If anything had been needed to give an impetus to JackMcMurdo’s popularity among his fellows it would have been hisarrest and acquittal. That a man on the very night of joining thelodge should have done something which brought him before themagistrate was a new record in the annals of the society. Alreadyhe had earned the reputation of a good boon companion, a cheeryreveller, and withal a man of high temper, who would not take aninsult even from the all-powerful Boss himself. But in additionto this he impressed his comrades with the idea that amongthem all there was not one whose brain was so ready to devisea bloodthirsty scheme, or whose hand would be more capableof carrying it out. “He’ll be the boy for the clean job,” said theoldsters to one another, and waited their time until they could sethim to his work.
McGinty had instruments enough already; but he recognizedthat this was a supremely able one. He felt like a man holdinga fierce bloodhound in leash. There were curs to do the smallerwork; but some day he would slip this creature upon its prey. Afew members of the lodge, Ted Baldwin among them, resented therapid rise of the stranger and hated him for it; but they kept clearof him, for he was as ready to fight as to laugh.
But if he gained favour with his fellows, there was anotherquarter, one which had become even more vital to him, in whichhe lost it. Ettie Shafter’s father would have nothing more to dowith him, nor would he allow him to enter the house. Ettie herselfwas too deeply in love to give him up altogether, and yet her owngood sense warned her of what would come from a marriage witha man who was regarded as a criminal.
One morning after a sleepless night she determined to see him,possibly for the last time, and make one strong endeavour to drawhim from those evil influences which were sucking him down. Shewent to his house, as he had often begged her to do, and madeher way into the room which he used as his sitting-room. He wasseated at a table, with his back turned and a letter in front of him.
A sudden spirit of girlish mischief came over her—she was stillonly nineteen. He had not heard her when she pushed open thedoor. Now she tiptoed forward and laid her hand lightly upon hisbended shoulders.
If she had expected to startle him, she certainly succeeded; but onlyin turn to be startled herself. With a tiger spring he turned on her,and his right hand was feeling for her throat. At the same instant withthe other hand he crumpled up the paper that lay before him. Foran instant he stood glaring. Then astonishment and joy took theplace of the ferocity which had convulsed his features—a ferocitywhich had sent her shrinking back in horror as from somethingwhich had never before intruded into her gentle life.
“It’s you!” said he, mopping his brow. “And to think that youshould come to me, heart of my heart, and I should find nothingbetter to do than to want to strangle you! Come then, darling,”
and he held out his arms, “let me make it up to you.”
But she had not recovered from that sudden glimpse of guiltyfear which she had read in the man’s face. All her woman’s instincttold her that it was not the mere fright of a man who is startled.
Guilt—that was it—guilt and fear!
“What’s come over you, Jack?” she cried. “Why were you soscared of me? Oh, Jack, if your conscience was at ease, you wouldnot have looked at me like that!”
“Sure, I was thinking of other things, and when you cametripping so lightly on those fairy feet of yours—”
“No, no, it was more than that, Jack.” Then a sudden suspicionseized her. “Let me see that letter you were writing.”
“Ah, Ettie, I couldn’t do that.”
Her suspicions became certainties. “It’s to another woman,” shecried. “I know it! Why else should you hold it from me? Was it toyour wife that you were writing? How am I to know that you arenot a married man—you, a stranger, that nobody knows?”
“I am not married, Ettie. See now, I swear it! You’re the only onewoman on earth to me. By the cross of Christ I swear it!”
He was so white with passionate earnestness that she could notbut believe him.
“Well, then,” she cried, “why will you not show me the letter?”
“I’ll tell you, acushla,” said he. “I’m under oath not to show it,and just as I wouldn’t break my word to you so I would keep it tothose who hold my promise. It’s the business of the lodge, andeven to you it’s secret. And if I was scared when a hand fell onme, can’t you understand it when it might have been the hand of adetective?”
She felt that he was telling the truth. He gathered her into hisarms and kissed away her fears and doubts.
“Sit here by me, then. It’s a queer throne for such a queen; butit’s the best your poor lover can find. He’ll do better for you someof these days, I’m thinking. Now your mind is easy once again, isit not?”
“How can it ever be at ease, Jack, when I know that you are acriminal among criminals, when I never know the day that I mayhear you are in court for murder? ‘McMurdo the Scowrer,’ that’swhat one of our boarders called you yesterday. It went through myheart like a knife.”
“Sure, hard words break no bones.”
“But they were true.”
“Well, dear, it’s not so bad as you think. We are but poor menthat are trying in our own way to get our rights.”
Ettie threw her arms round her lover’s neck. “Give it up, Jack!
For my sake, for God’s sake, give it up! It was to ask you that Icame here to-day. Oh, Jack, see—I beg it of you on my bendedknees! Kneeling here before you I implore you to give it up!”
He raised her and soothed her with her head against his breast.
“Sure, my darlin’, you don’t know what it is you are asking. Howcould I give it up when it would be to break my oath and to desertmy comrades? If you could see how things stand with me youcould never ask it of me. Besides, if I wanted to, how could I doit? You don’t suppose that the lodge would let a man go free withall its secrets?”