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He leaned upon his +hand, with his untasted breakfast before him, and he stared at the +slip of paper which he had just drawn from its envelope. Then he +took the envelope itself, held it up to the light, and very carefully +studied both the exterior and the flap. + +"It is Porlock's writing," said he thoughtfully. "I can hardly +doubt that it is Porlock's writing, though I have seen it only +twice before. The Greek e with the peculiar top flourish is +distinctive. But if it is Porlock, then it must be something of the +very first importance." + +He was speaking to himself rather than to me; but my vexation +disappeared in the interest which the words awakened. + +"Who then is Porlock?" I asked. + +"Porlock, Watson, is a nom-de-plume, a mere identification +mark; but behind it lies a shifty and evasive personality. In a +former letter he frankly informed me that the name was not his +own, and defied me ever to trace him among the teeming millions +of this great city. Porlock is important, not for himself, but +for the great man with whom he is in touch. Picture to yourself +the pilot fish with the shark, the jackal with the lion -- anything +that is insignificant in companionship with what is formidable: +not only formidable, Watson, but sinister -- in the highest degree +sinister. That is where he comes within my purview. You have +heard me speak of Professor Moriarty?" + +"The famous scientific criminal, as famous among crooks as --" + +"My blushes, Watson!" Holmes murmured in a deprecating voice. + +"I was about to say, as he is unknown to the public." + +"A touch! A distinct touch!" cried Holmes. "You are developing +a certain unexpected vein of pawky humour, Watson, against +which I must learn to guard myself. But in calling Moriarty a +criminal you are uttering libel in the eyes of the law -- and +there lie the glory and the wonder of it! The greatest schemer +of all time, the organizer of every deviltry, the controlling +brain of the underworld, a brain which might have made or +marred the destiny of nations -- that's the man! But so aloof is he +from general suspicion, so immune from criticism, so admirable +in his management and self-effacement, that for those very words +that you have uttered he could hale you to a court and emerge +with your year's pension as a solatium for his wounded character. +Is he not the celebrated author of The Dynamics of an Asteroid, +a book which ascends to such rarefied heights of pure mathematics +that it is said that there was no man in the scientific +press capable of criticizing it? Is this a man to traduce? Foul- +mouthed doctor and slandered professor -- such would be your +respective roles! That's genius, Watson. But if I am spared by +lesser men, our day will surely come." + +"May I be there to see!" I exclaimed devoutly. "But you +were speaking of this man Porlock." + +"Ah, yes -- the so-called Porlock is a link in the chain some +little way from its great attachment. Porlock is not quite a sound +link -- between ourselves. He is the only flaw in that chain so far +as I have been able to test it." + +"But no chain is stronger than its weakest link." + +"Exactly, my dear Watson! Hence the extreme importance of Porlock. +Led on by some rudimentary aspirations towards right, and encouraged +by the judicious stimulation of an occasional ten-pound note sent to +him by devious methods, he has once or twice given me advance +information which has been of value -- that highest value which +anticipates and prevents rather than avenges crime. I cannot doubt +that, if we had the cipher, we should find that this communication +is of the nature that I indicate." + +Again Holmes flattened out the paper upon his unused plate. I rose +and, leaning over him, stared down at the curious inscription, +which ran as follows: + + 534 C2 13 127 36 31 4 17 21 41 + + DOUGLAS 109 293 5 37 BIRLSTONE + + 26 BIRLSTONE 9 47 171 + +"What do you make of it, Holmes?" + +"It is obviously an attempt to convey secret information." + +"But what is the use of a cipher message without the cipher?" + +"In this instance, none at all." + +"Why do you say 'in this instance'?" + +"Because there are many ciphers which I would read as easily +as I do the apocrypha of the agony column: such crude devices +amuse the intelligence without fatiguing it. But this is different. +It is clearly a reference to the words in a page of some book. +Until I am told which page and which book I am powerless." + +"But why 'Douglas' and 'Birlstone'?" + +"Clearly because those are words which were not contained in +the page in question." + +"Then why has he not indicated the book?" + +"Your native shrewdness, my dear Watson, that innate cunning +which is the delight of your friends, would surely prevent +you from inclosing cipher and message in the same envelope. +Should it miscarry, you are undone. As it is, both have to go +wrong before any harm comes from it. Our second post is now +overdue, and I shall be surprised if it does not bring us either a +further letter of explanation, or, as is more probable, the very +volume to which these figures refer." + +Holmes's calculation was fulfilled within a very few minutes +by the appearance of Billy, the page, with the very letter which +we were expecting. + +"The same writing," remarked Holmes, as he opened the +envelope, "and actually signed," he added in an exultant voice +as he unfolded the epistle. "Come, we are getting on, Watson." +His brow clouded, however, as he glanced over the contents. + +"Dear me, this is very disappointing! I fear, Watson, that all +our expectations come to nothing. I trust that the man Porlock +will come to no harm. + + "DEAR MR. HOLMES [he says]: + + "I will go no further in this matter. It is too dangerous -- he + + suspects me. I can see that he suspects me. He came to me + + quite unexpectedly after I had actually addressed this envelope + + with the intention of sending you the key to the cipher. + + I was able to cover it up. If he had seen it, it would have + + gone hard with me. But I read suspicion in his eyes. Please + + burn the cipher message, which can now be of no 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. + +"After all," he said at last, "there may be nothing in it. It +may be only his guilty conscience. Knowing himself to be a +traitor, he may have read the accusation in the other's eyes." + +"The other being, I presume, Professor Moriarty." + +"No less! When any of that party talk about 'He' you know whom +they mean. There is one predominant 'He' for all of them." + +"But what can he do?" + +"Hum! That's a large question. When you have one of the +first brains of Europe up against you, and all the powers of +darkness at his back, there are infinite possibilities. Anyhow, +Friend Porlock is evidently scared out of his senses -- kindly +compare the writing in the note to that upon its envelope; which +was done, he tells us, before this ill-omened visit. The one is +clear and firm. The other hardly legible." + +"Why did he write at all? Why did he not simply drop it?" + +"Because he feared I would make some inquiry after him in +that case, and possibly bring trouble on him." + +"No doubt," said I. "Of course." I had picked up the original +cipher message and was bending my brows over it. "It's pretty +maddening to think that an important secret may lie here on this +slip of paper, and that it is beyond human power to penetrate it." + +Sherlock Holmes had pushed away his untasted breakfast and +lit the unsavoury pipe which was the companion of his deepest +meditations. "I wonder!" said he, leaning back and staring at +the ceiling. "Perhaps there are points which have escaped your +Machiavellian intellect. Let us consider the problem in the light +of pure reason. This man's reference is to a book. That is our +point of departure." + +"A somewhat vague one." + +"Let us see then if we can narrow it down. As I focus my +mind upon it, it seems rather less impenetrable. What indications +have we as to this book?" + +"None." + +"Well, well, it is surely not quite so bad as that. The cipher +message begins with a large 534, does it not? We may take it as +a working hypothesis that 534 is the particular page to which the +cipher refers. So our book has already become a large book +which is surely something gained. What other indications have +we as to the nature of this large book? The next sign is C2. +What do you make of that, Watson?" + +"Chapter the second, no doubt." + +"Hardly that, Watson. You will, I am sure, agree with me +that if the page be given, the number of the chapter is immaterial. +Also that if page 534 finds us only in the second chapter, +the length of the first one must have been really intolerable." + +"Column!" I cried. + +"Brilliant, Watson. You are scintillating this morning. If it is +not column, then I am very much deceived. So now, you see, we +begin to visualize a large book printed in double columns +which are each of a considerable length, since one of the words +is numbered in the document as the two hundred and ninety- +third. Have we reached the limits of what reason can supply?" + +"I fear that we have." + +"Surely you do yourself an injustice. One more coruscation, +my dear Watson -- yet another brain-wave! Had the volume been +an unusual one, he would have sent it to me. Instead of that, he +had intended, before his plans were nipped, to send me the clue +in this envelope. He says so in his note. This would seem to +indicate that the book is one which he thought I would have no +difficulty in finding for myself. He had it -- and he imagined that +I would have it, too. In short, Watson, it is a very common book." + +"What you say certainly sounds plausible." + +"So we have contracted our field of search to a large book, +printed in double columns and in common use." + +"The Bible!" I cried triumphantly. + +"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 pagination. This is clearly a book which is standardized. +He knows for certain that his page 534 will exactly agree with my +page 534." + +"But very few books would correspond with that." + +"Exactly. Therein lies our salvation. Our search is narrowed down +to standardized books which anyone may be supposed to possess." + +"Bradshaw!" + +"There are difficulties, Watson. The vocabulary of Bradshaw is +nervous and terse, but limited. The selection of words would +hardly lend itself to the sending of general messages. We will +eliminate Bradshaw. The dictionary is, I fear, inadmissible for +the same reason. What then is left?" + +"An almanac!" + +"Excellent, Watson! I am very much mistaken if you have not +touched the spot. An almanac! Let us consider the claims of +Whitaker's Almanac. It is in common use. It has the requisite +number of pages. It is in double column. Though reserved in its +earlier vocabulary, it becomes, if I remember right, quite +garrulous towards the end." He picked the volume from his desk. +"Here is page 534, column two, a substantial block of print +dealing, I perceive, with the trade and resources of British India. +Jot down the words, Watson! Number thirteen is 'Mahratta.' +Not, I fear, a very auspicious beginning. Number one hundred +and twenty-seven is 'Government'; which at least makes sense, +though somewhat irrelevant to ourselves and Professor Moriarty. +Now let us try again. What does the Mahratta government do? +Alas! the next word is 'pig's-bristles.' We are undone, my good +Watson! It is finished!" + +He had spoken in jesting vein, but the twitching of his bushy +eyebrows bespoke his disappointment and irritation. I sat helpless +and unhappy, staring into the fire. A long silence was broken by +a sudden exclamation from Holmes, who dashed at a cupboard, from +which he emerged with a second yellow-covered volume in his hand. + +"We pay the price, Watson, for being too up-to-date!" he +cried. "We are before our time, and suffer the usual penalties. +Being the seventh of January, we have very properly laid in the +new almanac. It is more than likely that Porlock took his message +from the old one. No doubt he would have told us so had his +letter of explanation been written. Now let us see what page +534 has in store for us. Number thirteen is 'There,' which is +much more promising. Number one hundred and twenty-seven is +'is' -- 'There is' " -- Holmes's eyes were gleaming with excitement, +and his thin, nervous fingers twitched as he counted the +words -- " 'danger.' Ha! Ha! Capital! Put that down, Watson. +'There is danger -- may -- come -- very -- soon -- one.' Then we have +the name 'Douglas' -- 'rich -- country -- now -- at -- Birlstone -- +House -- Birlstone -- confidence -- is -- pressing.' There, Watson! +What do you think of pure reason and its fruit? If the greengrocer +had such a thing as a laurel wreath, I should send Billy round for +it." + +I was staring at the strange message which I had scrawled, +as he deciphered it, upon a sheet of foolscap on my knee. + +"What a queer, scrambling way of expressing his meaning!" said I. + +"On the contrary, he has done quite remarkably well," said Holmes. +"When you search a single column for words with which to express +your meaning, you can hardly expect to get everything you want. +You are bound to leave something to the intelligence of your +correspondent. The purport is perfectly clear. Some deviltry is +intended against one Douglas, whoever he may be, residing as stated, +a rich country gentleman. He is sure -- 'confidence' was as near as +he could get to 'confident' -- that it is pressing. There is our +result -- and a very workmanlike little bit of analysis it was!" + +Holmes had the impersonal joy of the true artist in his better +work, even as he mourned darkly when it fell below the high +level to which he aspired. He was still chuckling over his +success when Billy swung open the door and Inspector MacDonald +of Scotland Yard was ushered into the room. + +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 entrusted 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. + +Twice already in his career had Holmes helped him to attain +success, his own sole reward being the intellectual joy of the +problem. For this reason the affection and respect of the +Scotchman for his amateur colleague were profound, and he showed +them by the frankness with which he consulted Holmes in every +difficulty. Mediocrity knows nothing higher than itself; but talent +instantly recognizes genius, and MacDonald had talent enough +for his profession to enable him to perceive that there was no +humiliation in seeking the assistance of one who already stood +alone in Europe, both in his gifts and in his experience. Holmes +was not prone to friendship, but he was tolerant of the big +Scotchman, and smiled at the sight of him. + +"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." + +"If you said 'hope' instead of 'fear,' it would be nearer the +truth, I'm thinking, Mr. Holmes," the inspector answered, with a +knowing grin. "Well, maybe a wee nip would keep out the raw +morning chill. No, I won't smoke, I thank you. I'll have to be +pushing on my way; for the early hours of a case are the precious +ones, as no man knows better than your own self. But -- but --" + +The inspector had stopped suddenly, and was staring with a +look of absolute amazement at a paper upon the table. It was the +sheet upon which I had scrawled the enigmatic message. + +"Douglas!" he stammered. "Birlstone! What's this, Mr. Holmes? +Man, it's witchcraft! Where in the name of all that is wonderful +did you get those names?" + +"It is a cipher that Dr. Watson and I have had occasion to +solve. But why -- what's amiss with the names?" + +The inspector looked from one to the other of us in dazed astonishment. +"Just this," said he, "that Mr. Douglas of Birlstone Manor House was +horribly murdered last