The Valley of Fear (PDF) - Arthur Conan Doyle
The Valley of Fear (PDF) - Arthur Conan Doyle
The Valley of Fear (PDF) - Arthur Conan Doyle
Language: English
Chapter 1
--The Warning
use to you.
"FRED PORLOCK."
Holmes sat for some little time twisting this letter between
his fingers, and frowning, as he stared into the fire.
"No less! When any of that party talk about 'He' you know
whom they mean. There is one predominant 'He' for all of
them."
legible."
"Why did he write at all? Why did he not simply drop it?"
"None."
"Column!" I cried.
"Good, Watson, good! But not, if I may say so, quite good
enough! Even if I accepted the compliment for myself I
could hardly name any volume which would be less likely
to lie at the elbow of one of Moriarty's associates. Besides,
the editions of Holy Writ are so numerous that he could
hardly suppose that two copies would have the same
Chapter 1 13
"Bradshaw!"
"An almanac!"
Those were the early days at the end of the '80's, when
Alec MacDonald was far from having attained the national
fame which he has now achieved. He was a young but
trusted member of the detective force, who had
distinguished himself in several cases which had been
intrusted to him. His tall, bony figure gave promise of
exceptional physical strength, while his great cranium and
deep-set, lustrous eyes spoke no less clearly of the keen
intelligence which twinkled out from behind his bushy
eyebrows. He was a silent, precise man with a dour nature
and a hard Aberdonian accent.
"You are an early bird, Mr. Mac," said he. "I wish you luck
with your worm. I fear this means that there is some
mischief afoot."
Chapter 2
"I was going down to Birlstone this morning," said he. "I
had come to ask you if you cared to come with me--you
and your friend here. But from what you say we might
perhaps be doing better work in London."
"No doubt, Mr. Mac. But how do you propose to lay your
hands on the so-called Porlock?"
"Twice."
Chapter 2 21
"And how?"
"No."
"Exactly!"
"Man, you can't but recognize it! After I heard your view I
made it my business to see him. I had a chat with him on
eclipses. How the talk got that way I canna think; but he
had out a reflector lantern and a globe, and made it all
clear in a minute. He lent me a book; but I don't mind
saying that it was a bit above my head, though I had a
good Aberdeen upbringing. He'd have made a grand
meenister with his thin face and gray hair and solemn-like
way of talking. When he put his hand on my shoulder as
we were parting, it was like a father's blessing before you
go out into the cold, cruel world."
"That's so."
"Just so."
"Well, it was evening; but I mind that the lamp was turned
on my face."
"It would be. Did you happen to observe a picture over the
professor's head?"
"I don't miss much, Mr. Holmes. Maybe I learned that from
you. Yes, I saw the picture--a young woman with her head
on her hands, peeping at you sideways."
"Well?"
"Mr. Mac, the most practical thing that you ever did in your
life would be to shut yourself up for three months and read
twelve hours a day at the annals of crime. Everything
comes in circles--even Professor Moriarty. Jonathan Wild
was the hidden force of the London criminals, to whom he
sold his brains and his organization on a fifteen per cent.
commission. The old wheel turns, and the same spoke
comes up. It's all been done before, and will be again. I'll
tell you one or two things about Moriarty which may
Chapter 2 28
interest you."
"I happen to know who is the first link in his chain--a chain
with this Napoleon-gone-wrong at one end, and a hundred
broken fighting men, pickpockets, blackmailers, and card
sharpers at the other, with every sort of crime in between.
His chief of staff is Colonel Sebastian Moran, as aloof and
guarded and inaccessible to the law as himself. What do
you think he pays him?"
"Then how did you get at Mr. Douglas and the fact that he
had been horribly murdered?"
Chapter 2 33
Chapter 3
The Manor House, with its many gables and its small
diamond-paned windows, was still much as the builder had
left it in the early seventeenth century. Of the double moats
which had guarded its more warlike predecessor, the outer
had been allowed to dry up, and served the humble
function of a kitchen garden. The inner one was still there,
and lay forty feet in breadth, though now only a few feet in
depth, round the whole house. A small stream fed it and
continued beyond it, so that the sheet of water, though
turbid, was never ditchlike or unhealthy. The ground floor
windows were within a foot of the surface of the water.
The house had been untenanted for some years and was
threatening to moulder into a picturesque decay when the
Douglases took possession of it. This family consisted of
only two individuals--John Douglas and his wife. Douglas
was a remarkable man, both in character and in person. In
age he may have been about fifty, with a strong-jawed,
rugged face, a grizzling moustache, peculiarly keen gray
eyes, and a wiry, vigorous figure which had lost nothing of
the strength and activity of youth. He was cheery and
genial to all, but somewhat offhand in his manners, giving
the impression that he had seen life in social strata on
some far lower horizon than the county society of Sussex.
His wife, too, was popular with those who had made her
acquaintance; though, after the English fashion, the callers
upon a stranger who settled in the county without
introductions were few and far between. This mattered the
less to her, as she was retiring by disposition, and very
much absorbed, to all appearance, in her husband and her
domestic duties. It was known that she was an English lady
who had met Mr. Douglas in London, he being at that time
a widower. She was a beautiful woman, tall, dark, and
slender, some twenty years younger than her husband; a
disparity which seemed in no wise to mar the contentment
Chapter 3 38
"Yes, it was open. Poor Douglas was lying as you see him.
His bedroom candle was burning on the table. It was I who
lit the lamp some minutes afterward."
"That was our first idea. But see!" Barker drew aside the
curtain, and showed that the long, diamond-paned window
was open to its full extent. "And look at this!" He held the
lamp down and illuminated a smudge of blood like the
mark of a boot-sole upon the wooden sill. "Someone has
stood there in getting out."
"Exactly!"
"I have not a doubt of it. I wish to heaven that I had rushed
to the window! But the curtain screened it, as you can see,
and so it never occurred to me. Then I heard the step of
Mrs. Douglas, and I could not let her enter the room. It
Chapter 3 44
"That is so! Mr. Douglas went round the house every night
the last thing before he turned in to see that the lights were
right. That brought him in here. The man was waiting and
shot him. Then he got away through the window and left
his gun behind him. That's how I read it; for nothing else
will fit the facts."
"We'd best put it back on the rug where we found it," said
the sergeant, scratching his puzzled head in his perplexity.
"It will want the best brains in the force to get to the bottom
of this thing. It will be a London job before it is finished." He
raised the hand lamp and walked slowly round the room.
"Hullo!" he cried, excitedly, drawing the window curtain to
one side. "What o'clock were those curtains drawn?"
"When the lamps were lit," said the butler. "It would be
shortly after four."
The dead man's right arm was thrust out from his dressing
gown, and exposed as high as the elbow. About halfway
up the forearm was a curious brown design, a triangle
inside a circle, standing out in vivid relief upon the
Chapter 3 48
lard-coloured skin.
"And so have I," said the butler. "Many a time when the
master has rolled up his sleeves I have noticed that very
mark. I've often wondered what it could be."
"What!"
Chapter 3 49
"Do you tell me," said the sergeant, "that the wedding ring
was BELOW the other?"
"Always!"
"That is so!"
