The Valley of Fear Part 13 (2/2)
”You can take two men with you--Manders and Reilly They have been warned for service We'll never be right in this district until Chester Wilcox has been settled, and you'll have the thanks of every lodge in the coal fields if you can down him”
”I'll do my best, anyhow Who is he, and where shall I find him?”
McGinty took his eternal half-chewed, half-sar frorae torn from his notebook
”He's the chief foreman of the Iron Dike Coeant of the war, all scars and grizzle We've had two tries at him; but had no luck, and Jim Carnaway lost his life over it Now it's for you to take it over That's the house--all alone at the Iron Dike crossroad, same as you see here on the ood by day He's arht, with no questions asked But at night--well, there he is with his wife, three children, and a hired help You can't pick or choose It's all or none If you could get a bag of blasting powder at the front door with a slow match to it--”
”What's the man done?”
”Didn't I tell you he shot Jim Carnaway?”
”Why did he shoot him?”
”What in thunder has that to do with you? Carnaas about his house at night, and he shot hiot to settle the thing right”
”There's these too up too?”
”They have to--else how can we get hi”
”What sort of fool's talk is this? Do you back out?”
”Easy, Councillor, easy! What have I ever said or done that you should think I would be after standing back froht or if it's wrong, it's for you to decide”
”You'll do it, then?”
”Of course I will do it”
”When?”
”Well, you had best give ht or two that I ood,” said McGinty, shaking hireat day when you bring us the news It's just the last stroke that will bring the and deeply over the commission which had been so suddenly placed in his hands The isolated house in which Chester Wilcox lived was about five ht he started off all alone to prepare for the atteht before he returned from his reconnaissance Next day he interviewed his two subordinates, Manders and Reilly, reckless youngsters ere as elated as if it were a deer-hunt
Two nights later they met outside the town, all three ar a sack stuffed with the pohich was used in the quarries It o in the ht was a windy one, with broken clouds drifting swiftly across the face of a three-quarter ainst bloodhounds; so they moved forward cautiously, with their pistols cocked in their hands But there was no sound save the howling of the wind, and nobranches above them
McMurdo listened at the door of the lonely house; but all was still within Then he leaned the powder bag against it, ripped a hole in it with his knife, and attached the fuse When it ell alight he and his two companions took to their heels, and were so ditch, before the shattering roar of the explosion, with the low, deep ru, told them that their as done No cleaner job had ever been carried out in the bloodstained annals of the society
But alas that work so well organized and boldly carried out should all have gone for nothing! Warned by the fate of the various victi that he was marked down for destruction, Chester Wilcox had moved himself and his family only the day before to souard of police should watch over theunpowder, and the gri discipline to the miners of Iron Dike
”Leave hiet him sure if I have to wait a year for him”
A vote of thanks and confidence was passed in full lodge, and so for the time the matter ended When a feeeks later it was reported in the papers that Wilcox had been shot at from an ambuscade, it was an open secret that McMurdo was still at work upon his unfinished job
Such were the methods of the Society of Freemen, and such were the deeds of the Scowrers by which they spread their rule of fear over the great and rich district which was for so long a period haunted by their terrible presence Why should these pages be stained by further crih to show the men and their methods?
These deeds are written in history, and there are records wherein one may read the details of the of Policemen Hunt and Evans because they had ventured to arrest two e planned at the Vere and carried out in cold blood upon two helpless and disar of Mrs Larbey when she was nursing her husband, who had been beaten al of the elder Jenkins, shortly followed by that of his brother, theup of the Staphouse family, and the murder of the Stendals all followed hard upon one another in the same terrible winter
Darkly the shadow lay upon the Valley of Fear The spring had co trees There was hope for all Nature bound so long in an iron grip; but nowhere was there any hope for the men and women who lived under the yoke of the terror Never had the cloud above them been so dark and hopeless as in the early suer
It was the height of the reign of terror McMurdo, who had already been appointed Inner Deacon, with every prospect of so McGinty as Bodymaster, was now so necessary to the councils of his co was done without his help and advice The more popular he became, however, with the Freereeted hi the streets of Ver heart to band theainst their oppressors Rus in the Herald office and of distribution of firear people But McGinty and his men were undisturbed by such reports They were numerous, resolute, and well armed Their opponents were scattered and powerless It would all end, as it had done in the past, in aimless talk and possibly in impotent arrests So said McGinty, McMurdo, and all the bolder spirits
It was a Saturday evening in May Saturday was always the lodge night, and McMurdo was leaving his house to attend it when Morris, the weaker brother of the order, came to see him His broas creased with care, and his kindly face was drawn and haggard
”Can I speak with you freely, Mr McMurdo?”
”Sure”
”I can't forget that I spoke my heart to you once, and that you kept it to yourself, even though the Boss himself came to ask you about it”
”What else could I do if you trusted reed hat you said”
”I know that well But you are the one that I can speak to and be safe I've a secret here,” he put his hand to his breast, ”and it is just burning the life out of me I wish it had come to any one of you but me If I tell it, it willthe end of us all God help me, but I am near out of my wits over it!”
McMurdo looked at thein every lilass and handed it to him ”That's the physic for the likes of you,” said he ”Now let me hear of it”
Morris drank, and his white face took a tinge of colour ”I can tell it to you all in one sentence,” said he ”There's a detective on our trail”
McMurdo stared at him in astonishment ”Why, man, you're crazy,” he said ”Isn't the place full of police and detectives and what harm did they ever do us?”
”No, no, it's no man of the district As you say, we know them, and it is little that they can do But you've heard of Pinkerton's?”
”I've read of some folk of that name”
”Well, you can take it from me you've no shohen they are on your trail It's not a take-it-or-overnment concern It's a dead earnest business proposition that's out for results and keeps out till by hook or crook it gets them If a Pinkerton man is deep in this business, we are all destroyed”
”We ht that cae Didn't I say to you that it would end in h in these parts?”
”It is, indeed; but it's not for me to point out the ain And yet it's our own necks that may be at stake In God's naony of indecision
But his words had moved McMurdo deeply It was easy to see that he shared the other's opinion as to the danger, and the need for ripped Morris's shoulder and shook him in his earnestness