night!" + + +Chapter 2 +Sherlock Holmes Discourses + + + +It was one of those dramatic moments for which my friend existed. +It would be an overstatement to say that he was shocked or even +excited by the amazing announcement. Without having a tinge of +cruelty in his singular composition, he was undoubtedly callous +from long over-stimulation. Yet, if his emotions were dulled, +his intellectual perceptions were exceedingly active. There was +no trace then of the horror which I had myself felt at this curt +declaration; but his face showed rather the quiet and interested +composure of the chemist who sees the crystals falling into position +from his oversaturated solution. + +"Remarkable!" said he. "Remarkable!" + +"You don't seem surprised." + +"Interested, Mr. Mac, but hardly surprised. Why should I be +surprised? I receive an anonymous communication from a quarter +which I know to be important, warning me that danger threatens +a certain person. Within an hour I learn that this danger has +actually materialized and that the person is dead. I am interested; +but, as you observe, I am not surprised." + +In a few short sentences he explained to the inspector the facts +about the letter and the cipher. MacDonald sat with his chin on +his hands and his great sandy eyebrows bunched into a yellow +tangle. + +"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." + +"I rather think not," said Holmes. + +"Hang it all, Mr. Holmes!" cried the inspector. "The papers +will be full of the Birlstone mystery in a day or two; but where's +the mystery if there is a man in London who prophesied the +crime before ever it occurred? We have only to lay our hands on +that man, and the rest will follow." + +"No doubt, Mr. Mac. But how do you propose to lay your +hands on the so-called Porlock?" + +MacDonald turned over the letter which Holmes had handed +him. "Posted in Camberwell -- that doesn't help us much. Name, +you say, is assumed. Not much to go on, certainly. Didn't you +say that you have sent him money?" + +"Twice." + +"And how?" + +"In notes to Camberwell post-office." + +"Did you ever trouble to see who called for them?" + +"No." + +The inspector looked surprised and a little shocked. "Why not?" + +"Because I always keep faith. I had promised when he first +wrote that I would not try to trace him." + +"You think there is someone behind him?" + +"I know there is." + +"This professor that I've heard you mention?" + +"Exactly!" + +Inspector MacDonald smiled, and his eyelid quivered as he +glanced towards me. "I won't conceal from you, Mr. Holmes, +that we think in the C. I. D. that you have a wee bit of a bee in +your bonnet over this professor. I made some inquiries myself +about the matter. He seems to be a very respectable, learned, and +talented sort of man." + +"I'm glad you've got so far as to recognize the talent." + +"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." + +Holmes chuckled and rubbed his hands. "Great!" he said. +"Great! Tell me, Friend MacDonald, this pleasing and touching +interview was, I suppose, in the professor's study?" + +"That's so." + +"A fine room, is it not?" + +"Very fine -- very handsome indeed, Mr. Holmes." + +"You sat in front of his writing desk?" + +"Just so." + +"Sun in your eyes and his face in the shadow?" + +"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." + +"That painting was by Jean Baptiste Greuze." + +The inspector endeavoured to look interested. + +"Jean Baptiste Greuze," Holmes continued, joining his finger +tips and leaning well back in his chair, "was a French artist who +flourished between the years 1750 and 1800. I allude, of course +to his working career. Modern criticism has more than indorsed +the high opinion formed of him by his contemporaries." + +The inspector's eyes grew abstracted. "Hadn't we better --" +he said. + +"We are doing so," Holmes interrupted. "All that I am +saying has a very direct and vital bearing upon what you have +called the Birlstone Mystery. In fact, it may in a sense be called +the very centre of it." + +MacDonald smiled feebly, and looked appealingly to me. +"Your thoughts move a bit too quick for me, Mr. Holmes. You +leave out a link or two, and I can't get over the gap. What in the +whole wide world can be the connection between this dead +painting man and the affair at Birlstone?" + +"All knowledge comes useful to the detective," remarked +Holmes. "Even the trivial fact that in the year 1865 a picture by +Greuze entitled La Jeune Fille a l'Agneau fetched one million +two hundred thousand francs -- more than forty thousand pounds -- +at the Portalis sale may start a train of reflection in your mind." + +It was clear that it did. The inspector looked honestly interested. + +"I may remind you," Holmes continued, "that the professor's +salary can be ascertained in several trustworthy books of reference. +It is seven hundred a year." + +"Then how could he buy --" + +"Quite so! How could he?" + +"Ay, that's remarkable," said the inspector thoughtfully. "Talk +away, Mr. Holmes. I'm just loving it. It's fine!" + +Holmes smiled. He was always warmed by genuine admiration -- +the characteristic of the real artist. "What about Birlstone?" he +asked. + +"We've time yet," said the inspector, glancing at his watch. +"I've a cab at the door, and it won't take us twenty minutes to +Victoria. But about this picture: I thought you told me once, Mr. +Holmes, that you had never met Professor Moriarty." + +"No, I never have." + +"Then how do you know about his rooms?" + +"Ah, that's another matter. I have been three times in his +rooms, twice waiting for him under different pretexts and leaving +before he came. Once -- well, I can hardly tell about the once to +an official detective. It was on the last occasion that I took the +liberty of running over his papers -- with the most unexpected +results." + +"You found something compromising?" + +"Absolutely nothing. That was what amazed me. However, +you have now seen the point of the picture. It shows him to be a +very wealthy man. How did he acquire wealth? He is unmarried. +His younger brother is a station master in the west of England. +His chair is worth seven hundred a year. And he owns a Greuze." + +"Well?" + +"Surely the inference is plain." + +"You mean that he has a great income and that he must earn it +in an illegal fashion?" + +"Exactly. Of course I have other reasons for thinking so -- +dozens of exiguous threads which lead vaguely up towards the +centre of the web where the poisonous, motionless creature is +lurking. I only mention the Greuze because it brings the matter +within the range of your own observation." + +"Well, Mr. Holmes, I admit that what you say is interesting: +it's more than interesting -- it's just wonderful. But let us have it +a little clearer if you can. Is it forgery, coining, burglary -- where +does the money come from?" + +"Have you ever read of Jonathan Wild?" + +"Well, the name has a familiar sound. Someone in a novel, +was he not? I don't take much stock of detectives in novels -- +chaps that do things and never let you see how they do them. +That's just inspiration: not business." + +"Jonathan Wild wasn't a detective, and he wasn't in a novel. +He was a master criminal, and he lived last century -- 1750 or +thereabouts." + +"Then he's no use to me. I'm a practical man." + +"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 interest you." + +"You'll interest me, right enough." + +"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?" + +"I'd like to hear." + +"Six thousand a year. That's paying for brains, you see -- the +American business principle. I learned that detail quite by chance. +It's more than the Prime Minister gets. That gives you an idea of +Moriarty's gains and of the scale on which he works. Another +point: I made it my business to hunt down some of Moriarty's +checks lately -- just common innocent checks that he pays his +household bills with. They were drawn on six different banks. +Does that make any impression on your mind?" + +"Queer, certainly! But what do you gather from it?" + +"That he wanted no gossip about his wealth. No single man +should know what he had. I have no doubt that he has twenty +banking accounts; the bulk of his fortune abroad in the Deutsche +Bank or the Credit Lyonnais as likely as not. Sometime when +you have a year or two to spare I commend to you the study of +Professor Moriarty." + +Inspector MacDonald had grown steadily more impressed as +the conversation proceeded. He had lost himself in his interest. +Now his practical Scotch intelligence brought him back with a +snap to the matter in hand. + +"He can keep, anyhow," said he. "You've got us side-tracked +with your interesting anecdotes, Mr. Holmes. What really counts +is your remark that there is some connection between the professor +and the crime. That you get from the warning received through the +man Porlock. Can we for our present practical needs get any further +than that?" + +"We may form some conception as to the motives of the crime. +It is, as I gather from your original remarks, an inexplicable, +or at least an unexplained, murder. Now, presuming that the +source of the crime is as we suspect it to be, there might be two +different motives. In the first place, I may tell you that Moriarty +rules with a rod of iron over his people. His discipline is +tremendous. There is only one punishment in his code. It is +death. Now we might suppose that this murdered man -- this +Douglas whose approaching fate was known by one of the +arch-criminal's subordinates -- had in some way betrayed the chief. +His punishment followed, and would be known to all -- if only to +put the fear of death into them." + +"Well, that is one suggestion, Mr. Holmes." + +"The other is that it has been engineered by Moriarty in the +ordinary course of business. Was there any robbery?" + +"I have not heard." + +"If so, it would, of course, be against the first hypothesis and +in favour of the second. Moriarty may have been engaged to +engineer it on a promise of part spoils, or he may have been paid +so much down to manage it. Either is possible. But whichever it +may be, or if it is some third combination, it is down at Birlstone +that we must seek the solution. I know our man too well to +suppose that he has left anything up here which may lead us to +him." + +"Then to Birlstone we must go!" cried MacDonald, jumping +from his chair. "My word! it's later than I thought. I can give +you, gentlemen, five minutes for preparation, and that is all." + +"And ample for us both," said Holmes, as he sprang up and +hastened to change from his dressing gown to his coat. "While +we are on our way, Mr. Mac, I will ask you to be good enough +to tell me all about it." + +"All about it" proved to be disappointingly little, and yet +there was enough to assure us that the case before us might well +be worthy of the expert's closest attention. He brightened and +rubbed his thin hands together as he listened to the meagre but +remarkable details. A long series of sterile weeks lay behind us, +and here at last there was a fitting object for those remarkable +powers which, like all special gifts, become irksome to their +owner when they are not in use. That razor brain blunted and +rusted with inaction. + +Sherlock Holmes's eyes glistened, his pale cheeks took a +warmer hue, and his whole eager face shone with an inward light +when the call for work reached him. Leaning forward in the cab, +he listened intently to MacDonald's short sketch of the problem +which awaited us in Sussex. The inspector was himself dependent, +as he explained to us, upon a scribbled account forwarded to him +by the milk train in the early hours of the morning. White +Mason, the local officer, was a personal friend, and hence +MacDonald had been notified much more promptly than is usual +at Scotland Yard when provincials need their assistance. It is a +very cold scent upon which the Metropolitan expert is generally +asked to run. + + +"DEAR INSPECTOR MACDONALD [said the letter which he read to us]: + +"Official requisition for your services is in separate + +envelope.This is for your private eye. Wire me what train in + +the morning you can get for Birlstone, and I will meet it -- + +or have it met if I am too occupied. This case is a snorter. + +Don't waste a moment in getting started. If you can bring + +Mr. Holmes, please do so; for he will find something after + +his own heart. We would think the whole thing had been + +fixed up for theatrical effect if there wasn't a dead man in + +the middle of it. My word! it is a snorter." + + +"Your friend seems to be no fool," remarked Holmes. + +"No, sir, White Mason is a very live man, if I am any +judge." + +"Well, have you anything more?" + +"Only that he will give us every detail when we meet." + +"Then how did you get at Mr. Douglas and the fact that he +had been horribly murdered?" + +"That was in the enclosed official report. It didn't say +'horrible': that's not a recognized official term. It gave the name +John Douglas. It mentioned that his injuries had been in the head, +from the discharge of a shotgun. It also mentioned the hour of +the alarm, which was close on to midnight last night. It added +that the case was undoubtedly one of murder, but that no arrest +had been made, and that the case was one which presented some +very perplexing and extraordinary features. That's absolutely all +we have at present, Mr. Holmes." + +"Then, with your permission, we will leave it at that, Mr. +Mac. The temptation to form premature theories upon insufficient +data is the bane of our profession. I can see only two things +for certain at present -- a great brain in London, and a dead man +in Sussex. It's the chain between that we are going to trace." + + +Chapter 3 +The Tragedy of Birlstone + + + +Now for a moment I will ask leave to remove my own insignificant +personality and to describe events which occurred before we +arrived upon the scene by the light of knowledge which came to +us afterwards. Only in this way can I make the reader appreciate +the people concerned and the strange setting in which their fate +was cast. + +The village of Birlstone is a small and very ancient cluster of +half-timbered cottages on the northern border of the county of +Sussex. For centuries it had remained unchanged; but within the +last few years its picturesque appearance and situation have +attracted a number of well-to-do residents, whose villas peep out +from the woods around. These woods are locally supposed to be +the extreme fringe of the great Weald forest, which thins away +until it reaches the northern chalk downs. A number of small +shops have come into being to meet the wants of the increased +population; so there seems some prospect that Birlstone may +soon grow from an ancient village into a modern town. It is the +centre for a considerable area of country, since Tunbridge Wells, +the nearest place of importance, is ten or twelve miles to the +eastward, over the borders of Kent. + +About half a mile from the town, standing in an old park +famous for its huge beech trees, is the ancient Manor House of +Birlstone. Part of this venerable building dates back to the time +of the first crusade, when Hugo de Capus built a fortalice in the +centre of the estate, which had been granted to him by the Red +King. This was destroyed by fire in 1543, and some of its +smoke-blackened corner stones were used when, in Jacobean +times, a brick country house rose upon the ruins of the feudal +castle. + +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 ditch-like or unhealthy. The ground +floor windows were within a foot of the surface of the water. + +The only approach to the house was over a drawbridge, the +chains and windlass of which had long been rusted and broken. +The latest tenants of the Manor House had, however, with +characteristic