Chapter 4
--Darkness
"I thought you would say so, Mr. Holmes," said White
Mason in great delight. "We're well up with the times in
Sussex. I've told you now how matters were, up to the time
when I took over from Sergeant Wilson between three and
four this morning. My word! I made the old mare go! But I
need not have been in such a hurry, as it turned out; for
there was nothing immediate that I could do. Sergeant
Wilson had all the facts. I checked them and considered
them and maybe added a few of my own."
"Exactly."
"The open window, the blood on the sill, the queer card,
the marks of boots in the corner, the gun!"
"Well, state your case, Mr. Mac," said Holmes in his most
judicial style.
"None."
"I was going to propose it, Mr. Holmes; but I thought it well
to put you in touch with all the facts before we go. I
suppose if anything should strike you--" White Mason
looked doubtfully at the amateur.
"My own idea of the game, at any rate," said Holmes, with
a smile. "I go into a case to help the ends of justice and the
Chapter 4 57
"So we can put aside all idea of the man having been
drowned in crossing."
"No, sir."
Chapter 4 60
arrived the candle was lit and the lamp was out."
"Frequently, sir."
"No, sir."
"Exactly."
"Quite so."
Chapter 4 67
"And why no arrest? It's past two now. I take it for granted
that since dawn every constable within forty miles has
been looking out for a wet stranger?"
"I don't know, Mr. Holmes. There may have been only one.
I have not noticed them for months."
"An arrest?"
"No such luck. But they've found his bicycle. The fellow left
his bicycle behind him. Come and have a look. It is within a
hundred yards of the hall door."
the fellow leave it behind? And how in the world has he got
away without it? We don't seem to get a gleam of light in
the case, Mr. Holmes."
Chapter 5
"Have you seen all you want of the study?" asked White
Mason as we reentered the house.
saw Mr. Barker, very pale and excited, come out of the
study. He intercepted Mrs. Douglas, who was coming down
the stairs. He entreated her to go back, and she answered
him, but what she said could not be heard.
"Take her up! Stay with her!" he had said to Mrs. Allen.
never told him what the society was, nor how he had come
to offend it. He could only suppose that the legend upon
the placard had some reference to this secret society.
"A widower."
"Have you ever heard where his first wife came from?"
"I have heard him talk of Chicago. He knew that city well
and had worked there. I have heard him talk of the coal
and iron districts. He had travelled a good deal in his time."
Chapter 5 76
"Nearer seven."
"That is so."
"I think it shadowed his whole life. It was never quite out of
his mind."
"That is so."
"No, I did not. I had been away from England for ten
years."
Barker stood for a moment with his face set grimly and his
strong black eyebrows drawn low in intense thought. Then
he looked up with a smile. "Well, I guess you gentlemen
are only doing your clear duty after all, and I have no right
to stand in the way of it. I'd only ask you not to worry Mrs.
Douglas over this matter; for she has enough upon her just
now. I may tell you that poor Douglas had just one fault in
the world, and that was his jealousy. He was fond of
me--no man could be fonder of a friend. And he was
devoted to his wife. He loved me to come here, and was
forever sending for me. And yet if his wife and I talked
together or there seemed any sympathy between us, a
kind of wave of jealousy would pass over him, and he
would be off the handle and saying the wildest things in a
moment. More than once I've sworn off coming for that
reason, and then he would write me such penitent,
imploring letters that I just had to. But you can take it from
me, gentlemen, if it was my last word, that no man ever
had a more loving, faithful wife--and I can say also no
friend could be more loyal than I!"
"You are aware," said he, "that the dead man's wedding
ring has been taken from his finger?"
Chapter 5 81
"I don't know that I've anything else to ask you at present,"
said MacDonald, coldly.
"By its light you saw that some terrible incident had
occurred?"
"Exactly."
"Yes."
"And yet when they arrived they found that the candle was
out and that the lamp had been lighted. That seems very
remarkable."
"Exactly."
"We have heard from Mr. Cecil Barker that you did not
actually see--that you were never in the room where the
tragedy occurred?"
"Quite so. You had heard the shot, and you had at once
come down."
"How long was it after hearing the shot that you were
stopped on the stair by Mr. Barker?"
Chapter 5 85
"Can you give us any idea how long your husband had
been downstairs before you heard the shot?"
"I did; but his face would become very grave and he would
shake his head. 'It is bad enough that one of us should
have been in its shadow,' he said. 'Please God it shall
never fall upon you!' It was some real valley in which he
had lived and in which something terrible had occurred to
him, of that I am certain; but I can tell you no more."
"You have heard, no doubt, that his wedding ring has been
taken. Does that suggest anything to you? Suppose that
some enemy of his old life had tracked him down and
committed this crime, what possible reason could he have
for taking his wedding ring?"
"Well, we will not detain you any longer, and we are sorry
to have put you to this trouble at such a time," said the
inspector. "There are some other points, no doubt; but we
can refer to you as they arise."
Chapter 5 89
My friend had sat with his head upon his hands, sunk in the
deepest thought. Now he rose and rang the bell. "Ames,"
he said, when the butler entered, "where is Mr. Cecil
Barker now?"
"Yes, sir. I may say that I noticed that the slippers were
stained with blood--so indeed were my own."
Chapter 6
An instant later I had come round the end of the hedge and
my eyes lit upon Mrs. Douglas and the man Barker before
they were aware of my presence. Her appearance gave
me a shock. In the dining-room she had been demure and
discreet. Now all pretense of grief had passed away from
her. Her eyes shone with the joy of living, and her face still
quivered with amusement at some remark of her
companion. He sat forward, his hands clasped and his
forearms on his knees, with an answering smile upon his
bold, handsome face. In an instant--but it was just one
instant too late--they resumed their solemn masks as my
figure came into view. A hurried word or two passed
between them, and then Barker rose and came towards
me.
"I beg--I implore that you will, Dr. Watson! I assure you that
you will be helping us--helping me greatly if you will guide
us on that point."
"The dumb-bell!"
He sat with his mouth full of toast and his eyes sparkling
with mischief, watching my intellectual entanglement. The
mere sight of his excellent appetite was an assurance of
success; for I had very clear recollections of days and
nights without a thought of food, when his baffled mind had
chafed before some problem while his thin, eager features
became more attenuated with the asceticism of complete
mental concentration. Finally he lit his pipe, and sitting in
the inglenook of the old village inn he talked slowly and at
random about his case, rather as one who thinks aloud
than as one who makes a considered statement.
Chapter 6 98
"We will suppose that this couple are united by the bonds
of a guilty love, and that they have determined to get rid of
the man who stands between them. It is a large
supposition; for discreet inquiry among servants and others
has failed to corroborate it in any way. On the contrary,
there is a good deal of evidence that the Douglases were
very attached to each other."
"Before this avenger got away, Barker and the wife had
reached the room. The assassin convinced them that any
attempt to arrest him would lead to the publication of some
hideous scandal. They were converted to this idea, and
preferred to let him go. For this purpose they probably
lowered the bridge, which can be done quite noiselessly,
and then raised it again. He made his escape, and for
some reason thought that he could do so more safely on
foot than on the bicycle. He therefore left his machine
Chapter 6 105
"It is here."
