

  McMurdo pushed open the swinging door of the saloon and made his wayamid the crowd of men within, through an atmosphere blurred withtobacco smoke and heavy with the smell of spirits. The place wasbrilliantly lighted, and the huge, heavily gilt mirrors upon every wallreflected and multiplied the garish illumination. There were severalbartenders in their shirt sleeves, hard at work mixing drinks for theloungers who fringed the broad, brass-trimmed counter.

  At the far end, with his body resting upon the bar and a cigar stuck atan acute angle from the corner of his mouth, stood a tall, strong,heavily built man who could be none other than the famous McGintyhimself. He was a black-maned giant, bearded to the cheek-bones, andwith a shock of raven hair which fell to his collar. His complexion wasas swarthy as that of an Italian, and his eyes were of a strange deadblack, which, combined with a slight squint, gave them a particularlysinister appearance.

  All else in the man--his noble proportions, his fine features, and hisfrank bearing--fitted in with that jovial, man-to-man manner which heaffected. Here, one would say, is a bluff, honest fellow, whose heartwould be sound however rude his outspoken words might seem. It was onlywhen those dead, dark eyes, deep and remorseless, were turned upon aman that he shrank within himself, feeling that he was face to facewith an infinite possibility of latent evil, with a strength andcourage and cunning behind it which made it a thousand times moredeadly.

  Having had a good look at his man, McMurdo elbowed his way forward withhis usual careless audacity, and pushed himself through the littlegroup of courtiers who were fawning upon the powerful boss, laughinguproariously at the smallest of his jokes. The young stranger's boldgray eyes looked back fearlessly through their glasses at the deadlyblack ones which turned sharply upon him.

  "Well, young man, I can't call your face to mind."

  "I'm new here, Mr. McGinty."

  "You are not so new that you can't give a gentleman his proper title."

  "He's Councillor McGinty, young man," said a voice from the group.

  "I'm sorry, Councillor. I'm strange to the ways of the place. But I wasadvised to see you."

  "Well, you see me. This is all there is. What d'you think of me?"

  "Well, it's early days. If your heart is as big as your body, and yoursoul as fine as your face, then I'd ask for nothing better," saidMcMurdo.

  "By Gar! you've got an Irish tongue in your head anyhow," cried thesaloon-keeper, not quite certain whether to humour this audaciousvisitor or to stand upon his dignity.

  "So you are good enough to pass my appearance?"

  "Sure," said McMurdo.

  "And you were told to see me?"

  "I was."

  "And who told you?"

  "Brother Scanlan of Lodge 341, Vermissa. I drink your healthCouncillor, and to our better acquaintance." He raised a glass withwhich he had been served to his lips and elevated his little finger ashe drank it.

  McGinty, who had been watching him narrowly, raised his thick blackeyebrows. "Oh, it's like that, is it?" said he. "I'll have to look abit closer into this, Mister--"

  "McMurdo."

  "A bit closer, Mr. McMurdo; for we don't take folk on trust in theseparts, nor believe all we're told neither. Come in here for a moment,behind the bar."

  There was a small room there, lined with barrels. McGinty carefullyclosed the door, and then seated himself on one of them, bitingthoughtfully on his cigar and surveying his companion with thosedisquieting eyes. For a couple of minutes he sat in complete silence.McMurdo bore the inspection cheerfully, one hand in his coat pocket,the other twisting his brown moustache. Suddenly McGinty stooped andproduced a wicked-looking revolver.

  "See here, my joker," said he, "if I thought you were playing any gameon us, it would be short work for you."

  "This is a strange welcome," McMurdo answered with some dignity, "forthe Bodymaster of a lodge of Freemen to give to a stranger brother."

  "Ay, but it's just that same that you have to prove," said McGinty,"and God help you if you fail! Where were you made?"

  "Lodge 29, Chicago."

  "When?"

  "June 24, 1872."

  "What Bodymaster?"

  "James H. Scott."

  "Who is your district ruler?"

  "Bartholomew Wilson."

  "Hum! You seem glib enough in your tests. What are you doing here?"

  "Working, the same as you--but a poorer job."

  "You have your back answer quick enough."

  "Yes, I was always quick of speech."

  "Are you quick of action?"

  "I have had that name among those that knew me best."

  "Well, we may try you sooner than you think. Have you heard anything ofthe lodge in these parts?"

  "I've heard that it takes a man to be a brother."

  "True for you, Mr. McMurdo. Why did you leave Chicago?"

  "I'm damned if I tell you that!"

  McGinty opened his eyes. He was not used to being answered in suchfashion, and it amused him. "Why won't you tell me?"

  "Because no brother may tell another a lie."

  "Then the truth is too bad to tell?"

  "You can put it that way if you like."

  "See here, mister, you can't expect me, as Bodymaster, to pass into thelodge a man for whose past he can't answer."

  McMurdo looked puzzled. Then he took a worn newspaper cutting from aninner pocket.

  "You wouldn't squeal on a fellow?" said he.

  "I'll wipe my hand across your face if you say such words to me!" criedMcGinty hotly.

  "You are right, Councillor," said McMurdo meekly. "I should apologize.I spoke without thought. Well, I know that I am safe in your hands.Look at that clipping."

  McGinty glanced his eyes over the account of the shooting of one JonasPinto, in the Lake Saloon, Market Street, Chicago, in the New Year weekof 1874.

  "Your work?" he asked, as he handed back the paper.

  McMurdo nodded.

  "Why did you shoot him?"

  "I was helping Uncle Sam to make dollars. Maybe mine were not as goodgold as his, but they looked as well and were cheaper to make. This manPinto helped me to shove the queer--"

  "To do what?"