energy, set this right, and the drawbridge was not +only capable of being raised, but actually was raised every +evening and lowered every morning. By thus renewing the custom +of the old feudal days the Manor House was converted into +an island during the night -- a fact which had a very direct +bearing upon the mystery which was soon to engage the attention +of all England. + +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. + +Yet, though looked at with some curiosity and reserve by his +more cultivated neighbours, he soon acquired a great popularity +among the villagers, subscribing handsomely to all local objects, +and attending their smoking concerts and other functions, where, +having a remarkably rich tenor voice, he was always ready to +oblige with an excellent song. He appeared to have plenty of +money, which was said to have been gained in the California +gold fields, and it was clear from his own talk and that of his +wife that he had spent a part of his life in America. + +The good impression which had been produced by his generosity +and by his democratic manners was increased by a reputation +gained for utter indifference to danger. Though a wretched +rider, he turned out at every meet, and took the most amazing +falls in his determination to hold his own with the best. When +the vicarage caught fire he distinguished himself also by the +fearlessness with which he reentered the building to save property, +after the local fire brigade had given it up as impossible. +Thus it came about that John Douglas of the Manor House had +within five years won himself quite a reputation in Birlstone. + +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 of their family life. + +It was remarked sometimes, however, by those who knew +them best, that the confidence between the two did not appear to +be complete, since the wife was either very reticent about her +husband's past life, or else, as seemed more likely, was imperfectly +informed about it. It had also been noted and commented upon by a +few observant people that there were signs sometimes of some +nerve-strain upon the part of Mrs. Douglas, and that she would +display acute uneasiness if her absent husband should ever be +particularly late in his return. On a quiet countryside, where +all gossip is welcome, this weakness of the lady of the Manor +House did not pass without remark, and it bulked larger upon +people's memory when the events arose which gave it a very +special significance. + +There was yet another individual whose residence under that +roof was, it is true, only an intermittent one, but whose presence +at the time of the strange happenings which will now be narrated +brought his name prominently before the public. This was Cecil +James Barker, of Hales Lodge, Hampstead. + +Cecil Barker's tall, loose-jointed figure was a familiar one in +the main street of Birlstone village; for he was a frequent and +welcome visitor at the Manor House. He was the more noticed as +being the only friend of the past unknown life of Mr. Douglas +who was ever seen in his new English surroundings. Barker was +himself an undoubted Englishman; but by his remarks it was +clear that he had first known Douglas in America and had there +lived on intimate terms with him. He appeared to be a man of +considerable wealth, and was reputed to be a bachelor. + +In age he was rather younger than Douglas -- forty-five at the +most -- a tall, straight, broad-chested fellow with a clean-shaved, +prize-fighter face, thick, strong, black eyebrows, and a pair of +masterful black eyes which might, even without the aid of his +very capable hands, clear a way for him through a hostile crowd. +He neither rode nor shot, but spent his days in wandering round +the old village with his pipe in his mouth, or in driving with his +host, or in his absence with his hostess, over the beautiful +countryside. "An easy-going, free-handed gentleman," said Ames, +the butler. "But, my word! I had rather not be the man that +crossed him!" He was cordial and intimate with Douglas, and he +was no less friendly with his wife -- a friendship which more than +once seemed to cause some irritation to the husband, so that even +the servants were able to perceive his annoyance. Such was the +third person who was one of the family when the catastrophe +occurred. + +As to the other denizens of the old building, it will suffice out +of a large household to mention the prim, respectable, and +capable Ames, and Mrs. Allen, a buxom and cheerful person, +who relieved the lady of some of her household cares. The other +six servants in the house bear no relation to the events of the +night of January 6th. + +It was at eleven forty-five that the first alarm reached the small +local police station, in charge of Sergeant Wilson of the Sussex +Constabulary. Cecil Barker, much excited, had rushed up to the +door and pealed furiously upon the bell. A terrible tragedy had +occurred at the Manor House, and John Douglas had been murdered. +That was the breathless burden of his message. He had hurried back +to the house, followed within a few minutes by the police sergeant, +who arrived at the scene of the crime a little after twelve o'clock, +after taking prompt steps to warn the county authorities that +something serious was afoot. + +On reaching the Manor House, the sergeant had found the +drawbridge down, the windows lighted up, and the whole household +in a state of wild confusion and alarm. The white-faced servants +were huddling together in the hall, with the frightened butler +wringing his hands in the doorway. Only Cecil Barker seemed to +be master of himself and his emotions; he had opened the door +which was nearest to the entrance and he had beckoned to the +sergeant to follow him. At that moment there arrived Dr. Wood, +a brisk and capable general practitioner from the village. The +three men entered the fatal room together, while the horror- +stricken butler followed at their heels, closing the door behind +him to shut out the terrible scene from the maid servants. + +The dead man lay on his back, sprawling with outstretched +limbs in the centre of the room. He was clad only in a pink +dressing gown, which covered his night clothes. There were +carpet slippers on his bare feet. The doctor knelt beside him and +held down the hand lamp which had stood on the table. One +glance at the victim was enough to show the healer that his +presence could be dispensed with. The man had been horribly +injured. Lying across his chest was a curious weapon, a shotgun +with the barrel sawed off a foot in front of the triggers. It was +clear that this had been fired at close range and that he had +received the whole charge in the face, blowing his head almost +to pieces. The triggers had been wired together, so as to make +the simultaneous discharge more destructive. + +The country policeman was unnerved and troubled by the +tremendous responsibility which had come so suddenly upon +him. "We will touch nothing until my superiors arrive," he said +in a hushed voice, staring in horror at the dreadful head. + +"Nothing has been touched up to now," said Cecil Barker. +"I'll answer for that. You see it all exactly as I found it." + +"When was that?" The sergeant had drawn out his notebook. + +"It was just half-past eleven. I had not begun to undress, and I +was sitting by the fire in my bedroom when I heard the report. It +was not very loud -- it seemed to be muffled. I rushed down -- I +don't suppose it was thirty seconds before I was in the room." + +"Was the door open?" + +"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." + +"Did you see no one?" + +"No. I heard Mrs. Douglas coming down the stair behind me, +and I rushed out to prevent her from seeing this dreadful sight. +Mrs. Allen, the housekeeper, came and took her away. Ames +had arrived, and we ran back into the room once more." + +"But surely I have heard that the drawbridge is kept up all +night.~ + +"Yes, it was up until I lowered it." + +"Then how could any murderer have got away? It is out of the +question! Mr. Douglas must have shot himself." + +"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." + +"You mean that someone waded across the moat?" + +"Exactly!" + +"Then if you were in the room within half a minute of the +crime, he must have been in the water at that very moment." + +"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 would have been too +horrible." + +"Horrible enough!" said the doctor, looking at the shattered +head and the terrible marks which surrounded it. "I've never +seen such injuries since the Birlstone railway smash." + +"But, I say," remarked the police sergeant, whose slow, +bucolic common sense was still pondering the open window. +"It's all very well your saying that a man escaped by wading this +moat, but what I ask you is, how did he ever get into the house +at all if the bridge was up?" + +"Ah, that's the question," said Barker. + +"At what o'clock was it raised?" + +"It was nearly six o'clock," said Ames, the butler. + +"I've heard," said the sergeant, "that it was usually raised at +sunset. That would be nearer half-past four than six at this time +of year." + +"Mrs. Douglas had visitors to tea," said Ames. "I couldn't +raise it until they went. Then I wound it up myself." + +"Then it comes to this," said the sergeant: "If anyone came +from outside -- if they did -- they must have got in across the +bridge before six and been in hiding ever since, until Mr. +Douglas came into the room after eleven." + +"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." + +The sergeant picked up a card which lay beside the dead man +on the floor. The initials V. V. and under them the number 341 +were rudely scrawled in ink upon it. + +"What's this?" he asked, holding it up. + +Barker looked at it with curiosity. "I never noticed it before," +he said. "The murderer must have left it behind him." + +"V. V. -- 341. I can make no sense of that." + +The sergeant kept turning it over in his big fingers. "What's +V. V.? Somebody's initials, maybe. What have you got there, +Dr. Wood?" + +It was a good-sized hammer which had been lying on the rug +in front of the fireplace -- a substantial, workmanlike hammer. +Cecil Barker pointed to a box of brass-headed nails upon the +mantelpiece. + +"Mr. Douglas was altering the pictures yesterday," he said. +"I saw him myself, standing upon that chair and fixing the big +picture above it. That accounts for the hammer." + +"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." + +"Someone had been hiding here, sure enough." He held down +the light, and the marks of muddy boots were very visible in the +corner. "I'm bound to say this bears out your theory, Mr. +Barker. It looks as if the man got into the house after four when +the curtains were drawn and before six when the bridge was +raised. He slipped into this room, because it was the first that he +saw. There was no other place where he could hide, so he +popped in behind this curtain. That all seems clear enough. It is +likely that his main idea was to burgle the house; but Mr. +Douglas chanced to come upon him, so he murdered him and +escaped." + +"That's how I read it," said Barker. "But, I say, aren't we +wasting precious time? Couldn't we start out and scour the +country before the fellow gets away?" + +The sergeant considered for a moment. + +"There are no trains before six in the morning; so he can't get +away by rail. If he goes by road with his legs all dripping, it's +odds that someone will notice him. Anyhow, I can't leave here +myself until I am relieved. But I think none of you should go +until we see more clearly how we all stand." + +The doctor had taken the lamp and was narrowly scrutinizing +the body. "What's this mark?" he asked. "Could this have any +connection with the crime?" + +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 lard-coloured skin. + +"It's not tattooed," said the doctor, peering through his glasses. +"I never saw anything like it. The man has been branded at +some time as they brand cattle. What is the meaning of this?" + +"I don't profess to know the meaning of it," said Cecil +Barker; "but I have seen the mark on Douglas many times this +last ten years." + +"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." + +"Then it has nothing to do with the crime, anyhow," said the +sergeant. "But it's a rum thing all the same. Everything about +this case is rum. Well, what is it now?" + +The butler had given an exclamation of astonishment and was +pointing at the dead man's outstretched hand. + +"They've taken his wedding ring!" he gasped. + +"What!" + +"Yes, indeed. Master always wore his plain gold wedding ring +on the little finger of his left hand. That ring with the rough +nugget on it was above it, and the twisted snake ring on the third +finger. There's the nugget and there's the snake, but the wedding +ring is gone." + +"He's right," said Barker. + +"Do you tell me," said the sergeant, "that the wedding ring +was below the other?" + +"Always!" + +"Then the murderer, or whoever it was, first took off this ring +you call the nugget ring, then the wedding ring, and afterwards +put the nugget ring back again." + +"That is so!" + +The worthy country policeman shook his head. "Seems to me +the sooner we get London on to this case the better," said he. +"White Mason is a smart man. No local job has ever been too +much for White Mason. It won't be long now before he is here +to help us. But I expect we'll have to look to London before we +are through. Anyhow, I'm not ashamed to say that it is a deal too +thick for the likes of me." + + +Chapter 4 +Darkness + + + +At three in the morning the chief Sussex detective, obeying +the urgent call from Sergeant Wilson of Birlstone, arrived from +headquarters in a light dog-cart behind a breathless trotter. By +the five-forty train in the morning he had sent his message to +Scotland Yard, and he was at the Birlstone station at twelve +o'clock to welcome us. White Mason was a quiet, comfortable- +looking person in a loose tweed suit, with a clean-shaved, ruddy +face, a stoutish body, and powerful bandy legs adorned with +gaiters, looking like a small farmer, a retired gamekeeper, or +anything upon earth except a very favourable specimen of the +provincial criminal officer. + +"A real downright snorter, Mr. MacDonald!" he kept repeating. +"We'll have the pressmen down like flies when they understand it. +I'm hoping we will get our work done before they get poking their +noses into it and messing up all the trails. There has been +nothing like this that I can remember. There are some bits +that will come home to you, Mr. Holmes, or I am mistaken. And +you also, Dr. Watson; for the medicos will have a word to say +before we finish. Your room is at the Westville Arms. There's +no other place; but I hear that it is clean and good. The man will +carry your bags. This way, gentlemen, if you please." + +He was a very bustling and genial person, this Sussex detective. +In ten minutes we had all found our quarters. In ten more we were +seated in the parlour of the inn and being treated to a rapid +sketch of those events which have been outlined in the previous +chapter. MacDonald made an occasional note, while Holmes sat +absorbed, with the expression of surprised and reverent admiration +with which the botanist surveys the rare and precious bloom. + +"Remarkable!" he said, when the story was unfolded, "most +remarkable! I can hardly recall any case where the features have +been more peculiar." + +"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." + +"What were they?" asked Holmes eagerly. + +"Well, I first had the hammer examined. There was Dr. +Wood there to help me. We found no signs of violence upon it. I +was hoping that if Mr. Douglas defended himself with the hammer, +he might have left his mark upon the murderer