“I’ve no pistol,” said the volunteer, a mere boy in his teens.
“It’s your first, is it not? Well, you have to be blooded some time.
It will be a great start for you. As to the pistol, you’ll find it waitingfor you, or I’m mistaken. If you report yourselves on Monday, it willbe time enough. You’ll get a great welcome when you return.”
“Any reward this time?” asked Cormac, a thick-set, dark-faced,brutal-looking young man, whose ferocity had earned him thenickname of “Tiger.”
“Never mind the reward. You just do it for the honour of thething. Maybe when it is done there will be a few odd dollars at thebottom of the box.”
“What has the man done?” asked young Wilson.
“Sure, it’s not for the likes of you to ask what the man has done.
He has been judged over there. That’s no business of ours. All wehave to do is to carry it out for them, same as they would for us.
Speaking of that, two brothers from the Merton lodge are comingover to us next week to do some business in this quarter.”
“Who are they?” asked someone.
“Faith, it is wiser not to ask. If you know nothing, you cantestify nothing, and no trouble can come of it. But they are menwho will make a clean job when they are about it.”
“And time, too!” cried Ted Baldwin. “Folk are gettin’ out of handin these parts. It was only last week that three of our men wereturned off by Foreman Blaker. It’s been owing him a long time,and he’ll get it full and proper.”
“Get what?” McMurdo whispered to his neighbour.
“The business end of a buckshot cartridge!” cried the man witha loud laugh. “What think you of our ways, Brother?”
McMurdo’s criminal soul seemed to have already absorbed thespirit of the vile association of which he was now a member. “Ilike it well,” said he. “ ‘Tis a proper place for a lad of mettle.”
Several of those who sat around heard his words and applaudedthem.
“What’s that?” cried the black-maned Bodymaster from the endof the table.
“ ‘Tis our new brother, sir, who finds our ways to his taste.”
McMurdo rose to his feet for an instant. “I would say, EminentBodymaster, that if a man should be wanted I should take it as anhonour to be chosen to help the lodge.”
There was great applause at this. It was felt that a new sun waspushing its rim above the horizon. To some of the elders it seemedthat the progress was a little too rapid.
“I would move,” said the secretary, Harraway, a vulture-facedold graybeard who sat near the chairman, “that Brother McMurdoshould wait until it is the good pleasure of the lodge to employhim.”
“Sure, that was what I meant; I’m in your hands,” said McMurdo.
“Your time will come, Brother,” said the chairman. “We havemarked you down as a willing man, and we believe that you willdo good work in these parts. There is a small matter to-night inwhich you may take a hand if it so please you.”
“I will wait for something that is worth while.”
“You can come to-night, anyhow, and it will help you toknow what we stand for in this community. I will make theannouncement later. Meanwhile,” he glanced at his agenda paper,“I have one or two more points to bring before the meeting. Firstof all, I will ask the treasurer as to our bank balance. There is thepension to Jim Carnaway’s widow. He was struck down doing thework of the lodge, and it is for us to see that she is not the loser.”
“Jim was shot last month when they tried to kill Chester Wilcoxof Marley Creek,” McMurdo’s neighbour informed him.
“The funds are good at the moment,” said the treasurer, withthe bankbook in front of him. “The firms have been generous oflate. Max Linder & Co. paid five hundred to be left alone. WalkerBrothers sent in a hundred; but I took it on myself to return itand ask for five. If I do not hear by Wednesday, their winding gearmay get out of order. We had to burn their breaker last year beforethey became reasonable. Then the West Section Coaling Companyhas paid its annual contribution. We have enough on hand to meetany obligations.”
“What about Archie Swindon?” asked a brother.
“He has sold out and left the district. The old devil left a note forus to say that he had rather be a free crossing sweeper in New Yorkthan a large mine owner under the power of a ring of blackmailers.
By Gar! it was as well that he made a break for it before the notereached us! I guess he won’t show his face in this valley again.”
An elderly, clean-shaved man with a kindly face and a good browrose from the end of the table which faced the chairman. “Mr.
Treasurer,” he asked, “may I ask who has bought the property ofthis man that we have driven out of the district?”
“Yes, Brother Morris. It has been bought by the State & MertonCounty Railroad Company.”
“And who bought the mines of Todman and of Lee that cameinto the market in the same way last year?”
“The same company, Brother Morris.”
“And who bought the ironworks of Manson and of Shuman and ofVan Deher and of Atwood, which have all been given up of late?”
“They were all bought by the West Gilmerton General MiningCompany.”
“I don’t see, Brother Morris,” said the chairman, “that it mattersto us who buys them, since they can’t carry them out of the district.”
“With all respect to you, Eminent Bodymaster, I think it maymatter very much to us. This process has been going on now forten long years. We are gradually driving all the small men out oftrade. What is the result? We find in their places great companieslike the Railroad or the General Iron, who have their directors inNew York or Philadelphia, and care nothing for our threats. Wecan take it out of their local bosses; but it only means that otherswill be sent in their stead. And we are making it dangerous forourselves. The small men could not harm us. They had not themoney nor the power. So long as we did not squeeze them too dry,they would stay on under our power. But if these big companiesfind that we stand between them and their profits, they will spareno pains and no expense to hunt us down and bring us to court.”