The Valley of Fear Part 10 (1/2)
”It was not er”
”Who then?”
”It was you, Councillor” McMurdo drew a cocked pistol fro you all the tiuess my shot would have been as quick as yours”
”By Gar!” McGinty flushed an angry red and then burst into a roar of laughter ”Say, we've had no such holy terror coe will learn to be proud of you Well, what the hell do you want? And can't I speak alone with a gentleman for five minutes but you must butt in on us?”
The bartender stood abashed ”I'm sorry, Councillor, but it's Ted Baldwin He says he e was unnecessary; for the set, cruel face of theover the servant's shoulder He pushed the bartender out and closed the door on hilance 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 etting off his barrel ”This will never do We have a new brother here, Baldwin, and it's not for us to greet him in such fashi+on Hold out your hand, man, and make it up!”
”Never!” cried Baldwin in a fury
”I've offered to fight hiht hiht him any other way he chooses Now, I'll leave it to you, Councillor, to judge between us as a Body 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,” said the Boss
”Oh, that's your ruling, is it?”
”Yes, it is, Ted Baldwin,” said McGinty, with a wicked stare ”Is it you that would dispute it?”
”You would throw over one that has stood by you this five years in favour of a man that you never saw before in your life? You're not Bodymaster for life, Jack McGinty, and by God! when next it coer His hand closed round the other's neck, and he hurled him back across one of the barrels In his mad fury he would have squeezed the life out of him if McMurdo had not interfered
”Easy, Councillor! For heaven's sake, go easy!” he cried, as he dragged him back
McGinty released his hold, and Baldwin, cowed and shaken gasping for breath, and shi+vering in every lie of death, sat up on the barrel over which he had been hurled
”You've been asking for it this ot it!” cried McGinty, his huge chest rising and falling ”Maybe you think if I was voted down from Bodye to say that But so long as I aainst ainst you,”his throat
”Well, then,” cried the other, relapsing in a ain and there's an end of the ne down from the shelf and twisted out the cork
”See now,” he continued, as he filled three high glasses ”Let us drink the quarrelling toast of the lodge After that, as you know, there can be no bad blood between us Now, then the left hand on the apple of my throat I say to you, Ted Baldhat is the offense, sir?”
”The clouds are heavy,” answered Baldwin ”But they will forever brighten”
”And this I swear!”
The lasses, and the same ceremony was performed between Baldwin and McMurdo ”There!” cried McGinty, rubbing his hands ”That's the end of the black blood You cooes further, and that's a heavy hand in these parts, as Brother Baldwin knows--and as you will damn 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 to Baldwin ”I'ive It's my hot Irish blood, they tell e”
Baldwin had to take the proffered hand; for the baleful eye of the terrible Boss was upon him But his sullen face showed how little the words of the other had moved him
McGinty clapped theirls!” he cried ”To think that the same petticoats should come between two of my boys! It's the devil's own luck! Well, it's the colleen inside of them that must settle the question; for it's outside the jurisdiction of a Bodyh on us, without the woe 341, Brother McMurdo We have our oays and ht is our , and if you come then, we'll make you free forever of the Vere 341, Ver which had contained so s from old Jacob Shafter's and took up his quarters at the Widow MacNainal acquaintance aboard the train, had occasion shortly afterwards to ether There was no other boarder, and the hostess was an easy-going old Irishwoman who left them to themselves; so that they had a freedom for speech and action welcome to men who had secrets in co McMurdo come to his meals there when he liked; so that his intercourse with Ettie was by no means broken On the contrary, it drew closer and more intimate as the weeks went by
In his bedroom at his new abode McMurdo felt it safe to take out the coining e of secrecy a nue were allowed to co away in his pocket soly struck that there was never the slightest difficulty or danger in passing it Why, with such a wonderful art at his command, McMurdo should condescend to work at all was a perpetual h he made it clear to anyone who asked him that if he lived without any visiblethe police upon his track
One policeman was indeed after him already; but the incident, as luck would have it, did the adventurer a great deal ood than hars when he did not find his way to McGinty's saloon, there to make closer acquaintance with ”the boys,” which was the jovial title by which the dangerous gang who infested the place were known to one another His dashi+ng manner and fearlessness of speech made him a favourite with them all; while the rapid and scientific way in which he polished off his antagonist in an ”all in” bar-rooh coher in their estiht, the door opened and a man entered with the quiet blue uniform and peaked cap of the mine police This was a special body raised by the railways and colliery owners to supplement the efforts of the ordinary civil police, ere perfectly helpless in the face of the organized ruffianism which terrorized the district There was a hush as he entered, and lance was cast at him; but the relations between policemen and criminals are peculiar in so behind his counter, showed no surprise when the policeht whisky; for the night is bitter,” said the police officer ”I don't think we have met before, Councillor?”
”You'll be the new captain?” said McGinty
”That's so We're looking to you, Councillor, and to the other leading citizens, to help us in upholding law and order in this townshi+p Captain Marvin is my name”
”We'd do better without you, Captain Marvin,” said McGinty coldly; ”for we have our own police of the townshi+p, and no need for any ioods What are you but the paid tool of the capitalists, hired by them to club or shoot your poorer fellow citizen?”
”Well, well, on't argue about that,” said the police officer good-humouredly ”I expect we all do our duty same as we see it; but we can't all see it the sao, when his eyes fell upon the face of Jack McMurdo, as scowling at his elbow ”Hullo! Hullo!” he cried, looking him up and down ”Here's an old acquaintance!”
McMurdo shrank away from him ”I was never a friend to you nor any other cursed copper in my life,” said he
”An acquaintance isn't always a friend,” said the police captain, grinning ”You're Jack McMurdo of Chicago, right enough, and don't you deny it!”
McMurdo shrugged his shoulders ”I' it,” said he ”D'ye think I'ood cause to be, anyhow”
”What the devil d'you mean by that?” he roared with his fists clenched
”No, no, Jack, bluster won't do with o before ever I cao crook when I see one”