before he dropped +it on the mat. But there was no stain." + +"That, of course, proves nothing at all," remarked Inspector +MacDonald. "There has been many a hammer murder and no +trace on the hammer." + +"Quite so. It doesn't prove it wasn't used. But there might +have been stains, and that would have helped us. As a matter of +fact there were none. Then I examined the gun. They were +buckshot cartridges, and, as Sergeant Wilson pointed out, the +triggers were wired together so that, if you pulled on the hinder +one, both barrels were discharged. Whoever fixed that up had +made up his mind that he was going to take no chances of +missing his man. The sawed gun was not more than two foot +long -- one could carry it easily under one's coat. There was no +complete maker's name; but the printed letters P-E-N were on the +fluting between the barrels, and the rest of the name had been cut +off by the saw." + +"A big P with a flourish above it, E and N smaller?" asked +Holmes. + +"Exactly." + +"Pennsylvania Small Arms Company -- well-known American +firm," said Holmes. + +White Mason gazed at my friend as the little village +practitioner looks at the Harley Street specialist who by +a word can solve the difficulties that perplex him. + +"That is very helpful, Mr. Holmes. No doubt you are right. +Wonderful! Wonderful! Do you carry the names of all the gun +makers in the world in your memory?" + +Holmes dismissed the subject with a wave. + +"No doubt it is an American shotgun," White Mason continued. +"I seem to have read that a sawed-off shotgun is a weapon +used in some parts of America. Apart from the name upon the +barrel, the idea had occurred to me. There is some evidence +then, that this man who entered the house and killed its master +was an American." + +MacDonald shook his head. "Man, you are surely travelling +overfast," said he. "I have heard no evidence yet that any +stranger was ever in the house at all." + +"The open window, the blood on the sill, the queer card, the +marks of boots in the corner, the gun!" + +"Nothing there that could not have been arranged. Mr. Douglas +was an American, or had lived long in America. So had Mr. +Barker. You don't need to import an American from outside in +order to account for American doings." + +"Ames, the butler --" + +"What about him? Is he reliable?" + +"Ten years with Sir Charles Chandos -- as solid as a rock. He +has been with Douglas ever since he took the Manor House five +years ago. He has never seen a gun of this sort in the house." + +"The gun was made to conceal. That's why the barrels were +sawed. It would fit into any box. How could he swear there was +no such gun in the house?" + +"Well, anyhow, he had never seen one." + +MacDonald shook his obstinate Scotch head. "I'm not +convinced yet that there was ever anyone in the house," said he. +"I'm asking you to conseedar" (his accent became more +Aberdonian as he lost himself in his argument) "I'm asking you +to conseedar what it involves if you suppose that this gun was +ever brought into the house, and that all these strange things +were done by a person from outside. Oh, man, it's just +inconceivable! It's clean against common sense! I put it to you, +Mr. Holmes, judging it by what we have heard." + +"Well, state your case, Mr. Mac," said Holmes in his most +judicial style. + +"The man is not a burglar, supposing that he ever existed. +The ring business and the card point to premeditated murder for +some private reason. Very good. Here is a man who slips into a +house with the deliberate intention of committing murder. He +knows, if he knows anything, that he will have a deeficulty in +making his escape, as the house is surrounded with water. What +weapon would he choose? You would say the most silent in the +world. Then he could hope when the deed was done to slip +quickly from the window, to wade the moat, and to get away at +his leisure. That's understandable. But is it understandable that +he should go out of his way to bring with him the most noisy +weapon he could select, knowing well that it will fetch every +human being in the house to the spot as quick as they can run, +and that it is all odds that he will be seen before he can get +across the moat? Is that credible, Mr. Holmes?" + +"Well, you put the case strongly," my friend replied +thoughtfully. "It certainly needs a good deal of justification. +May I ask, Mr. White Mason, whether you examined the farther side +of the moat at once to see if there were any signs of the man +having climbed out from the water?" + +"There were no signs, Mr. Holmes. But it is a stone ledge, +and one could hardly expect them." + +"No tracks or marks?" + +"None." + +"Ha! Would there be any objection, Mr. White Mason, to +our going down to the house at once? There may possibly be some +small point which might be suggestive." + +"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. + +"I have worked with Mr. Holmes before," said Inspector +MacDonald. "He plays the game." + +"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 work +of the police. If I have ever separated myself from the official +force, it is because they have first separated themselves from me. +I have no wish ever to score at their expense. At the same time, +Mr. White Mason, I claim the right to work in my own way and +give my results at my own time -- complete rather than in stages." + +"I am sure we are honoured by your presence and to show +you all we know," said White Mason cordially. "Come along, +Dr. Watson, and when the time comes we'll all hope for a place +in your book." + +We walked down the quaint village street with a row of +pollarded elms on each side of it. Just beyond were two ancient +stone pillars, weather-stained and lichen-blotched bearing upon +their summits a shapeless something which had once been the +rampant lion of Capus of Birlstone. A short walk along the +winding drive with such sward and oaks around it as one only +sees in rural England, then a sudden turn, and the long, low +Jacobean house of dingy, liver-coloured brick lay before us, with +an old-fashioned garden of cut yews on each side of it. As we +approached it, there was the wooden drawbridge and the beautiful +broad moat as still and luminous as quicksilver in the cold, +winter sunshine. + +Three centuries had flowed past the old Manor House, centuries +of births and of homecomings, of country dances and of the meetings +of fox hunters. Strange that now in its old age this dark business +should have cast its shadow upon the venerable walls! And yet +those strange, peaked roofs and quaint, overhung gables were a +fitting covering to grim and terrible intrigue. As I looked +at the deep-set windows and the long sweep of the dull-coloured, +water-lapped front, I felt that no more fitting scene could be set +for such a tragedy. + +"That's the window," said White Mason, "that one on the +immediate right of the drawbridge. It's open just as it was found +last night." + +"It looks rather narrow for a man to pass." + +"Well, it wasn't a fat man, anyhow. We don't need your +deductions, Mr. Holmes, to tell us that. But you or I could +squeeze through all right." + +Holmes walked to the edge of the moat and looked across. +Then he examined the stone ledge and the grass border beyond +it." + +"I've had a good look, Mr. Holmes," said White Mason. +"There is nothing there, no sign that anyone has landed -- but +why should he leave any sign?" + +"Exactly. Why should he? Is the water always turbid?" + +"Generally about this colour. The stream brings down the +clay." + +"How deep is it?" + +"About two feet at each side and three in the middle." + +"So we can put aside all idea of the man having been drowned +in crossing." + +"No, a child could not be drowned in it." + +We walked across the drawbridge, and were admitted by a +quaint, gnarled, dried-up person, who was the butler, Ames. The +poor old fellow was white and quivering from the shock. The +village sergeant, a tall, formal, melancholy man, still held his +vigil in the room of Fate. The doctor had departed. + +"Anything fresh, Sergeant Wilson?" asked White Mason. + +"No, sir." + +"Then you can go home. You've had enough. We can send +for you if we want you. The butler had better wait outside. Tell +him to warn Mr. Cecil Barker, Mrs. Douglas, and the housekeeper +that we may want a word with them presently. Now, gentlemen, +perhaps you will allow me to give you the views I have formed +first, and then you will be able to arrive at your own." + +He impressed me, this country specialist. He had a solid grip +of fact and a cool, clear, common-sense brain, which should take +him some way in his profession. Holmes listened to him intently, +with no sign of that impatience which the official exponent too +often produced. + +"Is it suicide, or is it murder -- that's our first question, +gentlemen, is it not? If it were suicide, then we have to believe +that this man began by taking off his wedding ring and concealing +it; that he then came down here in his dressing gown, trampled mud +into a corner behind the curtain in order to give the idea someone +had waited for him, opened the window, put blood on the --" + +"We can surely dismiss that," said MacDonald. + +"So I think. Suicide is out of the question. Then a murder has +been done. What we have to determine is, whether it was done +by someone outside or inside the house." + +"Well, let's hear the argument." + +"There are considerable difficulties both ways, and yet one or +the other it must be. We will suppose first that some person or +persons inside the house did the crime. They got this man down +here at a time when everything was still and yet no one was +asleep. They then did the deed with the queerest and noisiest +weapon in the world so as to tell everyone what had happened -- a +weapon that was never seen in the house before. That does not +seem a very likely start, does it?" + +"No, it does not." + +"Well, then, everyone is agreed that after the alarm was given +only a minute at the most had passed before the whole household -- +not Mr. Cecil Barker alone, though he claims to have been the +first, but Ames and all of them were on the spot. Do you tell me +that in that time the guilty person managed to make footmarks in +the corner, open the window, mark the sill with blood, take the +wedding ring off the dead man's finger, and all the rest of it? It's +impossible!" + +"You put it very clearly," said Holmes. "I am inclined to +agree with you." + +"Well, then, we are driven back to the theory that it was done +by someone from outside. We are still faced with some big +difficulties; but anyhow they have ceased to be impossibilities. +The man got into the house between four-thirty and six; that is to +say, between dusk and the time when the bridge was raised. +There had been some visitors, and the door was open; so there +was nothing to prevent him. He may have been a common +burglar, or he may have had some private grudge against Mr. +Douglas. Since Mr. Douglas has spent most of his life in America, +and this shotgun seems to be an American weapon, it would +seem that the private grudge is the more likely theory. He +slipped into this room because it was the first he came to, and he +hid behind the curtain. There he remained until past eleven at +night. At that time Mr. Douglas entered the room. It was a short +interview, if there were any interview at all; for Mrs. Douglas +declares that her husband had not left her more than a few +minutes when she heard the shot." + +"The candle shows that," said Holmes. + +"Exactly. The candle, which was a new one, is not burned +more than half an inch. He must have placed it on the table +before he was attacked; otherwise, of course, it would have +fallen when he fell. This shows that he was not attacked the +instant that he entered the room. When Mr. Barker arrived the +candle was lit and the lamp was out." + +"That's all clear enough." + +"Well, now, we can reconstruct things on those lines. Mr. +Douglas enters the room. He puts down the candle. A man +appears from behind the curtain. He is armed with this gun. He +demands the wedding ring -- Heaven only knows why, but so it +must have been. Mr. Douglas gave it up. Then either in cold +blood or in the course of a struggle -- Douglas may have gripped +the hammer that was found upon the mat -- he shot Douglas in +this horrible way. He dropped his gun and also it would seem +this queer card -- V. V. 341, whatever that may mean -- and he +made his escape through the window and across the moat at the +very moment when Cecil Barker was discovering the crime. +How's that, Mr. Holmes?" + +"Very interesting, but just a little unconvincing." + +"Man, it would be absolute nonsense if it wasn't that anything +else is even worse!" cried MacDonald. "Somebody killed the +man, and whoever it was I could clearly prove to you that he +should have done it some other way. What does he mean by +allowing his retreat to be cut off like that? What does he mean by +using a shotgun when silence was his one chance of escape? +Come, Mr. Holmes, it's up to you to give us a lead, since you +say Mr. White Mason's theory is unconvincing." + +Holmes had sat intently observant during this long discussion, +missing no word that was said, with his keen eyes darting to +right and to left, and his forehead wrinkled with speculation. + +"I should like a few more facts before I get so far as a theory, +Mr. Mac," said he, kneeling down beside the body. "Dear me! +these injuries are really appalling. Can we have the butler in for +a moment? . . . Ames, I understand that you have often seen this +very unusual mark -- a branded triangle inside a circle -- upon Mr. +Douglas's forearm?" + +"Frequently, sir." + +"You never heard any speculation as to what it meant?" + +"No, sir." + +"It must have caused great pain when it was inflicted. It is +undoubtedly a burn. Now, I observe, Ames, that there is a small +piece of plaster at the angle of Mr. Douglas's jaw. Did you +observe that in life?" + +"Yes, sir, he cut himself in shaving yesterday morning." + +"Did you ever know him to cut himself in shaving before?" + +"Not for a very long time, sir." + +"Suggestive!" said Holmes. "It may, of course, be a mere +coincidence, or it may point to some nervousness which would +indicate that he had reason to apprehend danger. Had you +noticed anything unusual in his conduct, yesterday, Ames?" + +"It struck me that he was a little restless and excited, sir." + +"Ha! The attack may not have been entirely unexpected. We +do seem to make a little progress, do we not? Perhaps you would +rather do the questioning, Mr. Mac?" + +"No, Mr. Holmes, it's in better hands than mine." + +"Well, then, we will pass to this card -- V. V. 341. It is rough +cardboard. Have you any of the sort in the house?" + +"l don't think so." + +Holmes walked across to the desk and dabbed a little ink from +each bottle on to the blotting paper. "It was not printed in this +room," he said; "this is black ink and the other purplish. It was +done by a thick pen, and these are fine. No, it was done +elsewhere, I should say. Can you make anything of the inscription, +Ames?" + +"No, sir, nothing." + +"What do you think, Mr. Mac?" + +"It gives me the impression of a secret society of some sort; +the same with his badge upon the forearm." + +"That's my idea, too," said White Mason. + +"Well, we can adopt it as a working hypothesis and then see +how far our difficulties disappear. An agent from such a society +makes his way into the house, waits for Mr. Douglas, blows his +head nearly off with this weapon, and escapes by wading the +moat, after leaving a card beside the dead man, which will +when mentioned in the papers, tell other members of the society +that vengeance has been done. That all hangs together. But why +this gun, of all weapons?" + +"Exactly." + +"And why the missing