“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?”
The bartender stood abashed. “I’m sorry, Councillor, but it’s Ted Baldwin. He says he must see you this very minute.”
The message was unnecessary; for the set, cruel face of the man himself was looking over the servant’s shoulder. He pushed the bartender out and closed the door on him.
“So,” said he with a furious glance 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 my own time, in my own way.”
“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!”
“Never!” cried Baldwin in a fury.
“I’ve offered to fight him if he thinks I have wronged him,” said McMurdo. “I’ll fight him with fists, or, if that won’t satisfy him, I’ll fight him any other way he chooses. Now, I’ll leave it to you, Councillor, to judge between us as a Bodymaster should.”
“What is it, then?”
“A young 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 comes to a vote—”
The Councillor sprang at him like a tiger. 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 shivering in every limb, as one who has looked over the very edge of death, sat up on the barrel over which he had been hurled.
“You’ve been asking for it this many a day, Ted Baldwin–now you’ve got it!” cried McGinty, his huge chest rising and falling. “Maybe you think if I was voted down from Bodymaster you would find yourself in my shoes. It’s for the lodge to say that. But so long as I am the chief I’ll have no man lift his voice against me or my rulings.”
“I have nothing against you,” mumbled Baldwin, feeling his throat.
“Well, then,” cried the other, relapsing in a moment into a bluff joviality, “we are all good friends again and there’s an end of the matter.”
He took a bottle of champagne 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 Baldwin, what is the offense, sir?”
“The clouds are heavy,” answered Baldwin.
“But they will forever brighten.”
“And this I swear!”
The men drank their glasses, 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 come under lodge discipline if it goes 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’m quick to quarrel and quick to forgive. It’s my hot Irish blood, they tell me. But it’s over for me, and I bear no grudge.”
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 them both on the shoulders. “Tut! These girls! These girls!” 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 Bodymaster–and the Lord be praised for that! We have enough on us, without the women as well. You’ll have to be affiliated to Lodge 341, Brother McMurdo. We have our own ways and methods, different from Chicago. Saturday night is our meeting, and if you come then, we’ll make you free forever of the Vermissa Valley.”
Chapter 3
LODGE 341, VERMISSA
ON THE DAY following the evening which had contained so many exciting events, McMurdo moved his lodgings from old Jacob Shafter’s and took up his quarters at the Widow MacNamara’s on the extreme outskirts of the town. Scanlan, his original acquaintance aboard the train, had occasion shortly afterwards to move into Vermissa, and the two lodged together. 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 common.
Shafter had relented to the extent of letting 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 moulds, and under many a pledge of secrecy a number of brothers from the lodge were allowed to come in and see them, each carrying away in his pocket some examples of the false money, so cunningly 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 mystery to his companions; though he made it clear to anyone who asked him that if he lived without any visible means it would very quickly bring the 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 more good than harm. After the first introduction there were few evenings 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 dashing 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-room scrap earned the respect of that rough community. Another incident, however, raised him even higher in their estimation.
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 curious glance was cast at him; but the relations between policemen and criminals are peculiar in some parts of the States, and McGinty himself, standing behind his counter, showed no surprise when the policeman enrolled himself among his customers.
“A straight 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 township. Captain Marvin is my name.”
“We’d do better without you, Captain Marvin,” said McGinty coldly; “for we hav
e our own police of the township, and no need for any imported goods. What are you but the paid tool of the capitalists, hired by them to club or shoot your poorer fellow citizen?”
“Well, well, we won’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 same.” He had drunk off his glass and had turned to go, when his eyes fell upon the face of Jack McMurdo, who was 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’m not denying it,” said he. “D’ye think I’m ashamed of my own name?”
“You’ve got good 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 me. I was an officer in Chicago before ever I came to this darned coal bunker, and I know a Chicago crook when I see one.”
McMurdo’s face fell. “Don’t tell me that you’re Marvin of the Chicago Central!” he cried.
“Just the same old Teddy Marvin, at your service. We haven’t forgotten the shooting of Jonas Pinto up there.”
“I never shot him.”
“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.”
“I’m very well where I am.”
“Well, I’ve given you the pointer, and you’re a sulky dog not to thank me for it.”
“Well, I suppose you mean well, and I do thank you,” said McMurdo in no very gracious manner.
“It’s mum with me so long as I see you living on the straight,” said the captain. “But, by the Lord! if you get off after this, it’s another story! So good-night to you–and good-night, Councillor.”
He left the barroom; but not before he had created a local hero. McMurdo’s deeds in far Chicago had been whispered before. He had put off all questions with a smile, as one who did not wish to have greatness thrust upon him. But now the thing was officially confirmed. The bar loafers crowded round him and shook him heartily by the hand. He was free of the community from that time on. He could drink hard and show little trace of it; but that evening, had his mate Scanlan not been at hand to lead him home, the fêted hero would surely have spent his night under the bar.