"Well, I started from the fact that Mr. Douglas had seemed
disturbed since the day before, when he had been at
Tunbridge Wells. It was at Tunbridge Wells then that he
had become conscious of some danger. It was clear,
therefore, that if a man had come over with a bicycle it was
from Tunbridge Wells that he might be expected to have
come. We took the bicycle over with us and showed it at
the hotels. It was identified at once by the manager of the
Eagle Commercial as belonging to a man named
Hargrave, who had taken a room there two days before.
This bicycle and a small valise were his whole belongings.
He had registered his name as coming from London, but
had given no address. The valise was London made, and
the contents were British; but the man himself was
undoubtedly an American."
"Ay, it's just that, Mr. Holmes," said the inspector with
satisfaction.
"That may or may not be. But let us hear the end, Mr. Mac.
Was there nothing to identify this man?"
"It is less than two feet long. It could very well have fitted
into his valise. He could have carried it inside his overcoat
without difficulty."
"And how do you consider that all this bears upon the
general case?"
Chapter 6 110
Chapter 7
--The Solution
"You are holding something back. It's hardly fair of you, Mr.
Holmes." The inspector was annoyed.
"Well, since you ask me, I spent, as I told you that I would,
some hours last night at the Manor House."
"Ah, I can only give you a very general answer to that for
the moment. By the way, I have been reading a short but
clear and interesting account of the old building,
purchasable at the modest sum of one penny from the
local tobacconist."
Chapter 7 117
"I'm the first to admit that," said the detective heartily. "You
get to your point, I admit; but you have such a deuced
round-the-corner way of doing it."
"Where?"
"For the simple reason, my dear Mr. Mac, that you have
not got the first idea what it is that you are investigating."
Chapter 7 120
"I will tell you exactly what to do, if you will do it."
"Well, I'm bound to say I've always found you had reason
behind all your queer ways. I'll do what you advise."
"Well?"
"Dear Sir:
"It has struck me that it is our duty to drain the moat, in the
hope that we may find some--"
"Well, go on."
"--in the hope that we may find something which may bear
upon our investigation. I have made arrangements, and the
workmen will be at work early to-morrow morning diverting
the stream--"
"Impossible!"
"What are we here for at all? I really think that you might
treat us with more frankness."
our results. The blunt accusation, the brutal tap upon the
shoulder--what can one make of such a denouement? But
the quick inference, the subtle trap, the clever forecast of
coming events, the triumphant vindication of bold
theories--are these not the pride and the justification of our
life's work? At the present moment you thrill with the
glamour of the situation and the anticipation of the hunt.
Where would be that thrill if I had been as definite as a
timetable? I only ask a little patience, Mr. Mac, and all will
be clear to you."
"Well, I hope the pride and justification and the rest of it will
come before we all get our death of cold," said the London
detective with comic resignation.
We were all upon our feet, staggering after him with our
stiffened limbs, while he ran swiftly across the bridge and
rang violently at the bell. There was the rasping of bolts
Chapter 7 126
from the other side, and the amazed Ames stood in the
entrance. Holmes brushed him aside without a word and,
followed by all of us, rushed into the room which had been
occupied by the man whom we had been watching.
"You know such a lot, Mr. Holmes, perhaps you had better
tell us some more," he sneered.
"I have no doubt that I could tell you a great deal more, Mr.
Barker; but it would come with a better grace from you."
"Oh, you think so, do you? Well, all I can say is that if
there's any secret here it is not my secret, and I am not the
man to give it away."
"Well, if you take that line, Mr. Barker," said the inspector
quietly, "we must just keep you in sight until we have the
warrant and can hold you."
"It's best this way, Jack," his wife repeated; "I am sure that
it is best."
hiding place that has once been used may be again. I had
persuaded myself that we should find Mr. Douglas under
this roof."
"And how long have you been playing this trick upon us,
Mr. Holmes?" said the inspector angrily. "How long have
you allowed us to waste ourselves upon a search that you
knew to be an absurd one?"
"Not one instant, my dear Mr. Mac. Only last night did I
form my views of the case. As they could not be put to the
proof until this evening, I invited you and your colleague to
take a holiday for the day. Pray what more could I do?
When I found the suit of clothes in the moat, it at once
became apparent to me that the body we had found could
not have been the body of Mr. John Douglas at all, but
must be that of the bicyclist from Tunbridge Wells. No other
conclusion was possible. Therefore I had to determine
where Mr. John Douglas himself could be, and the balance
of probability was that with the connivance of his wife and
his friend he was concealed in a house which had such
conveniences for a fugitive, and awaiting quieter times
when he could make his final escape."
throw these hounds once for all off my track. Mind you,
from first to last I have done nothing to be ashamed of, and
nothing that I would not do again; but you'll judge that for
yourselves when I tell you my story. Never mind warning
me, Inspector: I'm ready to stand pat upon the truth.
"I was on my guard all that next day, and never went out
into the park. It's as well, or he'd have had the drop on me
with that buckshot gun of his before ever I could draw on
him. After the bridge was up--my mind was always more
restful when that bridge was up in the evenings--I put the
thing clear out of my head. I never dreamed of his getting
into the house and waiting for me. But when I made my
round in my dressing gown, as was my habit, I had no
sooner entered the study than I scented danger. I guess
when a man has had dangers in his life--and I've had more
than most in my time--there is a kind of sixth sense that
waves the red flag. I saw the signal clear enough, and yet I
couldn't tell you why. Next instant I spotted a boot under
Chapter 7 136
"I'd just the one candle that was in my hand; but there was
a good light from the hall lamp through the open door. I put
down the candle and jumped for a hammer that I'd left on
the mantel. At the same moment he sprang at me. I saw
the glint of a knife, and I lashed at him with the hammer. I
got him somewhere; for the knife tinkled down on the floor.
He dodged round the table as quick as an eel, and a
moment later he'd got his gun from under his coat. I heard
him cock it; but I had got hold of it before he could fire. I
had it by the barrel, and we wrestled for it all ends up for a
minute or more. It was death to the man that lost his grip.
"He never lost his grip; but he got it butt downward for a
moment too long. Maybe it was I that pulled the trigger.
Maybe we just jolted it off between us. Anyhow, he got
both barrels in the face, and there I was, staring down at all
that was left of Ted Baldwin. I'd recognized him in the
township, and again when he sprang for me; but his own
mother wouldn't recognize him as I saw him then. I'm used
to rough work; but I fairly turned sick at the sight of him.
"I was hanging on the side of the table when Barker came
hurrying down. I heard my wife coming, and I ran to the
door and stopped her. It was no sight for a woman. I
promised I'd come to her soon. I said a word or two to
Chapter 7 137
"It was at that instant that the idea came to me. I was fairly
dazzled by the brilliance of it. The man's sleeve had
slipped up and there was the branded mark of the lodge
upon his forearm. See here!"
"My rings were put on his finger; but when it came to the
wedding ring," he held out his muscular hand, "you can see
Chapter 7 138
for yourselves that I had struck the limit. I have not moved
it since the day I was married, and it would have taken a
file to get it off. I don't know, anyhow, that I should have
cared to part with it; but if I had wanted to I couldn't. So we
just had to leave that detail to take care of itself. On the
other hand, I brought a bit of plaster down and put it where
I am wearing one myself at this instant. You slipped up
there, Mr. Holmes, clever as you are; for if you had
chanced to take off that plaster you would have found no
cut underneath it.