ring?" + +"Quite so." + +"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?" + +"That is so, Mr. Holmes." + +"Well, unless he has a burrow close by or a change of clothes +ready, they can hardly miss him. And yet they have missed him +up to now!" Holmes had gone to the window and was examining +with his lens the blood mark on the sill. "It is clearly the tread of +a shoe. It is remarkably broad; a splay-foot, one would say. +Curious, because, so far as one can trace any footmark in this +mud-stained corner, one would say it was a more shapely sole. +However, they are certainly very indistinct. What's this under +the side table?" + +"Mr. Douglas's dumb-bells," said Ames. + +"Dumb-bell -- there's only one. Where's the other?" + +"I don't know, Mr. Holmes. There may have been only one. I +have not noticed them for months." + +"One dumb-bell " Holmes said seriously; but his remarks +were interrupted by a sharp knock at the door. + +A tall, sunburned, capable-looking, clean-shaved man looked +in at us. I had no difficulty in guessing that it was the Cecil +Barker of whom I had heard. His masterful eyes travelled quickly +with a questioning glance from face to face. + +"Sorry to interrupt your consultation," said he, "but you +should hear the latest news." + +"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." + +We found three or four grooms and idlers standing in the drive +inspecting a bicycle which had been drawn out from a clump of +evergreens in which it had been concealed. It was a well used +Rudge-Whitworth, splashed as from a considerable journey. There +was a saddlebag with spanner and oilcan, but no clue as to the +owner. + +"It would be a grand help to the police," said the inspector, +"if these things were numbered and registered. But we must be +thankful for what we've got. If we can't find where he went to, +at least we are likely to get where he came from. But what in the +name of all that is wonderful made 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." + +"Don't we?" my friend answered thoughtfully. "I wonder!" + + +Chapter 5 +The People Of the Drama + + + +"Have you seen all you want of the study?" asked White Mason +as we reentered the house. + +"For the time," said the inspector, and Holmes nodded. + +"Then perhaps you would now like to hear the evidence of +some of the people in the house. We could use the dining-room, +Ames. Please come yourself first and tell us what you know." + +The butler's account was a simple and a clear one, and he +gave a convincing impression of sincerity. He had been engaged +five years before, when Douglas first came to Birlstone. He +understood that Mr. Douglas was a rich gentleman who had +made his money in America. He had been a kind and considerate +employer -- not quite what Ames was used to, perhaps; but one +can't have everything. He never saw any signs of apprehension +in Mr. Douglas: on the contrary, he was the most fearless man +he had ever known. He ordered the drawbridge to be pulled up +every night because it was the ancient custom of the old house, +and he liked to keep the old ways up. + +Mr. Douglas seldom went to London or left the village; but on +the day before the crime he had been shopping at Tunbridge +Wells. He (Ames) had observed some restlessness and excitement +on the part of Mr. Douglas that day; for he had seemed +impatient and irritable, which was unusual with him. He had not +gone to bed that night; but was in the pantry at the back of the +house, putting away the silver, when he heard the bell ring +violently. He heard no shot; but it was hardly possible he would, +as the pantry and kitchens were at the very back of the house and +there were several closed doors and a long passage between. The +housekeeper had come out of her room, attracted by the violent +ringing of the bell. They had gone to the front of the house +together. + +As they reached the bottom of the stair he had seen Mrs. +Douglas coming down it. No, she was not hurrying; it did not +seem to him that she was particularly agitated. Just as she +reached the bottom of the stair Mr. Barker had rushed out of the +study. He had stopped Mrs. Douglas and begged her to go back. + +"For God's sake, go back to your room!" he cried. "Poor +Jack is dead! You can do nothing. For God's sake, go back!" + +After some persuasion upon the stairs Mrs. Douglas had gone +back. She did not scream. She made no outcry whatever. Mrs. +Allen, the housekeeper, had taken her upstairs and stayed with +her in the bedroom. Ames and Mr. Barker had then returned to +the study, where they had found everything exactly as the police +had seen it. The candle was not lit at that time; but the lamp was +burning. They had looked out of the window; but the night was +very dark and nothing could be seen or heard. They had then +rushed out into the hall, where Ames had turned the windlass +which lowered the drawbridge. Mr. Barker had then hurried off +to get the police. + +Such, in its essentials, was the evidence of the butler. + +The account of Mrs. Allen, the housekeeper, was, so far as it +went, a corroboration of that of her fellow servant. The +housekeeper's room was rather nearer to the front of the house +than the pantry in which Ames had been working. She was preparing +to go to bed when the loud ringing of the bell had attracted her +attention. She was a little hard of hearing. Perhaps that was why +she had not heard the shot; but in any case the study was a long +way off. She remembered hearing some sound which she imagined to +be the slamming of a door. That was a good deal earlier -- half +an hour at least before the ringing of the bell. When Mr. Ames +ran to the front she went with him. She 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. + +She had therefore taken her to the bedroom, and endeavoured +to soothe her. She was greatly excited, trembling all over, but +made no other attempt to go downstairs. She just sat in her +dressing gown by her bedroom fire, with her head sunk in her +hands. Mrs. Allen stayed with her most of the night. As to the +other servants, they had all gone to bed, and the alarm did not +reach them until just before the police arrived. They slept at the +extreme back of the house, and could not possibly have heard +anything. + +So far the housekeeper could add nothing on cross-examination +save lamentations and expressions of amazement. + +Cecil Barker succeeded Mrs. Allen as a witness. As to the +occurrences of the night before, he had very little to add to what +he had already told the police. Personally, he was convinced that +the murderer had escaped by the window. The bloodstain was +conclusive, in his opinion, on that point. Besides, as the bridge +was up, there was no other possible way of escaping. He could +not explain what had become of the assassin or why he had not +taken his bicycle, if it were indeed his. He could not possibly +have been drowned in the moat, which was at no place more +than three feet deep. + +In his own mind he had a very definite theory about the +murder. Douglas was a reticent man, and there were some +chapters in his life of which he never spoke. He had emigrated to +America when he was a very young man. He had prospered +well, and Barker had first met him in California, where they had +become partners in a successful mining claim at a place called +Benito Canyon. They had done very well; but Douglas had +suddenly sold out and started for England. He was a widower at +that time. Barker had afterwards realized his money and come to +live in London. Thus they had renewed their friendship. + +Douglas had given him the impression that some danger was +hanging over his head, and he had always looked upon his +sudden departure from California, and also his renting a house in +so quiet a place in England, as being connected with this peril. +He imagined that some secret society, some implacable organization, +was on Douglas's track, which would never rest until it killed him. +Some remarks of his had given him this idea; though he had 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. + +"How long were you with Douglas in California?" asked +Inspector MacDonald. + +"Five years altogether." + +"He was a bachelor, you say?" + +"A widower." + +"Have you ever heard where his first wife came from?" + +"No, I remember his saying that she was of German extraction, +and I have seen her portrait. She was a very beautiful woman. +She died of typhoid the year before I met him." + +"You don't associate his past with any particular part of +America?" + +"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." + +"Was he a politician? Had this secret society to do with +politics?" + +"No, he cared nothing about politics." + +"You have no reason to think it was criminal?" + +"On the contrary, I never met a straighter man in my life." + +"Was there anything curious about his life in California?" + +"He liked best to stay and to work at our claim in the +mountains. He would never go where other men were if he could +help it. That's why I first thought that someone was after him. +Then when he left so suddenly for Europe I made sure that it was +so. I believe that he had a warning of some sort. Within a week +of his leaving half a dozen men were inquiring for him." + +"What sort of men?" + +"Well, they were a mighty hard-looking crowd. They came +up to the claim and wanted to know where he was. I told them +that he was gone to Europe and that I did not know where to find +him. They meant him no good -- it was easy to see that." + +"Were these men Americans -- Californians?" + +"Well, I don't know about Californians. They were Americans, +all right. But they were not miners. I don't know what they +were, and was very glad to see their backs." + +"That was six years ago?" + +"Nearer seven." + +"And then you were together five years in California, so that +this business dates back not less than eleven years at the least?" + +"That is so." + +"It must be a very serious feud that would be kept up with +such earnestness for as long as that. It would be no light thing +that would give rise to it." + +"I think it shadowed his whole life. It was never quite out of +his mind." + +"But if a man had a danger hanging over him, and knew what +it was, don't you think he would turn to the police for protection?" + +"Maybe it was some danger that he could not be protected +against. There's one thing you should know. He always went +about armed. His revolver was never out of his pocket. But, by +bad luck, he was in his dressing gown and had left it in the +bedroom last night. Once the bridge was up, I guess he thought +he was safe." + +"I should like these dates a little clearer," said MacDonald. +"It is quite six years since Douglas left California. You followed +him next year, did you not?" + +"That is so." + +"And he had been married five years. You must have returned +about the time of his marriage." + +"About a month before. I was his best man." + +"Did you know Mrs. Douglas before her marriage?" + +"No, I did not. I had been away from England for ten years." + +"But you have seen a good deal of her since." + +Barker looked sternly at the detective. "I have seen a good +deal of him since," he answered. "If I have seen her, it is +because you cannot visit a man without knowing his wife. If you +imagine there is any connection --" + +"I imagine nothing, Mr. Barker. I am bound to make every +inquiry which can bear upon the case. But I mean no offense." + +"Some inquiries are offensive," Barker answered angrily. + +"It's only the facts that we want. It is in your interest and +everyone's interest that they should be cleared up. Did Mr. +Douglas entirely approve your friendship with his wife?" + +Barker grew paler, and his great, strong hands were clasped +convulsively together. "You have no right to ask such +questions!" he cried. "What has this to do with the matter you +are investigating?" + +"I must repeat the question." + +"Well, I refuse to answer." + +"You can refuse to answer; but you must be aware that your +refusal is in itself an answer, for you would not refuse if you had +not something to conceal." + +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!" + +It was spoken with fervour and feeling, and yet Inspector +MacDonald could not dismiss the subject. + +"You are aware," said he, "that the dead man's wedding ring +has been taken from his finger?" + +"So it appears," said Barker. + +"What do you mean by 'appears'? You know it as a fact." + +The man seemed confused and undecided . "When I said +'appears' I meant that it was conceivable that he had himself +taken off the ring." + +"The mere fact that the ring should be absent, whoever may +have removed it, would suggest to anyone's mind, would it not, +that the marriage and the tragedy were connected?" + +Barker shrugged his broad shoulders. "I can't profess to say +what it means." he answered. "But if you mean to hint that it +could reflect in any way upon this lady's honour" -- his eyes +blazed for an instant, and then with an evident effort he got a +grip upon his own emotions "well, you are on the wrong track. +that's all." + +"I don't know that I've anything else to ask you at present," +said MacDonald, coldly. + +"There was one small point," remarked Sherlock Holmes. +"When you entered the room there was only a candle lighted on +the table, was there not?" + +"Yes, that was so." + +"By its light you saw that some terrible incident had occurred?" + +"Exactly." + +"You at once rang for help?" + +"Yes." + +"And it arrived very speedily?" + +"Within a minute or so." + +"And yet when they arrived they found that the candle was +out and that the lamp had been lighted. That seems very +remarkable." + +Again Barker showed some signs of indecision. "I don't see +that it was remarkable, Mr. Holmes," he answered after a pause. +"The candle threw a very bad light. My first thought was to get +a better one. The lamp was on the table; so I lit it." + +"And blew out the candle?" + +"Exactly." + +Holmes asked no further question, and Barker, with a deliberate +look from one to the other of us, which had, as it seemed to me, +something of defiance in it, turned and left the room. + +Inspector MacDonald had sent up a note to the effect that he +would wait upon Mrs. Douglas in her room; but she had replied +that she would meet us in the dining room. She entered now, a +tall and beautiful woman of thirty, reserved and self-possessed to +a remarkable degree, very different from the tragic and distracted +figure I had pictured. It is true that her face was pale and drawn, +like that of one who has endured a great shock; but her manner +was composed, and the finely moulded hand which she rested +upon the edge of the table was as steady as my own. Her sad, +appealing eyes travelled from one to the other of us with a +curiously inquisitive expression. That questioning gaze +transformed itself suddenly into abrupt speech. + +"Have you found anything out yet?" she asked. + +Was it my imagination that there was an undertone of fear +rather than of hope in the question? + +"We have taken every possible step, Mrs. Douglas," said the +inspector. "You may rest assured that nothing will be neglected." + +"Spare no money," she said in a dead, even tone. "It is my +desire that every possible effort should be made." + +"Perhaps you can tell us something which may throw some +light upon the matter." + +"I fear not; but all I know is at your service." + +"We have heard from Mr. Cecil Barker that you did not +actually see -- that you were never in the room where the tragedy +occurred?" + +"No, he turned me back upon the stairs. He begged me to +return to my room." + +"Quite so. You had heard the shot, and you had at once come +down." + +"I put on my dressing gown and then came down." + +"How long was it after hearing the shot that you were stopped +on the stair by Mr. Barker?" + +"It may have been a couple of minutes. It is so hard to reckon +time at such a moment. He implored me not to go on. He +assured me that I could do nothing. Then Mrs. Allen, the +housekeeper, led me upstairs again. It was all like some dreadful +dream." + +"Can you give us any idea how long your husband had been +downstairs before you heard the shot?" + +"No, I cannot say. He went from his dressing room, and I did +not hear him go. He did the round of the house every night, for +he was nervous of fire. It is the only thing that I have ever +known him nervous of." + +"That is just the point which I want to come to, Mrs. Douglas. +You have known your husband only in England, have you not?" + +"Yes, we have been married five years." + +"Have you heard him speak of anything which occurred in +America and might bring some danger upon him?" + +Mrs. Douglas thought earnestly before she answered. "Yes." +she said at last, "I have always felt that there was a danger +hanging over him. He refused to discuss it with me. It was not +from want of confidence in me -- there was the most complete +love and confidence between us -- but it was out of his desire to +keep all alarm away from me. He thought I should brood over it +if I knew all, and so he was silent." + +"How did you know it, then?" + +Mrs. Douglas's face lit with a quick smile. "Can a husband +ever carry about a secret all his life and a woman who loves him +have no suspicion of it? I knew it by his refusal to talk about +some episodes in his American life. I knew it by certain precautions +he took. I knew it by certain words he let fall. I knew it by the +way he looked at unexpected strangers. I was perfectly certain that +he had some powerful enemies, that he believed they were on his +track, and that he was always on his guard against them. I was so +sure of it that for years I have been terrified if ever he came +home later than was expected." + +"Might I ask," asked Holmes, "what the words were which +attracted your attention?" + +"The Valley of Fear," the lady answered. "That was an +expression he has used when I questioned him. 