The Valley of Fear Part 14 (2/2)
”It is in this letter which has coe aloud ”It is a ive no further particulars about the letter, nor put it into your hands; but I assure you that there is nothing else in it which can affect the interests of the lodge I put the case before you as it has reached me”
”Let me say, Mr Chairman,” said one of the older brethren, ”that I have heard of Birdy Edwards, and that he has the na the best man in the Pinkerton service”
”Does anyone know hiht?” asked McGinty
”Yes,” said McMurdo, ”I do”
There was a h the hall
”I believe we hold hi smile upon his face ”If we act quickly and wisely, we can cut this thing short If I have your confidence and your help, it is little that we have to fear”
”What have we to fear, anyhow? What can he know of our affairs?”
”You ht say so if all were as stanch as you, Councillor But this man has all the millions of the capitalists at his back Do you think there is no weaker brother aet at our secrets--ot them already 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 true word to-night”
”Where is he, then? Where shall we know him?”
”Eminent Bodymaster,” said McMurdo, earnestly, ”I would put it to 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 so ot to the ears of thishie to choose a trusty coest it, and Brother Baldwin here, and five more Then I can talk freely of what I know and of what I advise should be done”
The proposition was at once adopted, and the committee chosen Besides the chairman and Baldwin there were the vulture-faced secretary, Harraway, Tiger Cor assassin, Carter, the treasurer, and the brothers Willaby, fearless and desperate
The usual revelry of the lodge was short and subdued: for there was a cloud upon the an to see the cloud of avenging Law drifting up in that serene sky under which they had dwelt so long The horrors they had dealt out to others had been so ht of retribution had beco now that it came so closely upon them They broke up early and left their leaders to their council
”Now, McMurdo!” said McGinty when they were alone The seven men sat frozen in their seats
”I said just now that I knew Birdy Edwards,” McMurdo explained ”I need not tell you that he is not here under that name He's a brave man, but not a crazy one He passes under the na at Hobson's Patch”
”How do you know this?”
”Because I fell into talk with hiiven 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 went down the line on Wednesday--a hard case if ever there was one He said he was a reporter I believed it for the moment Wanted to know all he could about the Scowrers and what he called 'the outrages' for a New York paper AskedYou bet I was giving nothing away 'I'd pay for it and pay well,' said he, 'if I could get soht would please him best, and he handed me a twenty-dollar bill for my information 'There's ten times 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 knoasn't a newspaper ot out at Hobson's Patch, and so did I I chanced into the telegraph bureau, and he was leaving it
”'See here,' said the operator after he'd gone out, 'I guess we should charge double rates for this'--'I guess you should,' said I He had filled the forht have been Chinese, for all we could make of it 'He fires a sheet of this off every day,' said the clerk 'Yes,' said I; 'it's special news for his paper, and he's scared that the others should tap it' That hat the operator thought and what I thought at the time; but I think differently now”
”By Gar! I believe you are right,” said McGinty ”But what do you allow that we should do about it?”
”Why not go right do and fix hiested
”Ay, the sooner the better”
”I'd start this next minute if I knehere we could find him,” said McMurdo ”He's in Hobson's Patch; but I don't know the house I've got a plan, though, if you'll only take o to the Patch to-h the operator He can locate hiuess Well, then I'll tell him that I'e for a price You bet he'll tumble to it I'll tell him the papers are at my house, and that it's as much as my life would be worth to let him come while folk were about He'll see that that's horse sense Let hi That will fetch him sure”
”Well?”
”You can plan the rest for yourselves Widow MacNamara's is a lonely house She's as true as steel and as deaf as a post There's only Scanlan and et his promise--and I'll let you know if I do--I'd have the whole seven of you coets out alive--well, he can talk of Birdy Edwards's luck for the rest of his days!”
”There's going to be a vacancy at Pinkerton's or I'm mistaken Leave it at that, McMurdo At nine to-et the door shut behind him, and you can leave the rest with us”
Chapter 7
--The Trapping of Birdy Edwards
As McMurdo had said, the house in which he lived was a lonely one and very well suited for such a crie of the town and stood well back from the road In any other case the conspirators would have simply called out their man, as they had many a time before, and emptied their pistols into his body; but in this instance it was very necessary to find out how much he kne he knew it, and what had been passed on to his employers
It was possible that they were already too late and that the work had been done If that was indeed so, they could at least have their revenge upon the reat ie, as otherwise, they argued, he would not have troubled to write down and forward such trivial inforiven him However, all this they would learn from his own lips Once in their power, they would find a way to make him speak It was not the first ti witness
McMurdo went to Hobson's Patch as agreed The police see, and Captain Marvin--he who had claio--actually addressed him as he waited at the station McMurdo turned away and refused to speak with him He was back from his mission in the afternoon, and saw McGinty at the Union House
”He is coiant was in his shi+rt sleeves, with chains and seals glea through the fringe of his bristling beard Drink and politics had made the Boss a very rich as well as powerful liallohich had risen before hiht before
”Do you reckon he knows loouess he didn't come into these parts to look at the prospect If he has been working a us all that time with the railroad ot results, and that he has passed thee,” cried McGinty ”True as steel, every man of them And yet, by the Lord! there is that skunk Morris What about hiives us away, it would be he I've a ive hiet from him”
”Well, there would be no harm in that,” McMurdo answered ”I won't deny that I have a liking for Morris and would be sorry to see hie h he may not see them the same as you or I, he never seemed the sort that squeals But still it is not for me to stand between him and you”
”I'll fix the old devil!” said McGinty with an oath ”I've had my eye on him this year past”
”Well, you know best about that,” McMurdo answered ”But whatever you do must be to-morrow; for we must lie low until the Pinkerton affair is settled up We can't afford to set the police buzzing, to-day of all days”
”True for you,” said McGinty ”And we'll learn froot his news if we have to cut his heart out first Did he seeuess I took hiood trail of the Scowrers, he's ready to follow it into hell I took his rinned as he produced a wad of dollar notes, ”and as much more when he has seen all my papers”
”What papers?”