  "Well, it means to pass the dollars out into circulation. Then he saidhe would split. Maybe he did split. I didn't wait to see. I just killedhim and lighted out for the coal country."

  "Why the coal country?"

  "'Cause I'd read in the papers that they weren't too particular inthose parts."

  McGinty laughed. "You were first a coiner and then a murderer, and youcame to these parts because you thought you'd be welcome."

  "That's about the size of it," McMurdo answered.

  "Well, I guess you'll go far. Say, can you make those dollars yet?"

  McMurdo took half a dozen from his pocket. "Those never passed thePhiladelphia mint," said he.

  "You don't say!" McGinty held them to the light in his enormous hand,which was hairy as a gorilla's. "I can see no difference. Gar! you'llbe a mighty useful brother, I'm thinking! We can do with a bad man ortwo among us, Friend McMurdo: for there are times
when we have to takeour own part. We'd soon be against the wall if we didn't shove back atthose that were pushing us."

  "Well, I guess I'll do my share of shoving with the rest of the boys."

  "You seem to have a good nerve. You didn't squirm when I shoved thisgun at you."

  "It was not me that was in danger."

  "Who then?"

  "It was you, Councillor." McMurdo drew a cocked pistol from the sidepocket of his peajacket. "I was covering you all the time. I guess myshot would have been as quick as yours."

  "By Gar!" McGinty flushed an angry red and then burst into a roar oflaughter. "Say, we've had no such holy terror come to hand this many ayear. I reckon the lodge will learn to be proud of you.... Well, whatthe hell do you want? And can't I speak alone with a gentleman for fiveminutes but you must butt in on us?"

  The bartender stood abashed. "I'm sorry, Councillor, but it's TedBaldwin. He says he must see you this very minute."

  The message was unnecessary; for the set, cruel face of the man himselfwas looking over the servant's shoulder. He pushed the bartender outand closed the door on him.

  "So," said he with a furious glance at McMurdo, "you got here first,did you? I've a word to say to you, Councillor, about this man."

  "Then say it here and now before my face," cried McMurdo.

  "I'll say it at my own time, in my own way."

  "Tut! Tut!" said McGinty, getting off his barrel. "This will never do.We have a new brother here, Baldwin, and it's not for us to greet himin such fashion. Hold out your hand, man, and make it up!"

  "Never!" cried Baldwin in a fury.

  "I've offered to fight him if he thinks I have wronged him," saidMcMurdo. "I'll fight him with fists, or, if that won't satisfy him,I'll fight him any other way he chooses. Now, I'll leave it to you,Councillor, to judge between us as a Bodymaster should."

  "What is it, then?"

  "A young lady. She's free to choose for herself."

  "Is she?" cried Baldwin.

  "As between two brothers of the lodge I should say that she was," saidthe Boss.

  "Oh, that's your ruling, is it?"

  "Yes, it is, Ted Baldwin," said McGinty, with a wicked stare. "Is ityou that would dispute it?"

  "You would throw over one that has stood by you this five years infavour of a man that you never saw before in your life? You're notBodymaster for life, Jack McGinty, and by God! when next it comes to avote--"

  The Councillor sprang at him like a tiger. His hand closed round theother's neck, and he hurled him back across one of the barrels. In hismad fury he would have squeezed the life out of him if McMurdo had notinterfered.

  "Easy, Councillor! For heaven's sake, go easy!" he cried, as he draggedhim back.

  McGinty released his hold, and Baldwin, cowed and shaken gasping forbreath, and shivering in every limb, as one who has looked over thevery edge of death, sat up on the barrel over which he had been hurled.

  "You've been asking for it this many a day, Ted Baldwin--now you've gotit!" cried McGinty, his huge chest rising and falling. "Maybe you thinkif I was voted down from Bodymaster you would find yourself in myshoes. It's for the lodge to say that. But so long as I am the chiefI'll have no man lift his voice against me or my rulings."

  "I have nothing against you," mumbled Baldwin, feeling his throat.

  "Well, then," cried the other, relapsing in a moment into a bluffjoviality, "we are all good friends again and there's an end of thematter."

  He took a bottle of champagne down from the shelf and twisted out thecork.

  "See now," he continued, as he filled three high glasses. "Let us drinkthe quarrelling toast of the lodge. After that, as you know, there canbe no bad blood between us. Now, then the left hand on the apple of mythroat. I say to you, Ted Baldwin, what is the offense, sir?"

  "The clouds are heavy," answered Baldwin

  "But they will forever brighten."

  "And this I swear!"

  The men drank their glasses, and the same ceremony was performedbetween Baldwin and McMurdo.

  "There!" cried McGinty, rubbing his hands. "That's the end of the blackblood. You come under lodge discipline if it goes further, and that's aheavy hand in these parts, as Brother Baldwin knows--and as you willdamn soon find out, Brother McMurdo, if you ask for trouble!"

  "Faith, I'd be slow to do that," said McMurdo. He held out his hand toBaldwin. "I'm quick to quarrel and quick to forgive. It's my hot Irishblood, they tell me. But it's over for me, and I bear no grudge."

  Baldwin had to take the proffered hand, for the baleful eye of theterrible Boss was upon him. But his sullen face showed how little thewords of the other had moved him.

  McGinty clapped them both on the shoulders. "Tut! These girls! Thesegirls!" he cried. "To think that the same petticoats should comebetween two of my boys! It's the devil's own luck! Well, it's thecolleen inside of them that must settle the question for it's outsidethe jurisdiction of a Bodymaster--and the Lord be praised for that! Wehave enough on us, without the women as well. You'll have to beaffiliated to Lodge 341, Brother McMurdo. We have our own ways andmethods, different from Chicago. Saturday night is our meeting, and ifyou come then, we'll make you free forever of the Vermissa Valley."