'I have been in +the Valley of Fear. I am not out of it yet.' -- 'Are we never to get +out of the Valley of Fear?' I have asked him when I have seen +him more serious than usual. 'Sometimes I think that we never +shall,' he has answered." + +"Surely you asked him what he meant by the Valley of +Fear?" + +"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." + +"And he never mentioned any names?" + +"Yes, he was delirious with fever once when he had his +hunting accident three years ago. Then I remember that there +was a name that came continually to his lips. He spoke it with +anger and a sort of horror. McGinty was the name -- Bodymaster +McGinty. I asked him when he recovered who Bodymaster +McGinty was, and whose body he was master of. 'Never of +mine, thank God!' he answered with a laugh, and that was all I +could get from him. But there is a connection between Bodymaster +McGinty and the Valley of Fear." + +"There is one other point," said Inspector MacDonald. "You +met Mr. Douglas in a boarding house in London, did you not, +and became engaged to him there? Was there any romance, +anything secret or mysterious, about the wedding?" + +"There was romance. There is always romance. There was +nothing mysterious." + +"He had no rival?" + +"No, I was quite free." + +"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?" + +For an instant I could have sworn that the faintest shadow of a +smile flickered over the woman's lips. + +"I really cannot tell," she answered. "It is certainly a most +extraordinary thing." + +"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." + +She rose, and I was again conscious of that quick, questioning +glance with which she had just surveyed us. "What impression +has my evidence made upon you?" The question might as well +have been spoken. Then, with a bow, she swept from the room. + +"She's a beautiful woman -- a very beautiful woman," said +MacDonald thoughtfully, after the door had closed behind her. +"This man Barker has certainly been down here a good deal. He +is a man who might be attractive to a woman. He admits that the +dead man was jealous, and maybe he knew best himself what +cause he had for jealousy. Then there's that wedding ring. You +can't get past that. The man who tears a wedding ring off a dead +man's -- What do you say to it, Mr. Holmes?" + +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?" + +"I'll see, sir." + +He came back in a moment to say that Barker was in the +garden. + +"Can you remember, Ames, what Mr. Barker had on his feet +last night when you joined him in the study?" + +"Yes, Mr. Holmes. He had a pair of bedroom slippers. I +brought him his boots when he went for the police." + +"Where are the slippers now?" + +"They are still under the chair in the hall." + +"Very good, Ames. It is, of course, important for us to know +which tracks may be Mr. Barker's and which from outside." + +"Yes, sir. I may say that I noticed that the slippers were +stained with blood -- so indeed were my own." + +"That is natural enough, considering the condition of the +room. Very good, Ames. We will ring if we want you." + +A few minutes later we were in the study. Holmes had brought +with him the carpet slippers from the hall. As Ames had observed, +the soles of both were dark with blood. + +"Strange!" murmured Holmes, as he stood in the light of the +window and examined them minutely. "Very strange indeed!" + +Stooping with one of his quick feline pounces, he placed the +slipper upon the blood mark on the sill. It exactly corresponded. +He smiled in silence at his colleagues. + +The inspector was transfigured with excitement. His native +accent rattled like a stick upon railings. + +"Man," he cried, "there's not a doubt of it! Barker has just +marked the window himself. It's a good deal broader than any +bootmark. I mind that you said it was a splay-foot, and here's +the explanation. But what's the game, Mr. Holmes -- what's the +game?" + +"Ay, what's the game?" my friend repeated thoughtfully. + +White Mason chuckled and rubbed his fat hands together in +his professional satisfaction. "I said it was a snorter!" he cried. +"And a real snorter it is!" + + +Chapter 6 +A Dawning Light + + + +The three detectives had many matters of detail into which to +inquire; so I returned alone to our modest quarters at the village +inn. But before doing so I took a stroll in the curious old-world +garden which flanked the house. Rows of very ancient yew trees +cut into strange designs girded it round. Inside was a beautiful +stretch of lawn with an old sundial in the middle, the whole +effect so soothing and restful that it was welcome to my somewhat +jangled nerves. + +In that deeply peaceful atmosphere one could forget, or remember +only as some fantastic nightmare, that darkened study with the +sprawling, bloodstained figure on the floor. And yet, as I strolled +round it and tried to steep my soul in its gentle balm, a strange +incident occurred, which brought me back to the tragedy and left a +sinister impression in my mind. + +I have said that a decoration of yew trees circled the garden. +At the end farthest from the house they thickened into a continuous +hedge. On the other side of this hedge, concealed from the eyes of +anyone approaching from the direction of the house, there was a +stone seat. As I approached the spot I was aware of voices, some +remark in the deep tones of a man, answered by a little ripple of +feminine laughter. + +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. + +"Excuse me, sir," said he, "but am I addressing Dr. Watson?" + +I bowed with a coldness which showed, I dare say, very +plainly the impression which had been produced upon my mind. + +"We thought that it was probably you, as your friendship with +Mr. Sherlock Holmes is so well known. Would you mind coming over +and speaking to Mrs. Douglas for one instant?" + +I followed him with a dour face. Very clearly I could see in +my mind's eye that shattered figure on the floor. Here within a +few hours of the tragedy were his wife and his nearest friend +laughing together behind a bush in the garden which had been his. +I greeted the lady with reserve. I had grieved with her grief in +the dining-room. Now I met her appealing gaze with an unresponsive +eye. + +"I fear that you think me callous and hard-hearted." said she. + +I shrugged my shoulders. ''It is no business of mine," said I. + +"Perhaps some day you will do me justice. If you only +realized --" + +"There is no need why Dr. Watson should realize," said +Barker quickly. "As he has himself said, it is no possible +business of his." + +"Exactly," said I, "and so I will beg leave to resume my +walk." + +"One moment, Dr. Watson," cried the woman in a pleading +voice. "There is one question which you can answer with more +authority than anyone else in the world, and it may make a very +great difference to me. You know Mr. Holmes and his relations +with the police better than anyone else can. Supposing that a +matter were brought confidentially to his knowledge, is it +absolutely necessary that he should pass it on to the detectives?" + +"Yes, that's it," said Barker eagerly. "Is he on his own or is +he entirely in with them?" + +"I really don't know that I should be justified in discussing +such a point." + +"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." + +There was such a ring of sincerity in the woman's voice that +for the instant I forgot all about her levity and was moved only to +do her will. + +"Mr. Holmes is an independent investigator," I said. "He is +his own master, and would act as his own judgment directed. At +the same time, he would naturally feel loyalty towards the +officials who were working on the same case, and he would not +conceal from them anything which would help them in bringing +a criminal to justice. Beyond this I can say nothing, and I would +refer you to Mr. Holmes himself if you wanted fuller information." + +So saying I raised my hat and went upon my way, leaving +them still seated behind that concealing hedge. I looked back as I +rounded the far end of it, and saw that they were still talking +very earnestly together, and, as they were gazing after me, it was +clear that it was our interview that was the subject of their +debate. + +"I wish none of their confidences," said Holmes, when I +reported to him what had occurred. He had spent the whole +afternoon at the Manor House in consultation with his two +colleagues, and returned about five with a ravenous appetite for a +high tea which I had ordered for him. "No confidences, Watson; +for they are mighty awkward if it comes to an arrest for +conspiracy and murder." + +"You think it will come to that?" + +He was in his most cheerful and debonair humour. "My dear +Watson, when I have exterminated that fourth egg I shall be +ready to put you in touch with the whole situation. I don't say +that we have fathomed it -- far from it -- but when we have traced +the missing dumb-bell --" + +"The dumb-bell!" + +"Dear me, Watson, is it possible that you have not penetrated +the fact that the case hangs upon the missing dumb-bell? Well, +well, you need not be downcast; for between ourselves I don't +think that either Inspector Mac or the excellent local practitioner +has grasped the overwhelming importance of this incident. One +dumb-bell, Watson! Consider an athlete with one dumb-bell! +Picture to yourself the unilateral development, the imminent +danger of a spinal curvature. Shocking, Watson, shocking!" + +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. + +"A lie, Watson -- a great, big, thumping, obtrusive, +uncompromising lie -- that's what meets us on the threshold! There +is our starting point. The whole story told by Barker is a lie. +But Barker's story is corroborated by Mrs. Douglas. Therefore she +is lying also. They are both lying, and in a conspiracy. So now we +have the clear problem. Why are they lying, and what is the truth +which they are trying so hard to conceal? Let us try, Watson, +you and I, if we can get behind the lie and reconstruct the truth. + +"How do I know that they are lying? Because it is a clumsy +fabrication which simply could not be true. Consider! According +to the story given to us, the assassin had less than a minute after +the murder had been committed to take that ring, which was under +another ring, from the dead man's finger, to replace the other +ring -- a thing which he would surely never have done -- and to +put that singular card beside his victim. I say that this was +obviously impossible. + + "You may argue -- but I have too much respect for your +judgment, Watson, to think that you will do so -- that the ring +may have been taken before the man was killed. The fact that the +candle had been lit only a short time shows that there had been +no lengthy interview. Was Douglas, from what we hear of his +fearless character, a man who would be likely to give up his +wedding ring at such short notice, or could we conceive of his +giving it up at all? No, no, Watson, the assassin was alone with +the dead man for some time with the lamp lit. Of that I have no +doubt at all. + +"But the gunshot was apparently the cause of death. Therefore +the shot must have been fired some time earlier than we are told. +But there could be no mistake about such a matter as that. We +are in the presence, therefore, of a deliberate conspiracy upon +the part of the two people who heard the gunshot -- of the man +Barker and of the woman Douglas. When on the top of this I am +able to show that the blood mark on the windowsill was deliberately +placed there by Barker, in order to give a false clue to the police, +you will admit that the case grows dark against him. + + "Now we have to ask ourselves at what hour the murder +actually did occur. Up to half-past ten the servants were moving +about the house; so it was certainly not before that time. At a +quarter to eleven they had all gone to their rooms with the +exception of Ames, who was in the pantry. I have been trying +some experiments after you left us this afternoon, and I find that +no noise which MacDonald can make in the study can penetrate +to me in the pantry when the doors are all shut. + + "It is otherwise, however, from the housekeeper's room. It is +not so far down the corridor, and from it I could vaguely hear a +voice when it was very loudly raised. The sound from a shotgun +is to some extent muffled when the discharge is at very close +range, as it undoubtedly was in this instance. It would not be +very loud, and yet in the silence of the night it should have easily +penetrated to Mrs. Allen's room. She is, as she has told us, +somewhat deaf; but none the less she mentioned in her evidence +that she did hear something like a door slamming half an hour +before the alarm was given. Half an hour before the alarm was +given would be a quarter to eleven. I have no doubt that what +she heard was the report of the gun, and that this was the real +instant of the murder. + +"If this is so, we have now to determine what Barker and +Mrs. Douglas, presuming that they are not the actual murderers, +could have been doing from quarter to eleven, when the sound of +the shot brought them down, until quarter past eleven, when they +rang the bell and summoned the servants. What were they doing, +and why did they not instantly give the alarm? That is the +question which faces us, and when it has been answered we shall +surely have gone some way to solve our problem." + +"I am convinced myself," said I, "that there is an understanding +between those two people. She must be a heartless creature to sit +laughing at some jest within a few hours of her husband's murder." + +"Exactly. She does not shine as a wife even in her own +account of what