"Well, that was the situation. If I could lie low for a while
and then get away where I could be joined by my 'widow'
we should have a chance at last of living in peace for the
rest of our lives. These devils would give me no rest so
long as I was above ground; but if they saw in the papers
that Baldwin had got his man, there would be an end of all
my troubles. I hadn't much time to make it all clear to
Barker and to my wife; but they understood enough to be
able to help me. I knew all about this hiding place, so did
Ames; but it never entered his head to connect it with the
matter. I retired into it, and it was up to Barker to do the
rest.
"The English law is in the main a just law. You will get no
worse than your deserts from that, Mr. Douglas. But I
would ask you how did this man know that you lived here,
or how to get into your house, or where to hide to get you?"
Holmes's face was very white and grave. "The story is not
over yet, I fear," said he. "You may find worse dangers
than the English law, or even than your enemies from
America. I see trouble before you, Mr. Douglas. You'll take
my advice and still be on your guard."
Chapter 1
--The Man
For desolate it was! Little could the first pioneer who had
traversed it have ever imagined that the fairest prairies and
the most lush water pastures were valueless compared to
this gloomy land of black crag and tangled forest. Above
the dark and often scarcely penetrable woods upon their
flanks, the high, bare crowns of the mountains, white snow,
and jagged rock towered upon each flank, leaving a long,
Chapter 1 142
The oil lamps had just been lit in the leading passenger
car, a long, bare carriage in which some twenty or thirty
people were seated. The greater number of these were
workmen returning from their day's toil in the lower part of
the valley. At least a dozen, by their grimed faces and the
safety lanterns which they carried, proclaimed themselves
miners. These sat smoking in a group and conversed in
low voices, glancing occasionally at two men on the
opposite side of the car, whose uniforms and badges
showed them to be policemen.
were stern signs of the crudest battle of life, the rude work
to be done, and the rude, strong workers who did it.
The young traveller gazed out into this dismal country with
a face of mingled repulsion and interest, which showed that
the scene was new to him. At intervals he drew from his
pocket a bulky letter to which he referred, and on the
margins of which he scribbled some notes. Once from the
back of his waist he produced something which one would
hardly have expected to find in the possession of so
mild-mannered a man. It was a navy revolver of the largest
size. As he turned it slantwise to the light, the glint upon
the rims of the copper shells within the drum showed that it
was fully loaded. He quickly restored it to his secret pocket,
but not before it had been observed by a working man who
had seated himself upon the adjoining bench.
"Yes."
"Why, I thought the country was full of it. You'll hear quick
enough. What made you come here?"
"Sure."
"Then you'll get your job, I guess. Have you any friends?"
"I see you speak the truth," said the workman. "But it's well
to make certain." He raised his right hand to his right
eyebrow. The traveller at once raised his left hand to his
left eyebrow.
"Well, there are plenty of us about. You won't find the order
more flourishing anywhere in the States than right here in
Vermissa Valley. But we could do with some lads like you. I
can't understand a spry man of the union finding no work to
do in Chicago."
"Deep."
"Not a killing!"
Chapter 1 148
"All right, mate, no offense meant. The boys will think none
the worse of you, whatever you may have done. Where are
you bound for now?"
"Vermissa."
"That's the third halt down the line. Where are you
staying?"
"I guess hell must look something like that," said a voice.
"For that matter," said the other policeman, "I allow that hell
must BE something like that. If there are worse devils down
yonder than some we could name, it's more than I'd
expect. I guess you are new to this part, young man?"
"No offense, stranger," said one. "It was a warning for your
own good, seeing that you are, by your own showing, new
to the place."
"I'm new to the place; but I'm not new to you and your
kind!" cried McMurdo in cold fury. "I guess you're the same
in all places, shoving your advice in when nobody asks for
it."
"Maybe we'll see more of you before very long," said one of
the patrolmen with a grin. "You're a real hand-picked one, if
I am a judge."
Chapter 1 151
"I was thinking the same," remarked the other. "I guess we
may meet again."
"I'm not afraid of you, and don't you think it!" cried
McMurdo. "My name's Jack McMurdo--see? If you want
me, you'll find me at Jacob Shafter's on Sheridan Street,
Vermissa; so I'm not hiding from you, am I? Day or night I
dare to look the like of you in the face--don't make any
mistake about that!"
A few minutes later the train ran into the ill-lit station, and
there was a general clearing; for Vermissa was by far the
largest town on the line. McMurdo picked up his leather
gripsack and was about to start off into the darkness, when
one of the miners accosted him.
The country had been a place of terror; but the town was in
its way even more depressing. Down that long valley there
was at least a certain gloomy grandeur in the huge fires
and the clouds of drifting smoke, while the strength and
industry of man found fitting monuments in the hills which
he had spilled by the side of his monstrous excavations.
But the town showed a dead level of mean ugliness 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 numerous gas-lamps served only
to show more clearly a long line of wooden houses, each
with its veranda facing the street, unkempt and dirty.
"What for?"
"What affairs?"
less."
"And I'm not saying that you have not read the truth." The
man looked nervously round him as he spoke, peering into
the shadows as if he feared to see some lurking danger. "If
killing is murder, then God knows there is murder and to
spare. But don't you dare to breathe the name of Jack
McGinty in connection with it, stranger; 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 township."
"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.
"I thought it was father," said she with a pleasing little touch
of a German accent. "Did you come to see him? He is
down town. I expect him back every minute."
Chapter 2
--The Bodymaster
"You must find time for him if you have none for anything
else. Good Lord, man! you're a fool not to have been down
to the Union House and registered your name the first
morning after you came here! If you run against him--well,
you mustn't, that's all!"
Chapter 2 160
"Is it?"
"Isn't it?"
"Oh, it got about--things do get about for good and for bad
in this district."
"It seems to me, mister," said he, "that you are gettin' set
on my Ettie. Ain't that so, or am I wrong?"
"Vell, you can lay that she told you truth. But did she tell
you who it vas?"
"I dare say not, the leetle baggage! Perhaps she did not
vish to frighten you avay."
"What's wrong with the order? It's for charity and good
fellowship. The rules say so."
"What is it here?"
"Prove it! Are there not fifty murders to prove it? Vat about
Milman and Van Shorst, and the Nicholson family, and old
Mr. Hyam, and little Billy James, and the others? Prove it!
Is there a man or a voman in this valley vat does not know
it?"
"I can but tell you vat the whole vorld knows, mister. The
bosses of the one are the bosses of the other. If you offend
the one, it is the other vat vill strike you. We have proved it
too often."
"If you live here long you vill get your proof. But I forget that
you are yourself one of them. You vill soon be as bad as
the rest. But you vill find other lodgings, mister. I cannot
have you here. Is it not bad enough that one of these
people come courting my Ettie, and that I dare not turn him
down, but that I should have another for my boarder? Yes,
indeed, you shall not sleep here after to-night!"