On a Saturday night McMurdo was introduced to the lodge. He had thought to pass in without ceremony as being an initiate of Chicago; but there were particular rites in Vermissa of which they were proud, and these had to be undergone by every postulant. The assembly met in a large room reserved for such purposes at the Union House. Some sixty members assembled at Vermissa; but that by no means represented the full strength of the organization, for there were several other lodges in the valley, and others across the mountains on each side, who exchanged members when any serious business was afoot, so that a crime might be done by men who were strangers to the locality. Altogether there were not less than five hundred scattered over the coal district.
In the bare assembly room the men were gathered round a long table. At the side was a second one laden with bottles and glasses, on which some members of the company were already turning their eyes. McGinty sat at the head with a flat black velvet cap upon his shock of tangled black hair, and a coloured purple stole round his neck; so that he seemed to be a priest presiding over some diabolical ritual. To right and left of him were the higher lodge officials, the cruel, handsome face of Ted Baldwin among them. Each of these wore some scarf or medallion as emblem of his office.
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.”
To their contorted natures it had become a spirited and chivalrous thing to volunteer for service against some man who had never injured them, and whom in many cases they had never seen in their lives. The crime committed, they quarrelled as to who had actually struck the fatal blow, and amused one another and the company by describing the cries and contortions of the murdered man.
At first they had shown some secrecy in their arrangements; but at the time which this narrative describes their proceedings were extraordinarily open, for the repeated failures of the law had proved to them that, on the one hand, no one would dare to witness against them, and on the other they had an unlimited number of stanch witnesses upon whom they could call, and a well filled treasure chest from which they could draw the funds to engage the best legal talent in the state. In ten long years of outrage there had been no single conviction, and the only danger that ever threatened the Scowrers lay in the victim himself–who, however outnumbered and taken by surprise, might and occasionally did leave his mark upon his assailants.
McMurdo had been warned that some ordeal lay before him; but no one would tell him in what it consisted. He was led now into an outer room by two solemn brothers. Through the plank partition he could hear the murmur of many voices from the assembly within. Once or twice he caught the sound of his own name, and he knew that they were discussing his candidacy. Then there entered an inner guard with a green and gold sash across his chest.
“The Bodymaster orders that he shall be trussed, blinded, and entered,” said he.
The three of them removed his coat, turned up the sleeve of his right arm, and finally passed a rope round above the elbows and made it fast. They next placed a thick black cap right over his head and the upper part of his face, so that he could see nothing. He was then led into the assembly hall.
It was pitch dark and very oppressive under his hood. He heard the rustle and murmur of the people round him, and then the voice of McGinty sounded dull and distant through the covering of his ears.
“John McMurdo,” said the voice, “are you already a member of the Ancient Order of Freemen?”
He bowed in assent.
“Is your lodge No. 29, Chicago?”
He bowed again.
“Dark nights are unpleasant,” said the voice.
“Yes, for strangers to travel,” he answered.
“The clouds are heavy.”
“Yes, a storm is approaching.”
“Are the brethren satisfied?” asked the Bodymaster.
There was a general murmur of assent.
“We know, Brother, by your sign and by your countersign that you are indeed one of us,” said McGinty. “We would have you know, however, that in this county and in other counties of these parts we have certain rites, and also certain duties of our own which call for good men. Are you ready to be tested?”
“I am.”
“Are you of stout heart?”
“I am.”
“Take a stride forward to prove it.”
As the words were said he felt two hard points in front of his eyes, pressing upon them so that it appeared as if he could not move forward without a danger of losing them. None the less, he nerved himself to step resolutely out, and as he did so the pressure melted away. There was a low murmur of applause.
“He is of stout heart,” said the voice. “Can you bear pain?”
“As well as another,” he answered.
“Test him!”
It was all he could do to keep himself from screaming out, for an agonizing pain shot through his forearm. He nearly fainted at the sudden shock of it; but he bit his lip and clenched his hands to hide his agony.
“I can take more than that,” said he.
This time there was loud applause. A finer first appearance had never been made in the lodge. Hands clapped him on the back, and the hood was plucked from his head. He stood blinking and smiling amid the congratulations of the brothers.
“One last word, Brother McMurdo,” said McGinty. “You have already sworn the oath of secrecy and fidelity, and you are aware that the punishment for any breach of it is instant and inevitable death?”
“I am,” said McMurdo.
“And you accept the rule of the Bodymaster for the time being under all circumstances?”
“I do.”
“Then in the name of Lodge 341, Vermissa, I welcome you to its privileges and debates. You will put the liquor on the table, Brother Scanlan, and we will drink to our worthy brother.”
McMurdo’s coat had been brought to him; but before putting it on he examined his right arm, which still smarted heavily. There on the flesh of the forearm was a circle with a triangle within it, deep and red, as the branding iron had left it. One or two of his neighbours pulled up their sleeves and showed their own lodge marks.
“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.
When the drinks which followed the ceremony of initiation had all been disposed of, the business of the lodge proceeded. McMurdo, accustomed only to the prosaic performances of Chicago, listened with open ears and more surprise than he ventured to show to what followed.
“The first business on the agenda paper,” said McGinty, “is to read the following letter from Division Master Windle of Merton County Lodge 249. He says:
The Complete Sherlock Holmes Page 144