occurred. I am not a whole-souled admirer of +womankind, as you are aware, Watson, but my experience of +life has taught me that there are few wives, having any regard for +their husbands, who would let any man's spoken word stand +between them and that husband's dead body. Should I ever +marry, Watson, I should hope to inspire my wife with some +feeling which would prevent her from being walked off by a +housekeeper when my corpse was lying within a few yards of +her. It was badly stage-managed; for even the rawest investigators +must be struck by the absence of the usual feminine ululation. +If there had been nothing else, this incident alone would have +suggested a prearranged conspiracy to my mind." + +"You think then, definitely, that Barker and Mrs. Douglas are +guilty of the murder?" + +"There is an appalling directness about your questions, Watson," +said Holmes, shaking his pipe at me. "They come at me like bullets. +If you put it that Mrs. Douglas and Barker know the truth about +the murder, and are conspiring to conceal it, then I can give you +a whole-souled answer. I am sure they do. But your more deadly +proposition is not so clear. Let us for a moment consider the +difficulties which stand in the way. + +"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." + +"That, I am sure, cannot he true." said I, thinking of the +beautiful smiling face in the garden. + +"Well at least they gave that impression. However, we will +suppose that they are an extraordinarily astute couple, who +deceive everyone upon this point, and conspire to murder the +husband. He happens to be a man over whose head some danger +hangs --" + +"We have only their word for that." + +Holmes looked thoughtful. "I see. Watson. You are sketching +out a theory by which everything they say from the beginning is +false. According to your idea, there was never any hidden menace, +or secret society, or Valley of Fear, or Boss MacSomebody, or +anything else. Well, that is a good sweeping generalization. +Let us see what that brings us to. They invent this theory to +account for the crime. They then play up to the idea by leaving +this bicycle in the park as proof of the existence of some +outsider. The stain on the windowsill conveys the same idea. So +does the card on the body, which might have been prepared in +the house. That all fits into your hypothesis, Watson. But now +we come on the nasty, angular, uncompromising bits which +won't slip into their places. Why a cut-off shotgun of all weapons +-- and an American one at that? How could they be so sure that the +sound of it would not bring someone on to them? It's a mere chance +as it is that Mrs. Allen did not start out to inquire for the +slamming door. Why did your guilty couple do all this, Watson?" + +"I confess that I can't explain it." + +"Then again, if a woman and her lover conspire to murder a +husband, are they going to advertise their guilt by ostentatiously +removing his wedding ring after his death? Does that strike you +as very probable, Watson?" + +"No, it does not." + +"And once again, if the thought of leaving a bicycle concealed +outside had occurred to you, would it really have seemed worth +doing when the dullest detective would naturally say this is an +obvious blind, as the bicycle is the first thing which the fugitive +needed in order to make his escape." + +"I can conceive of no explanation." + +"And yet there should be no combination of events for which +the wit of man cannot conceive an explanation. Simply as a +mental exercise, without any assertion that it is true. Let me +indicate a possible line of thought. It is, I admit, mere +imagination; but how often is imagination the mother of truth? + +"We will suppose that there was a guilty secret, a really +shameful secret in the life of this man Douglas. This leads to his +murder by someone who is, we will suppose, an avenger, someone from +outside. This avenger, for some reason which I confess I am still +at a loss to explain, took the dead man's wedding ring. The vendetta +might conceivably date back to the man's first marriage, and the +ring be taken for some such reason. + +"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 where it would not be discovered until he had got safely +away. So far we are within the bounds of possibility, are we +not?" + +"Well, it is possible, no doubt," said I, with some reserve. + +"We have to remember, Watson, that whatever occurred is +certainly something very extraordinary. Well, now, to continue +our supposititious case, the couple -- not necessarily a guilty +couple -- realize after the murderer is gone that they have placed +themselves in a position in which it may be difficult for them to +prove that they did not themselves either do the deed or connive +at it. They rapidly and rather clumsily met the situation. The +mark was put by Barker's bloodstained slipper upon the window- +sill to suggest how the fugitive got away. They obviously were +the two who must have heard the sound of the gun; so they gave +the alarm exactly as they would have done, but a good half hour +after the event." + +"And how do you propose to prove all this?" + +"Well, if there were an outsider, he may be traced and taken. +That would be the most effective of all proofs. But if not -- well, +the resources of science are far from being exhausted. I think +that an evening alone in that study would help me much." + +"An evening alone!" + +"I propose to go up there presently. I have arranged it with +the estimable Ames, who is by no means whole-hearted about +Barker. I shall sit in that room and see if its atmosphere brings +me inspiration. I'm a believer in the genius loci. You smile, +Friend Watson. Well, we shall see. By the way, you have that +big umbrella of yours, have you not?" + +"It is here." + +"Well, I'll borrow that if I may." + +"Certainly -- but what a wretched weapon! If there is +danger --" + +"Nothing serious, my dear Watson, or I should certainly ask +for your assistance. But I'll take the umbrella. At present I am +only awaiting the return of our colleagues from Tunbridge Wells, +where they are at present engaged in trying for a likely owner to +the bicycle." + +It was nightfall before Inspector MacDonald and White Mason +came back from their expedition, and they arrived exultant, +reporting a great advance in our investigation. + +"Man, I'll admeet that I had my doubts if there was ever an +outsider," said MacDonald, "but that's all past now. We've had +the bicycle identified, and we have a description of our man; so +that's a long step on our journey." + +"It sounds to me like the beginning of the end," said Holmes. +"I'm sure I congratulate you both with all my heart." + +"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." + +"Well, well," said Holmes gleefully, "you have indeed done +some solid work while I have been sitting spinning theories with +my friend! It's a lesson in being practical, Mr. Mac." + +"Ay, it's just that, Mr. Holmes," said the inspector with +satisfaction. + +"But this may all fit in with your theories," I remarked. + +"That may or may not be. But let us hear the end, Mr. Mac. +Was there nothing to identify this man?" + +"So little that it was evident that he had carefully guarded +himself against identification. There were no papers or letters, +and no marking upon the clothes. A cycle map of the county lay +on his bedroom table. He had left the hotel after breakfast +yesterday morning on his bicycle, and no more was heard of him +until our inquiries." + +"That's what puzzles me, Mr. Holmes," said White Mason. +"If the fellow did not want the hue and cry raised over him, one +would imagine that he would have returned and remained at the +hotel as an inoffensive tourist. As it is, he must know that he +will be reported to the police by the hotel manager and that his +disappearance will be connected with the murder." + +"So one would imagine. Still, he has been justified of his +wisdom up to date, at any rate, since he has not been taken. But +his description -- what of that?" + +MacDonald referred to his notebook. "Here we have it so far +as they could give it. They don't seem to have taken any very +particular stock of him; but still the porter, the clerk, and the +chambermaid are all agreed that this about covers the points. He +was a man about five foot nine in height, fifty or so years of age, +his hair slightly grizzled, a grayish moustache, a curved nose, +and a face which all of them described as fierce and forbidding." + +"Well, bar the expression, that might almost be a description +of Douglas himself," said Holmes. "He is just over fifty, with +grizzled hair and moustache, and about the same height. Did you +get anything else?" + +"He was dressed in a heavy gray suit with a reefer jacket, and +he wore a short yellow overcoat and a soft cap." + +"What about the shotgun?" + +"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?" + +"Well, Mr. Holmes," said MacDonald, "when we have got +our man -- and you may be sure that I had his description on the +wires within five minutes of hearing it -- we shall be better able +to judge. But, even as it stands, we have surely gone a long way. +We know that an American calling himself Hargrave came to +Tunbridge Wells two days ago with bicycle and valise. In the +latter was a sawed-off shotgun; so he came with the deliberate +purpose of crime. Yesterday morning he set off for this place on +his bicycle, with his gun concealed in his overcoat. No one saw +him arrive, so far as we can learn; but he need not pass through +the village to reach the park gates, and there are many cyclists +upon the road. Presumably he at once concealed his cycle among +the laurels where it was found, and possibly lurked there himself, +with his eye on the house, waiting for Mr. Douglas to come out. +The shotgun is a strange weapon to use inside a house; but he had +intended to use it outside, and there it has very obvious advantages, +as it would be impossible to miss with it, and the sound of shots +is so common in an English sporting neighbourhood that no particular +notice would be taken." + +"That is all very clear," said Holmes. + +"Well, Mr. Douglas did not appear. What was he to do next? +He left his bicycle and approached the house in the twilight. He +found the bridge down and no one about. He took his chance, +intending, no doubt, to make some excuse if he met anyone. He +met no one. He slipped into the first room that he saw, and +concealed himself behind the curtain. Thence he could see the +drawbridge go up, and he knew that his only escape was through +the moat. He waited until quarter-past eleven, when Mr. Douglas +upon his usual nightly round came into the room. He shot him +and escaped, as arranged. He was aware that the bicycle would +be described by the hotel people and be a clue against him; so he +left it there and made his way by some other means to London or +to some safe hiding place which he had already arranged. How is +that, Mr. Holmes?" + +"Well, Mr. Mac, it is very good and very clear so far as it +goes. That is your end of the story. My end is that the crime was +committed half an hour earlier than reported; that Mrs. Douglas +and Barker are both in a conspiracy to conceal something; that +they aided the murderer's escape -- or at least that they reached +the room before he escaped -- and that they fabricated evidence +of his escape through the window, whereas in all probability they +had themselves let him go by lowering the bridge. That's my +reading of the first half." + +The two detectives shook their heads. + +"Well, Mr. Holmes, if this is true, we only tumble out of one +mystery into another," said the London inspector. + +"And in some ways a worse one," added White Mason. "The +lady has never been in America in all her life. What possible +connection could she have with an American assassin which +would cause her to shelter him?" + +"I freely admit the difficulties," said Holmes. "I propose to +make a little investigation of my own to-night, and it is just +possible that it may contribute something to the common cause." + +"Can we help you, Mr. Holmes?" + +"No, no! Darkness and Dr. Watson's umbrella -- my wants are +simple. And Ames, the faithful Ames, no doubt he will stretch a +point for me. All my lines of thought lead me back invariably +to the one basic question -- why should an athletic man develop +his frame upon so unnatural an instrument as a single dumb-bell?" + +It was late that night when Holmes returned from his solitary +excursion. We slept in a double-bedded room, which was the +best that the little country inn could do for us. I was already +asleep when I was partly awakened by his entrance. + +"Well, Holmes," I murmured, "have you found anything +out?" + +He stood beside me in silence, his candle in his hand. Then +the tall, lean figure inclined towards me. "I say, Watson," he +whispered, "would you be afraid to sleep in the same room with +a lunatic, a man with softening of the brain, an idiot whose mind +has lost its grip?" + +"Not in the least," I answered in astonishment. + +"Ah, that's lucky," he said, and not another word would he +utter that night. + + +Chapter 7 +The Solution + + + +Next morning, after breakfast, we found Inspector MacDonald +and White Mason seated in close consultation in the small parlour +of the local police sergeant. On the table in front of them +were piled a number of letters and telegrams, which they were +carefully sorting and docketing. Three had been placed on one +side. + +"Still on the track of the elusive bicyclist?" Holmes asked +cheerfully. "What is the latest news of the ruffian?" + +MacDonald pointed ruefully to his heap of correspondence. + +"He is at present reported from Leicester, Nottingham, +Southampton, Derby, East Ham, Richmond, and fourteen other places. +In three of them -- East Ham, Leicester, and Liverpool -- there is +a clear case against him, and he has actually been arrested. The +country seems to be full of the fugitives with yellow coats." + +"Dear me!" said Holmes sympathetically. "Now, Mr. Mac +and you, Mr. White Mason, I wish to give you a very earnest +piece of advice. When I went into this case with you I bargained, +as you will no doubt remember, that I should not present you +with half-proved theories, but that I should retain and work out +my own ideas until I had satisfied myself that they were correct. +For this reason I am not at the present moment telling you all +that is in my mind. On the other hand, I said that I would play +the game fairly by you, and I do not think it is a fair game to +allow you for one unnecessary moment to waste your energies +upon a profitless task. Therefore I am here to advise you this +morning, and my advice to you is summed up in three words -- +abandon the case." + +MacDonald and White Mason stared in amazement at their +celebrated colleague. + +"You consider it hopeless!" cried the inspector. + +"I consider your case to be hopeless. I do not consider that it +is hopeless to arrive at the truth." + +"But this cyclist. He is not an invention. We have his description, +his valise, his bicycle. The fellow must be somewhere. Why should we +not get him?" + +"Yes, yes, no doubt he is somewhere, and no doubt we shall +get him; but I would not have you waste your energies in East +Ham or Liverpool. I am sure that we can find some shorter cut to +a result." + +"You are holding something back. It's hardly fair of you, Mr. +Holmes." The inspector was annoyed. + +"You know my methods of work, Mr. Mac. But I will hold it +back for the shortest time possible. I only wish to verify my +details in one way, which can very readily be done, and then I +make my bow and return to London, leaving my results entirely +at your service. I owe you too much to act otherwise; for in all +my experience I cannot recall any more singular and interesting +study." + +"This is clean beyond me, Mr. Holmes. We saw you when +we returned from Tunbridge Wells last night, and you were in +general agreement with our results. What has happened since +then to give you a completely new idea of the case?" + +"Well, since you ask me, I spent, as I told you that I would, +some hours last night at the Manor House." + +"Well, what happened?" + +"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." + +Here Holmes drew a small tract, embellished with a rude +engraving of the ancient Manor House, from his waistcoat pocket. + +"It immensely adds to the zest of an investigation, my dear +Mr. Mac, when one is in conscious sympathy with the historical +atmosphere of one's surroundings. Don't look so impatient; for I +assure you that even so bald an account as this raises some sort +of picture of the past in one's mind. Permit me to give you a +sample. 