"Oh, hush, Mr. McMurdo, don't speak so!" said the girl. "I
have told you, have I not, that you are too late? There is
another, and if I have not promised to marry him at once, at
least I can promise no one else."
The girl sank her face into her hands. "I wish to heaven
that you had been first!" she sobbed.
"Say that you will be mine, and we will face it out together!"
Chapter 2 166
"Not here?"
"Yes, here."
"No, no, Jack!" His arms were round her now. "It could not
be here. Could you take me away?"
"But why?"
"You don't know, Jack. You've been here too short a time.
You don't know this Baldwin. You don't know McGinty and
his Scowrers."
Chapter 2 167
"No, I don't know them, and I don't fear them, and I don't
believe in them!" said McMurdo. "I've lived among rough
men, my darling, and instead of fearing them it has always
ended that they have feared me--always, Ettie. It's mad on
the face of it! If these men, as your father says, have done
crime after crime in the valley, and if everyone knows them
by name, how comes it that none are brought to justice?
You answer me that, Ettie!"
"Oh, Jack, don't let me hear you speak so! That is how he
speaks--the other one!"
"And that is why I loathe him so. Oh, Jack, now I can tell
you the truth. I loathe him with all my heart; but I fear him
also. I fear him for myself; but above all I fear him for
father. I know that some great sorrow would come upon us
if I dared to say what I really felt. That is why I have put him
off with half-promises. It was in real truth our only hope.
But if you would fly with me, Jack, we could take father with
us and live forever far from the power of these wicked
men."
"Maybe Miss Ettie has told you how it is with us?" said
Baldwin.
"Didn't you? Well, you can understand it now. You can take
it from me that this young lady is mine, and you'll find it a
very fine evening for a walk."
Chapter 2 170
"For God's sake, Jack! Oh, for God's sake!" cried poor,
distracted Ettie. "Oh, Jack, Jack, he will hurt you!"
"I'll choose my own time, mister. You can leave the time to
me. See here!" He suddenly rolled up his sleeve and
showed upon his forearm a peculiar sign which appeared
to have been branded there. It was a circle with a triangle
within it. "D'you know what that means?"
"Well, you will know, I'll promise you that. You won't be
much older, either. Perhaps Miss Ettie can tell you
something about it. As to you, Ettie, you'll come back to me
on your knees--d'ye hear, girl?--on your knees--and then I'll
tell you what your punishment may be. You've sowed--and
by the Lord, I'll see that you reap!" He glanced at them
both in fury. Then he turned upon his heel, and an instant
later the outer door had banged behind him.
"Oh, Jack, how brave you were! But it is no use, you must
fly! To-night--Jack--to-night! It's your only hope. He will
have your life. I read it in his horrible eyes. What chance
have you against a dozen of them, with Boss McGinty and
all the power of the lodge behind them?"
Chapter 2 172
"Hate you, Jack? While life lasts I could never do that! I've
heard that there is no harm in being a Freeman anywhere
but here; so why should I think the worse of you for that?
But if you are a Freeman, Jack, why should you not go
down and make a friend of Boss McGinty? Oh, hurry, Jack,
hurry! Get your word in first, or the hounds will be on your
trail."
"I was thinking the same thing," said McMurdo. "I'll go right
now and fix it. You can tell your father that I'll sleep here
to-night and find some other quarters in the morning."
his bar; for none could afford to neglect his good will.
counter.
At the far end, with his body resting upon the bar and a
cigar stuck at an acute angle from the corner of his mouth,
stood a tall, strong, heavily built man who could be none
other than the famous McGinty himself. He was a
black-maned giant, bearded to the cheek-bones, and with
a shock of raven hair which fell to his collar. His
complexion was as swarthy as that of an Italian, and his
eyes were of a strange dead black, which, combined with a
slight squint, gave them a particularly sinister appearance.
"You are not so new that you can't give a gentleman his
proper title."
"Well, you see me. This is all there is. What d'you think of
me?"
"I was."
"McMurdo."
"A bit closer, Mr. McMurdo; for we don't take folk on trust in
these parts, nor believe all we're told neither. Come in here
for a moment, behind the bar."
"See here, my joker," said he, "if I thought you were playing
any game on us, it would be short work for you."
"Ay, but it's just that same that you have to prove," said
McGinty, "and God help you if you fail! Where were you
made?"
"When?"
"What Bodymaster?"
"James H. Scott."
Chapter 2 178
"Bartholomew Wilson."
"Hum! You seem glib enough in your tests. What are you
doing here?"
"I have had that name among those that knew me best."
"Well, we may try you sooner than you think. Have you
heard anything of the lodge in these parts?"
"True for you, Mr. McMurdo. Why did you leave Chicago?"
"I'll wipe my hand across your face if you say such words
to me!" cried McGinty hotly.
McMurdo nodded.
"To do what?"
"Who then?"
Chapter 2 182
"By Gar!" McGinty flushed an angry red and then burst into
a roar of laughter. "Say, we've had no such holy terror
come to hand this many a year. I reckon the lodge 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?"
"Tut! Tut!" said McGinty, getting 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 fashion. Hold out your hand,
man, and make it up!"
"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 comes to a vote--"
The men drank their glasses, and the same ceremony was
performed between Baldwin and McMurdo
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.
Chapter 3
Just at the crowded hour one night, 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, who were perfectly helpless in the
face of the organized ruffianism which terrorized the
district. There was a hush as he entered, and many a
Chapter 3 189
"A straight whisky; for the night is bitter," said the police
officer. "I don't think we have met before, Councillor?"
"Did you not? That's good impartial evidence, ain't it? Well,
his death came in uncommon handy for you, or they would
have had you for shoving the queer. Well, we can let that
be bygones; for, between you and me--and perhaps I'm
going further than my duty in saying it--they could get no
clear case against you, and Chicago's open to you
to-morrow."
"Well, I've given you the pointer, and you're a sulky dog not
to thank me for it."
They were, for the most part, men of mature age; but the
rest of the company consisted of young fellows from
eighteen to twenty-five, the ready and capable agents who
carried out the commands of their seniors. Among the
older men were many whose features showed the tigerish,
lawless souls within; but looking at the rank and file it was
difficult to believe that these eager and open-faced young
fellows were in very truth a dangerous gang of murderers,
whose minds had suffered such complete moral perversion
that they took a horrible pride in their proficiency at the
business, and looked with deepest respect at the man who
had the reputation of making what they called "a clean job."
He bowed in assent.
He bowed again.
"I am."
"I am."
"He is of stout heart," said the voice. "Can you bear pain?"
"Test him!"
"And you accept the rule of the Bodymaster for the time
being under all circumstances?"
"I do."
"We've all had it," said one; "but not all as brave as you
over it."
"Tut! It was nothing," said he; but it burned and ached all
the same.
"Dear Sir:
"Never mind the reward. You just do it for the honour of the
thing. Maybe when it is done there will be a few odd dollars
at the bottom of the box."
"Sure, it's not for the likes of you to ask what the man has
done. He has been judged over there. That's no business
of ours. All we have to do is to carry it out for them, same
as they would for us. Speaking of that, two brothers from
the Merton lodge are coming over to us next week to do
some business in this quarter."
