“Eminent Bodymaster and Brethren,” he said, “I am the bearerof ill news this day; but it is better that it should be known anddiscussed, than that a blow should fall upon us without warningwhich would destroy us all. I have information that the mostpowerful and richest organizations in this state have boundthemselves together for our destruction, and that at this verymoment there is a Pinkerton detective, one Birdy Edwards, atwork in the valley collecting the evidence which may put a roperound the necks of many of us, and send every man in this roominto a felon’s cell. That is the situation for the discussion of whichI have made a claim of urgency.”
There was a dead silence in the room. It was broken by thechairman.
“What is your evidence for this, Brother McMurdo?” he asked.
“It is in this letter which has come into my hands,” saidMcMurdo. Me read the passage aloud. “It is a matter of honourwith me that I can give no further particulars about the letter,nor put it into your hands; but I assure you that there is nothingelse in it which can affect the interests of the lodge. I put the casebefore you as it has reached me.”
“Let me say, Mr. Chairman,” said one of the older brethren, “thatI have heard of Birdy Edwards, and that he has the name of beingthe best man in the Pinkerton service.”
“Does anyone know him by sight?” asked McGinty.
“Yes,” said McMurdo, “I do.”
There was a murmur of astonishment through the hall.
“I believe we hold him in the hollow of our hands,” he continuedwith an exulting smile upon his face. “If we act quickly and wisely,we can cut this thing short. If I have your confidence and yourhelp, it is little that we have to fear.”
“What have we to fear, anyhow? What can he know of our affairs?”
“You might say so if all were as stanch as you, Councillor. Butthis man has all the millions of the capitalists at his back. Do youthink there is no weaker brother among all our lodges that couldnot be bought? He will get at our secrets—maybe has got themalready. There’s only one sure cure.”
“That he never leaves the valley,” said Baldwin.
McMurdo nodded. “Good for you, Brother Baldwin,” he said.
“You and I have had our differences, but you have said the trueword to-night.”
“Where is he, then? Where shall we know him?”
“Eminent Bodymaster,” said McMurdo, earnestly, “I would put itto you that this is too vital a thing for us to discuss in open lodge.
God forbid that I should throw a doubt on anyone here; but if somuch as a word of gossip got to the ears of this man, there wouldbe an end of any chance of our getting him. I would ask the lodgeto choose a trusty committee, Mr. Chairman—yourself, if I mightsuggest it, and Brother Baldwin here, and five more. Then I cantalk freely of what I know and of what I advise should be done.”
The proposition was at once adopted, and the committeechosen. Besides the chairman and Baldwin there were the vulturefacedsecretary, Harraway, Tiger Cormac, the brutal youngassassin, Carter, the treasurer, and the brothers Willaby, fearlessand desperate men who would stick at nothing.
The usual revelry of the lodge was short and subdued: for therewas a cloud upon the men’s spirits, and many there for the firsttime began to see the cloud of avenging Law drifting up in thatserene sky under which they had dwelt so long. The horrors theyhad dealt out to others had been so much a part of their settledlives that the thought of retribution had become a remote one,and so seemed the more startling now that it came so closely uponthem. They broke up early and left their leaders to their council.
“Now, McMurdo!” said McGinty when they were alone. Theseven men sat frozen in their seats.
“I said just now that I knew Birdy Edwards,” McMurdoexplained. “I need not tell you that he is not here under thatname. He’s a brave man, but not a crazy one. He passes under thename of Steve Wilson, and he is lodging at Hobson’s Patch.”
“How do you know this?”
“Because I fell into talk with him. I thought little of it at thetime, nor would have given it a second thought but for this letter;but now I’m sure it’s the man. I met him on the cars when I wentdown the line on Wednesday—a hard case if ever there was one.
He said he was a reporter. I believed it for the moment. Wantedto know all he could about the Scowrers and what he called ‘theoutrages’ for a New York paper. Asked me every kind of questionso as to get something. You bet I was giving nothing away. ‘I’d payfor it and pay well,’ said he, ‘if I could get some stuff that wouldsuit my editor.’ I said what I thought would please him best, andhe handed me a twenty-dollar bill for my information. ‘There’s tentimes that for you,’ said he, ‘if you can find me all that I want.’ ”
“What did you tell him, then?”
“Any stuff I could make up.”
“How do you know he wasn’t a newspaper man?”
“I’ll tell you. He got out at Hobson’s Patch, and so did I. I chancedinto the telegraph bureau, and he was leaving it.
“ ‘See here,’ said the operator after he’d gone out, ‘I guess weshould charge double rates for this.’—‘I guess you should,’ said I.
He had filled the form with stuff that might have been Chinese, forall we could make of it. ‘He fires a sheet of this off every day,’ saidthe clerk. ‘Yes,’ said I; ‘it’s special news for his paper, and he’s scaredthat the others should tap it.’ That was what the operator thoughtand what I thought at the time; but I think differently now.”
“By Gar! I believe you are right,” said McGinty. “But what doyou allow that we should do about it?”
“Why not go right down now and fix him?” someone suggested.
“Ay, the sooner the better.”
“I’d start this next minute if I knew where we could find him,”
said McMurdo. “He’s in Hobson’s Patch; but I don’t know thehouse. I’ve got a plan, though, if you’ll only take my advice.”
“Well, what is it?”