The Valley of Fear Part 8 (1/2)
The country had been a place of terror; but the toas in its way evenvalley there was at least a certain gloo s monuments in the hills which he had spilled by the side of his monstrous excavations But the town showed a dead level of liness and squalor The broad street was churned up by the traffic into a horrible rutted paste of muddy snow The sidewalks were narrow and uneven The nu line of wooden houses, each with its veranda facing the street, unkempt and dirty
As they approached the centre of the town the scene was brightened by a roell-lit stores, and evenhouses, in which the es
”That's the Union House,” said the guide, pointing to one saloon which rose al a hotel ”Jack McGinty is the boss there”
”What sort of a man is he?” McMurdo asked
”What! have you never heard of the boss?”
”How could I have heard of hier in these parts?”
”Well, I thought his name was known clear across the country It's been in the papers often enough”
”What for?”
”Well,” the miner lowered his voice--”over the affairs”
”What affairs?”
”Good Lord, mister! you are queer, if I must say it without offense There's only one set of affairs that you'll hear of in these parts, and that's the affairs of the Scowrers”
”Why, I see of murderers, are they not?”
”Hush, on your life!” cried thein a in these parts if you speak in the open street like that Many a man has had the life beaten out of hi about the that you have not read the truth” Theinto the shadows as if he feared to see so is murder, then God knows there is murder and to spare But don't you dare to breathe the naer; for every whisper goes back to him, and he is not one that is likely to let it pass Now, that's the house you're after, that one standing back from the street You'll find old Jacob Shafter that runs it as honest a man as lives in this townshi+p”
”I thank you,” said McMurdo, and shaking hands with his new acquaintance he plodded, gripsack in hand, up the path which led to the dwelling house, at the door of which he gave a resounding knock
It was opened at once by someone very different froularly beautiful She was of the German type, blonde and fair-haired, with the piquant contrast of a pair of beautiful dark eyes hich she surveyed the stranger with surprise and a pleasing eht a wave of colour over her pale face Fraht of the open doorway, it seemed to McMurdo that he had never seen a more beautiful picture; the loo upon one of those black slag-heaps of theSo entranced was he that he stood staring without a word, and it was she who broke the silence
”I thought it was father,” said she with a pleasing little touch of a German accent ”Did you come to see him? He is don I expect hiaze at her in open admiration until her eyes dropped in confusion before this masterful visitor
”No, miss,” he said at last, ”I'm in no hurry to see hiht it ht suit me--and now I knoill”
”You are quick to make up your mind,” said she with a smile
”Anyone but a blind hed at the coht in, sir,” she said ”I'hter My mother's dead, and I run the house You can sit down by the stove in the front roo--Ah, here he is! So you can fix things with hi up the path In a feords McMurdo explained his business A o He in turn had had it froer reed at once to every condition, and was apparently fairly flush of money For seven dollars a week paid in advance he was to have board and lodging
So it was that McMurdo, the self-confessed fugitive from justice, took up his abode under the roof of the Shafters, the first step which was to lead to so long and dark a train of events, ending in a far distant land
Chapter 2
--The Bodymaster
McMurdo was a man who made his mark quickly Wherever he was the folk around soon knew it Within a week he had become infinitely the most important person at Shafter's There were ten or a dozen boarders there; but they were honest foremen or commonplace clerks fro Irishether his joke was always the readiest, his conversation the brightest, and his song the best He was a born boon coood huain, as he had shown in the railway carriage, a capacity for sudden, fierce anger, which compelled the respect and even the fear of those who met him For the law, too, and all ere connected with it, he exhibited a bitter contehted some and alarmed others of his fellow boarders
From the first he hter of the house had won his heart frorace He was no backward suitor On the second day he told her that he loved her, and from then onward he repeated the saht say 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 allno, Ettie: the day will coh to wait”
He was a dangerous suitor, with his glib Irish tongue, and his pretty, coaxing ways There was about hilamour of experience and of mystery which attracts a woman's interest, and finally her love He could talk of the sweet valleys of County Monaghan from which he careen ination viewed therime and snow
Then he was versed in the life of the cities of the North, of Detroit, and the luo, where he had worked in a planingthat strange things had happened to hiht not be spoken of He spoke wistfully of a sudden leaving, a breaking of old ties, a flight into a strange world, ending in this dreary valley, and Ettie listened, her dark eyes glea with pity and with sympathy--those two qualities which may turn so rapidly and so naturally to love
McMurdo had obtained a temporary job as bookkeeper for he was a well-educated man This kept him out most of the day, and he had not found occasion yet to report hie of the Eminent Order of Freemen He was re from Mike Scanlan, the fellow member whom he had met in the train Scanlan, the slad to see hilass or two of whisky he broached the object of his visit
”Say, McMurdo,” said he, ”I remembered your address, so I made bold to call I'm surprised that you've not reported to the Bodymaster Why haven't you seen Boss McGinty yet?”
”Well, I had to find a job I have been busy”
”Youelse Good Lord, man! you're a fool not to have been down to the Union House and registered your naainst him--well, you mustn't, that's all!”
McMurdo showed e for over two years, Scanlan, but I never heard that duties were so pressing as all that”
”Maybe not in Chicago”
”Well, it's the same society here”
”Is it?”
Scanlan looked at hi sinister in his eyes
”Isn't it?”
”You'll tell me that in a month's time I hear you had a talk with the patrolmen after I left the train”
”How did you know that?”
”Oh, it got about--things do get about for good and for bad in this district”
”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?”