Chapter 3 201
"And time, too!" cried Ted Baldwin. "Folk are gettin' out of
hand in these parts. It was only last week that three of our
men were turned off by Foreman Blaker. It's been owing
him a long time, and he'll get it full and proper."
"'Tis our new brother, sir, who finds our ways to his taste."
There was great applause at this. It was felt that a new sun
was pushing its rim above the horizon. To some of the
elders it seemed that the progress was a little too rapid.
"Jim was shot last month when they tried to kill Chester
Wilcox of Marley Creek," McMurdo's neighbour informed
him.
"He has sold out and left the district. The old devil left a
note for us to say that he had rather be a free crossing
sweeper in New York than a large mine owner under the
power of a ring of blackmailers. By Gar! it was as well that
he made a break for it before the note reached us! I guess
he won't show his face in this valley again."
In his very first night the new recruit had made himself one
of the most popular of the brethren, marked already for
advancement and high office. There were other qualities
needed, however, besides those of good fellowship, to
make a worthy Freeman, and of these he was given an
example before the evening was over. The whisky bottle
had passed round many times, and the men were flushed
and ripe for mischief when their Bodymaster rose once
more to address them.
"Boys," said he, "there's one man in this town that wants
trimming up, and it's for you to see that he gets it. I'm
speaking of James Stanger of the Herald. You've seen how
he's been opening his mouth against us again?"
"I protest against that," said Brother Morris, the man of the
good brow and shaved face. "I tell you, Brethren, that our
hand is too heavy in this valley, and that there will come a
point where in self-defense every man will unite to crush us
out. James Stanger is an old man. He is respected in the
township and the district. His paper stands for all that is
solid in the valley. If that man is struck down, there will be a
stir through this state that will only end with our
destruction."
the heart out of others. It will be an ill day for you, Brother
Morris, when your own name comes on our agenda paper,
and I'm thinking that it's just there that I ought to place it."
whispering across the bar to the Boss that the job had
been well carried through. Others, and among them
McMurdo, broke away into side streets, and so by devious
paths to their own homes.
Chapter 4 215
Chapter 4
McMurdo had laid down the paper, and was lighting his
pipe with a hand which was shaky from the excesses of the
previous evening, when there was a knock outside, and his
landlady brought to him a note which had just been handed
in by a lad. It was unsigned, and ran thus:
McMurdo read the note twice with the utmost surprise; for
he could not imagine what it meant or who was the author
of it. Had it been in a feminine hand, he might have
imagined that it was the beginning of one of those
adventures which had been familiar enough in his past life.
Chapter 4 217
"I wanted to have a word with you, Mr. McMurdo," said the
older man, speaking with a hesitation which showed that
he was on delicate ground. "It was kind of you to come."
"Look here!" said McMurdo sternly. "It was only last night,
as you know well, that I swore good faith to our
Bodymaster. Would you be asking me to break my oath?"
"If that is the view you take," said Morris sadly, "I can only
say that I am sorry I gave you the trouble to come and
meet me. Things have come to a bad pass when two free
citizens cannot speak their thoughts to each other."
"I have given up looking for either the one or the other,"
said Morris. "I may be putting my very life in your hands by
what I say; but, bad as you are--and it seemed to me last
night that you were shaping to be as bad as the worst--still
you are new to it, and your conscience cannot yet be as
hardened as theirs. That was why I thought to speak with
you."
"I would ask you, then, when you joined the Freeman's
society in Chicago and swore vows of charity and fidelity,
did ever it cross your mind that you might find it would lead
you to crime?"
"There are some would say it was war," said McMurdo, "a
war of two classes with all in, so that each struck as best it
could."
"Well, did you think of such a thing when you joined the
Freeman's society at Chicago?"
"It was a lonely house, twenty miles from here, over the
range yonder. I was told off for the door, same as you were
last night. They could not trust me with the job. The others
went in. When they came out their hands were crimson to
the wrists. As we turned away a child was screaming out of
the house behind us. It was a boy of five who had seen his
father murdered. I nearly fainted with the horror of it, and
yet I had to keep a bold and smiling face; for well I knew
that if I did not it would be out of my house that they would
come next with their bloody hands and it would be my little
Chapter 4 222
"Too much! Wait till you have lived here longer. Look down
the valley! See the cloud of a hundred chimneys that
overshadows it! I tell you that the cloud of murder hangs
thicker and lower than that over the heads of the people. It
is the Valley of Fear, the Valley of Death. The terror is in
the hearts of the people from the dusk to the dawn. Wait,
young man, and you will learn for yourself."
Chapter 4 223
"Well, I'll let you know what I think when I have seen more,"
said McMurdo carelessly. "What is very clear is that you
are not the man for the place, and that the sooner you sell
out--if you only get a dime a dollar for what the business is
worth--the better it will be for you. What you have said is
safe with me; but, by Gar! if I thought you were an
informer--"
"Well, let it rest at that. I'll bear what you have said in mind,
and maybe some day I'll come back to it. I expect you
meant kindly by speaking to me like this. Now I'll be getting
home."
"One word before you go," said Morris. "We may have
been seen together. They may want to know what we have
spoken about."
"Yes, it's worth it," the other answered, "to those that are
loyal and go through with it and are a help to the lodge.
What were you speaking to Brother Morris about on Miller
Hill this morning?"
Chapter 4 225
"That's so. But I wouldn't get about too much with Morris."
"Why not?"
"It may be enough for most folk; but it ain't enough for me,
Councillor," said McMurdo boldly. "If you are a judge of
men, you'll know that."
Chapter 4 226
The swarthy giant glared at him, and his hairy paw closed
for an instant round the glass as though he would hurl it at
the head of his companion. Then he laughed in his loud,
boisterous, insincere fashion.
"You're a queer card, for sure," said he. "Well, if you want
reasons, I'll give them. Did Morris say nothing to you
against the lodge?"
"No."
"No."
"I guess you'll pay for this, Captain Marvin," said McGinty.
"Who are you, I'd like to know, to break into a house in this
fashion and molest honest, law-abiding men?"
"He is a friend of mine, and I'll answer for his conduct," said
the Boss.
"By all accounts, Mr. McGinty, you may have to answer for
your own conduct some of these days," the captain
answered. "This man McMurdo was a crook before ever he
came here, and he's a crook still. Cover him, Patrolman,
while I disarm him."
"You do what you think is your duty the best way you can,
Councillor. We'll look after ours."
"Well, if that's all you have against him," cried McGinty with
a laugh, "you can save yourself a deal of trouble by
dropping it right now. This man was with me in my saloon
playing poker up to midnight, and I can bring a dozen to
prove it."
"I'll bid you good-bye," said the Boss, shaking hands. "I'll
see Reilly the lawyer and take the defense upon myself.
Take my word for it that they won't be able to hold you."
"I wouldn't bet on that. Guard the prisoner, you two, and
shoot him if he tries any games. I'll search the house
before I leave."
But even within this inner fortress of the law the long arm of
the Freemen was able to extend. Late at night there came
a jailer with a straw bundle for their bedding, out of which
he extracted two bottles of whisky, some glasses, and a
pack of cards. They spent a hilarious night, without an
anxious thought as to the ordeal of the morning.
Chapter 5
"It's you!" said he, mopping his brow. "And to think that you
should come to me, heart of my heart, and I should find
nothing better to do than to want to strangle you! Come
then, darling," and he held out his arms, "let me make it up
to you."
"What's come over you, Jack?" she cried. "Why were you
so scared of me? Oh, Jack, if your conscience was at
ease, you would not have looked at me like that!"
writing."
"I am not married, Ettie. See now, I swear it! You're the
only one woman on earth to me. By the cross of Christ I
swear it!"
"Well, then," she cried, "why will you not show me the
letter?"
"I'll tell you, acushla," said he. "I'm under oath not to show
it, and just as I wouldn't break my word to you so I would
keep it to those who hold my promise. It's the business of
the lodge, and even to you it's secret. And if I was scared
when a hand fell on me, can't you understand it when it
might have been the hand of a detective?"
Chapter 5 237
She felt that he was telling the truth. He gathered her into
his arms and kissed away her fears and doubts.
"Sit here by me, then. It's a queer throne for such a queen;
but it's the best your poor lover can find. He'll do better for
you some of these days, I'm thinking. Now your mind is
easy once again, is it not?"
"Well, dear, it's not so bad as you think. We are but poor
men that are trying in our own way to get our rights."
Ettie threw her arms round her lover's neck. "Give it up,
Jack! For my sake, for God's sake, give it up! It was to ask
you that I came here to-day. Oh, Jack, see--I beg it of you
on my bended knees! Kneeling here before you I implore
you to give it up!"
Chapter 5 238
He raised her and soothed her with her head against his
breast.
you."
"By Gar! I'd teach him better manners if I caught him at it!
But see here, little girl. I can't leave here. I can't--take that
from me once and for all. But if you will leave me to find my
own way, I will try to prepare a way of getting honourably
out of it."
"Well, well, it's just how you look at it. But if you'll give me
six months, I'll work it so that I can leave without being
ashamed to look others in the face."
The girl laughed with joy. "Six months!" she cried. "Is it a
promise?"
It was the most that Ettie could obtain, and yet it was
something. There was this distant light to illuminate the
gloom of the immediate future. She returned to her father's
house more light-hearted than she had ever been since
Jack McMurdo had come into her life.
The same evening the two men arrived, each carrying his
gripsack. Lawler was an elderly man, shrewd, silent, and
self-contained, clad in an old black frock coat, which with
his soft felt hat and ragged, grizzled beard gave him a
general resemblance to an itinerant preacher. His
companion Andrews was little more than a boy, frank-faced
and cheerful, with the breezy manner of one who is out for
a holiday and means to enjoy every minute of it. Both men
were total abstainers, and behaved in all ways as
exemplary members of the society, with the one simple
exception that they were assassins who had often proved
themselves to be most capable instruments for this
association of murder. Lawler had already carried out
fourteen commissions of the kind, and Andrews three.
"That's true enough, and we'll talk till the cows come home
of the killing of Charlie Williams or of Simon Bird, or any
other job in the past. But till the work is done we say
nothing."
"Well, if you won't tell us we can't make you; but I'd be glad
to know."
The boarding house was near the edge of the town, and
soon they were at the crossroads which is beyond its
boundary. Here three men were waiting, with whom Lawler
and Andrews held a short, eager conversation. Then they
all moved on together. It was clearly some notable job
which needed numbers. At this point there are several
trails which lead to various mines. The strangers took that
which led to the Crow Hill, a huge business which was in
strong hands which had been able, thanks to their
energetic and fearless New England manager, Josiah H.
Chapter 5 244
When they reached the open space round the mine shaft
there were a hundred miners waiting, stamping their feet
and blowing on their fingers; for it was bitterly cold. The
strangers stood in a little group under the shadow of the
engine house. Scanlan and McMurdo climbed a heap of
slag from which the whole scene lay before them. They
saw the mine engineer, a great bearded Scotchman
named Menzies, come out of the engine house and blow
his whistle for the cages to be lowered.
There was high revel in the lodge room at the Union House
that night, not only over the killing of the manager and
engineer of the Crow Hill mine, which would bring this
organization into line with the other blackmailed and
terror-stricken companies of the district, but also over a
distant triumph which had been wrought by the hands of
the lodge itself.
Chapter 5 247
The story was told and retold amid cries of delight and
shouts of laughter. They had waited for their man as he
drove home at nightfall, taking their station at the top of a
Chapter 5 248
There had been one contretemps; for a man and his wife
had driven up while they were still emptying their revolvers
into the silent body. It had been suggested that they should
shoot them both; but they were harmless folk who were not
connected with the mines, so they were sternly bidden to
drive on and keep silent, lest a worse thing befall them.
And so the blood-mottled figure had been left as a warning
to all such hard-hearted employers, and the three noble
avengers had hurried off into the mountains where
unbroken nature comes down to the very edge of the
furnaces and the slag heaps. Here they were, safe and
sound, their work well done, and the plaudits of their
companions in their ears.
Chapter 5 249
It had been a great day for the Scowrers. The shadow had
fallen even darker over the valley. But as the wise general
chooses the moment of victory in which to redouble his
efforts, so that his foes may have no time to steady
themselves after disaster, so Boss McGinty, looking out
upon the scene of his operations with his brooding and
malicious eyes, had devised a new attack upon those who
opposed him. That very night, as the half-drunken
company broke up, he touched McMurdo on the arm and
led him aside into that inner room where they had their first
interview.
"See here, my lad," said he, "I've got a job that's worthy of
you at last. You'll have the doing of it in your own hands."
"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."
"When?"
"Well, you had best give me a night or two that I may see
the house and make my plans. Then--"
Two nights later they met outside the town, all three armed,
and one of them carrying a sack stuffed with the powder
which was used in the quarries. It was two in the morning
before they came to the lonely house. The night was a
windy one, with broken clouds drifting swiftly across the
face of a three-quarter moon. They had been warned to be
on their guard against 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
no movement but the swaying branches above them.
But alas that work so well organized and boldly carried out
should all have gone for nothing! Warned by the fate of the
various victims, and knowing that he was marked down for
destruction, Chester Wilcox had moved himself and his
family only the day before to some safer and less known
quarters, where a guard of police should watch over them.
It was an empty house which had been torn down by the
gunpowder, and the grim old colour sergeant of the war
was still teaching discipline to the miners of Iron Dike.
Darkly the shadow lay upon the Valley of Fear. The spring
had come with running brooks and blossoming 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 summer of the year 1875.
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Chapter 6
--Danger
"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."
"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 will mean
murder, for sure. If I don't, it may bring the end of us all.
God help me, but I am near out of my wits over 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."
Chapter 6 257
"It is, indeed; but it's not for me to point out the man that is
to be murdered. I'd never rest easy again. And yet it's our
own necks that may be at stake. In God's name what shall
I do?" He rocked to and fro in his agony of indecision.
"I came to you; for you are the one man that would advise
me. I told you that I had a store in the East before I came
here. I left good friends behind me, and one of them is in
the telegraph service. Here's a letter that I had from him
yesterday. It's this part from the top of the page. You can
read it yourself."
McMurdo sat in silence for some time, with the letter in his
listless hands. The mist had lifted for a moment, and there
was the abyss before him.
"By Gar!" he cried, "I've got him. What a fool I was not to
know it. Lord! but we're in luck! We will fix him before he
can do any harm. See here, Morris, will you leave this thing
in my hands?"
"I'll do that. You can stand right back and let me run it.
Even your name need not be mentioned. I'll take it all on
myself, as if it were to me that this letter has come. Will
that content you?"
"Then leave it at that and keep your head shut. Now I'll get
down to the lodge, and we'll soon make old man Pinkerton
sorry for himself."
Morris shook his head sadly as he left. "I feel that his blood
is on my hands," he groaned.
And yet it was clear from his actions that he thought more
seriously of this new intrusion than his words would show.
It may have been his guilty conscience, it may have been
the reputation of the Pinkerton organization, it may have
been the knowledge that great, rich corporations had set
themselves the task of clearing out the Scowrers; but,
whatever his reason, his actions were those of a man who
Chapter 6 262
"Make a move?"
"I promised you once that I would go some day. I think the
time is coming. I had news to-night, bad news, and I see
trouble coming."
"The police?"
She put her hand in his without a word. "Well, then, listen
to what I say, and do as I order you, for indeed it's the only
way for us. Things are going to happen in this valley. I feel
it in my bones. There may be many of us that will have to
look out for ourselves. I'm one, anyhow. If I go, by day or
night, it's you that must come with me!"
"No, no, you shall come WITH me. If this valley is closed to
me and I can never come back, how can I leave you
behind, and me perhaps in hiding from the police with
never a chance of a message? It's with me you must come.
I know a good woman in the place I come from, and it's
there I'd leave you till we can get married. Will you come?"
"God bless you for your trust in me! It's a fiend out of hell
that I should be if I abused it. Now, mark you, Ettie, it will
be just a word to you, and when it reaches you, you will
drop everything and come right down to the waiting room
at the depot and stay there till I come for you."
The usual revelry of the lodge was short and subdued: for
there was a cloud upon the men's spirits, and many there
for the first time began 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
much a part of their settled lives that the thought of
retribution had become a remote one, and so seemed the
more startling now that it came so closely upon them. They
broke up early and left their leaders to their council.
"'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 form with stuff that might
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 was what 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?"
"Well?"
Chapter 7
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 man who had done it.
But they were hopeful that nothing of great importance had
yet come to the detective's knowledge, as otherwise, they
argued, he would not have troubled to write down and
forward such trivial information as McMurdo claimed to
have given 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 time that they had
handled an unwilling witness.
Chapter 7 273
"I'll fix the old devil!" said McGinty with an oath. "I've had
my eye on him this year past."
"True for you," said McGinty. "And we'll learn from Birdy
Edwards himself where he got his news if we have to cut
his heart out first. Did he seem to scent a trap?"
Chapter 7 275
"What papers?"
"Ay, I heard of that," said McGinty. "I guess the heavy end
of this business is coming on to you. We could put him
down an old shaft when we've done with him; but however
we work it we can't get past the man living at Hobson's
Patch and you being there to-day."
Chapter 7 276
"That's so."
"This is how I should work it. You will all be in the big
room--same as you saw when you had a chat with me. I'll
Chapter 7 277
open the door for him, show him into the parlour beside the
door, and leave him there while I get the papers. That will
give me the chance of telling you how things are shaping.
Then I will go back to him with some faked papers. As he is
reading them I will jump for him and get my grip on his
pistol arm. You'll hear me call and in you will rush. The
quicker the better; for he is as strong a man as I, and I may
have more than I can manage. But I allow that I can hold
him till you come."
"It's a good plan," said McGinty. "The lodge will owe you a
debt for this. I guess when I move out of the chair I can put
a name to the man that's coming after me."
Their host had placed whisky upon the table, and they had
hastened to prime themselves for the work before them.
Baldwin and Cormac were already half-drunk, and the
liquor had brought out all their ferocity. Cormac placed his
hands on the stove for an instant--it had been lighted, for
the nights were still cold.
"We'll have the truth out of him, never fear," said McMurdo.
He had nerves of steel, this man; for though the whole
weight of the affair was on him his manner was as cool and
unconcerned as ever. The others marked it and applauded.
McMurdo went from one to the other and drew the curtains
tighter. "Sure no one can spy upon us now. It's close upon
the hour."
They all sat like wax figures, some with their glasses
arrested halfway to their lips. Three loud knocks had
sounded at the door.
Chapter 7 281
"Maybe you think that the game is not over yet. Well, I take
my chance of that. Anyhow, some of you will take no
further hand, and there are sixty more besides yourselves
that will see a jail this night. I'll tell you this, that when I was
put upon this job I never believed there was such a society
as yours. I thought it was paper talk, and that I would prove
it so. They told me it was to do with the Freemen; so I went
to Chicago and was made one. Then I was surer than ever
that it was just paper talk; for I found no harm in the
society, but a deal of good.
quickly.
The trial of the Scowrers was held far from the place where
their adherents might have terrified the guardians of the
law. In vain they struggled. In vain the money of the
lodge--money squeezed by blackmail out of the whole
countryside--was spent like water in the attempt to save
them. That cold, clear, unimpassioned statement from one
who knew every detail of their lives, their organization, and
their crimes was unshaken by all the wiles of their
defenders. At last after so many years they were broken
Chapter 7 287
and scattered. The cloud was lifted forever from the valley.
And yet, as he had guessed, the game was not over yet.
There was another hand to be played, and yet another and
another. Ted Baldwin, for one, had escaped the scaffold;
so had the Willabys; so had several others of the fiercest
spirits of the gang. For ten years they were out of the
world, and then came a day when they were free once
more--a day which Edwards, who knew his men, was very
sure would be an end of his life of peace. They had sworn
an oath on all that they thought holy to have his blood as a
vengeance for their comrades. And well they strove to
keep their vow!
Epilogue
Two months had gone by, and the case had to some
extent passed from our minds. Then one morning there
came an enigmatic note slipped into our letter box. "Dear
me, Mr. Holmes. Dear me!" said this singular epistle. There
was neither superscription nor signature. I laughed at the
quaint message; but Holmes showed unwonted
seriousness.
Chapter 7 289
"Exactly."
"'IVY DOUGLAS.'"
"Surely!"
"I can only say that the first word that ever came to us of
the business was from one of his lieutenants. These
Americans were well advised. Having an English job to do,
they took into partnership, as any foreign criminal could do,
this great consultant in crime. From that moment their man
was doomed. At first he would content himself by using his
machinery in order to find their victim. Then he would
indicate how the matter might be treated. Finally, when he
read in the reports of the failure of this agent, he would
step in himself with a master touch. You heard me warn
this man at Birlstone Manor House that the coming danger
was greater than the past. Was I right?"
Barker beat his head with his clenched fist in his impotent
anger. "Do not tell me that we have to sit down under this?
Do you say that no one can ever get level with this king
devil?"
Chapter 7 292
"No, I don't say that," said Holmes, and his eyes seemed to
be looking far into the future. "I don't say that he can't be
beat. But you must give me time--you must give me time!"
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