'Erected in the fifth year of the reign of James 1, and +standing upon the site of a much older building, the Manor +House of Birlstone presents one of the finest surviving examples +of the moated Jacobean residence --' " + +"You are making fools of us, Mr. Holmes!" + +"Tut, tut, Mr. Mac! -- the first sign of temper I have detected +in you. Well, I won't read it verbatim, since you feel so strongly +upon the subject. But when I tell you that there is some account +of the taking of the place by a parliamentary colonel in 1644, of +the concealment of Charles for several days in the course of the +Civil War, and finally of a visit there by the second George, you +will admit that there are various associations of interest connected +with this ancient house." + +"I don't doubt it, Mr. Holmes; but that is no business of +ours." + +"Is it not? Is it not? Breadth of view, my dear Mr. Mac, is +one of the essentials of our profession. The interplay of ideas and +the oblique uses of knowledge are often of extraordinary interest. +You will excuse these remarks from one who, though a mere +connoisseur of crime, is still rather older and perhaps more +experienced than yourself." + +"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." + +"Well, well, I'll drop past history and get down to present- +day facts. I called last night, as I have already said, at the +Manor House. I did not see either Barker or Mrs. Douglas. I saw +no necessity to disturb them; but I was pleased to hear that the +lady was not visibly pining and that she had partaken of an +excellent dinner. My visit was specially made to the good Mr. +Ames, with whom I exchanged some amiabilities, which culminated +in his allowing me, without reference to anyone else, to sit +alone for a time in the study." + +"What! With that?" I ejaculated. + +"No, no, everything is now in order. You gave permission for +that, Mr. Mac, as I am informed. The room was in its normal +state, and in it I passed an instructive quarter of an hour." + +"What were you doing?" + +"Well, not to make a mystery of so simple a matter, I was +looking for the missing dumb-bell. It has always bulked rather +large in my estimate of the case. I ended by finding it." + +"Where?" + +"Ah, there we come to the edge of the unexplored. Let me go +a little further, a very little further, and I will promise that you +shall share everything that I know." + +"Well, we're bound to take you on your own terms," said the +inspector; "but when it comes to telling us to abandon the +case -- why in the name of goodness should we abandon the +case?" + +"For the simple reason, my dear Mr. Mac, that you have not +got the first idea what it is that you are investigating." + +"We are investigating the murder of Mr. John Douglas of +Birlstone Manor." + +"Yes, yes, so you are. But don't trouble to trace the mysterious +gentleman upon the bicycle. I assure you that it won't help you." + +"Then what do you suggest that we do?" + +"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." + +"And you, Mr. White Mason?" + +The country detective looked helplessly from one to the other. +Holmes and his methods were new to him. "Well, if it is good +enough for the inspector, it is good enough for me," he said at +last. + +"Capital!" said Holmes. "Well, then, I should recommend a +nice, cheery country walk for both of you. They tell me that the +views from Birlstone Ridge over the Weald are very remarkable. +No doubt lunch could be got at some suitable hostelry; though +my ignorance of the country prevents me from recommending +one. In the evening, tired but happy --" + +"Man, this is getting past a joke!" cried MacDonald, rising +angrily from his chair. + +"Well, well, spend the day as you like," said Holmes, patting +him cheerfully upon the shoulder. "Do what you like and go +where you will, but meet me here before dusk without fail -- +without fail, Mr. Mac." + +"That sounds more like sanity." + + "All of it was excellent advice; but I don't insist, so long as +you are here when I need you. But now, before we part, I want +you to write a note to Mr. Barker." + +"Well?" + +"I'll dictate it, if you like. Ready? + + "Dear Sir: + + "It has struck me that it is our duty to drain the moat, in + + the hope that we may find some --" + +"It's impossible," said the inspector. "I've made inquiry." + +"Tut, tut! My dear sir, please do what I ask you." + +"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!" + + "-- diverting the stream; so I thought it best to explain +matters beforehand. + +Now sign that, and send it by hand about four o'clock. At that +hour we shall meet again in this room. Until then we may each +do what we like; for I can assure you that this inquiry has come +to a definite pause." + +Evening was drawing in when we reassembled. Holmes was +very serious in his manner, myself curious, and the detectives +obviously critical and annoyed. + +"Well, gentlemen," said my friend gravely, "I am asking +you now to put everything to the test with me, and you will +judge for yourselves whether the observations I have made justify +the conclusions to which I have come. It is a chill evening, +and I do not know how long our expedition may last; so I beg +that you will wear your warmest coats. It is of the first +importance that we should be in our places before it grows dark; +so with your permission we shall get started at once." + +We passed along the outer bounds of the Manor House park +until we came to a place where there was a gap in the rails which +fenced it. Through this we slipped, and then in the gathering +gloom we followed Holmes until we had reached a shrubbery +which lies nearly opposite to the main door and the drawbridge. +The latter had not been raised. Holmes crouched down behind +the screen of laurels, and we all three followed his example. + +"Well, what are we to do now?" asked MacDonald with +some gruffness. + +"Possess our souls in patience and make as little noise as +possible," Holmes answered. + +"What are we here for at all? I really think that you might +treat us with more frankness." + +Holmes laughed. "Watson insists that I am the dramatist in +real life," said he. "Some touch of the artist wells up within me, +and calls insistently for a well-staged performance. Surely our +profession, Mr. Mac, would be a drab and sordid one if we did +not sometimes set the scene so as to glorify 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 all had good reason to join in the aspiration; for our vigil +was a long and bitter one. Slowly the shadows darkened over the +long, sombre face of the old house. A cold, damp reek from the +moat chilled us to the bones and set our teeth chattering. There +was a single lamp over the gateway and a steady globe of light in +the fatal study. Everything else was dark and still. + +"How long is this to last?" asked the inspector finally. "And +what is it we are watching for?" + +"I have no more notion than you how long it is to last," +Holmes answered with some asperity. "If criminals would always +schedule their movements like railway trains, it would certainly +be more convenient for all of us. As to what it is we -- Well, +that's what we are watching for!" + +As he spoke the bright, yellow light in the study was obscured +by somebody passing to and fro before it. The laurels among +which we lay were immediately opposite the window and not +more than a hundred feet from it. Presently it was thrown open +with a whining of hinges, and we could dimly see the dark +outline of a man's head and shoulders looking out into the +gloom. For some minutes he peered forth in furtive, stealthy +fashion, as one who wishes to be assured that he is unobserved. +Then he leaned forward, and in the intense silence we were +aware of the soft lapping of agitated water. He seemed to be +stirring up the moat with something which he held in his hand. +Then suddenly he hauled something in as a fisherman lands a +fish -- some large, round object which obscured the light as it +was dragged through the open casement. + +"Now!" cried Holmes. "Now!" + +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 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. + +The oil lamp on the table represented the glow which we had +seen from outside. It was now in the hand of Cecil Barker, who +held it towards us as we entered. Its light shone upon his strong, +resolute, clean-shaved face and his menacing eyes. + +"What the devil is the meaning of all this?" he cried. "What +are you after, anyhow?" + +Holmes took a swift glance round, and then pounced upon a +sodden bundle tied together with cord which lay where it had +been thrust under the writing table. + +"This is what we are after, Mr. Barker -- this bundle, weighted +with a dumb-bell, which you have just raised from the bottom of +the moat." + +Barker stared at Holmes with amazement in his face. "How in +thunder came you to know anything about it?" he asked. + +"Simply that I put it there." + +"You put it there! You!" + +"Perhaps I should have said 'replaced it there,' " said Holmes. +"You will remember, Inspector MacDonald, that I was somewhat +struck by the absence of a dumb-bell. I drew your attention +to it; but with the pressure of other events you had hardly the +time to give it the consideration which would have enabled you +to draw deductions from it. When water is near and a weight is +missing it is not a very far-fetched supposition that something +has been sunk in the water. The idea was at least worth testing; +so with the help of Ames, who admitted me to the room, and the +crook of Dr. Watson's umbrella, I was able last night to fish up +and inspect this bundle. + +"It was of the first importance, however, that we should be +able to prove who placed it there. This we accomplished by the +very obvious device of announcing that the moat would be dried +to-morrow, which had, of course, the effect that whoever had +hidden the bundle would most certainly withdraw it the moment +that darkness enabled him to do so. We have no less than four +witnesses as to who it was who took advantage of the opportunity, +and so, Mr. Barker, I think the word lies now with you." + +Sherlock Holmes put the sopping bundle upon the table beside +the lamp and undid the cord which bound it. From within he +extracted a dumb-bell, which he tossed down to its fellow in the +corner. Next he drew forth a pair of boots. "American, as you +perceive," he remarked, pointing to the toes. Then he laid upon +the table a long, deadly, sheathed knife. Finally he unravelled a +bundle of clothing, comprising a complete set of underclothes, +socks, a gray tweed suit, and a short yellow overcoat. + +"The clothes are commonplace," remarked Holmes, "save +only the overcoat, which is full of suggestive touches." He held +it tenderly towards the light. "Here, as you perceive, is the inner +pocket prolonged into the lining in such fashion as to give ample +space for the truncated fowling piece. The tailor's tab is on the +neck -- 'Neal, Outfitter, Vermissa, U. S. A.' I have spent an +instructive afternoon in the rector's library, and have enlarged +my knowledge by adding the fact that Vermissa is a flourishing +little town at the head of one of the best known coal and iron +valleys in the United States. I have some recollection, Mr. +Barker, that you associated the coal districts with Mr. Douglas's +first wife, and it would surely not be too far-fetched an inference +that the V. V. upon the card by the dead body might stand for +Vermissa Valley, or that this very valley which sends forth +emissaries of murder may be that Valley of Fear of which we +have heard. So much is fairly clear. And now, Mr. Barker, I +seem to be standing rather in the way of your explanation." + +It was a sight to see Cecil Barker's expressive face during this +exposition of the great detective. Anger, amazement, consternation, +and indecision swept over it in turn. Finally he took refuge in a +somewhat acrid irony. + +"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." + +"You can do what you damn please about that," said Barker +defiantly. + +The proceedings seemed to have come to a definite end so far +as he was concerned; for one had only to look at that granite face +to realize that no peine forte et dure would ever force him to +plead against his will. The deadlock was broken, however, by a +woman's voice. Mrs. Douglas had been standing listening at the +half opened door, and now she entered the room. + +"You have done enough for now, Cecil," said she. "Whatever +comes of it in the future, you have done enough." + +"Enough and more than enough," remarked Sherlock Holmes +gravely. "I have every sympathy with you, madam, and +should strongly urge you to have some confidence in the common +sense of our jurisdiction and to take the police voluntarily into +your complete confidence. It may be that I am myself at fault for +not following up the hint which you conveyed to me through my +friend, Dr. Watson; but, at that time I had every reason to +believe that you were directly concerned in the crime. Now I am +assured that this is not so. At the same time, there is much that is +unexplained, and I should strongly recommend that you ask Mr. +Douglas to tell us his own story." + +Mrs. Douglas gave a cry of astonishment at Holmes's words. +The detectives and I must have echoed it, when we were aware +of a man who seemed to have emerged from the wall, who +advanced now from the gloom of the corner in which he had +appeared. Mrs. Douglas turned, and in an instant her arms were +round him. Barker had seized his outstretched hand. + +"It's best this way, Jack," his wife repeated; "I am sure that +it is best." + +"Indeed, yes, Mr. Douglas," said Sherlock Holmes, "I am +sure that you will find it best." + +The man stood blinking at us with the dazed look of one who +comes from the dark into the light. It was a remarkable face, +bold gray eyes, a strong, short-clipped, grizzled moustache, a +square, projecting chin, and a humorous mouth. He took a good +look at us all, and then to my amazement he advanced to me and +handed me a bundle of paper. + +"I've heard of you," said he in a voice which was not quite +English and not quite American, but was altogether mellow and +pleasing. "You are the historian of this bunch. Well, Dr. Watson, +you've never had such a story as that pass through your hands +before, and I'll lay my last dollar on that. Tell it your own +way; but there are the facts, and you can't miss the public so +long as you have those. I've been cooped up two days, and I've +spent the daylight hours -- as much daylight as I could get in that +rat trap -- in putting the thing into words. You're welcome to +them -- you and your public. There's the story of the Valley of +Fear." + +"That's the past, Mr. Douglas," said Sherlock Holmes quietly. +"What we desire now is to hear your story of the present." + +"You'll have it, sir," said Douglas. "May I smoke as I talk? +Well, thank you, Mr. Holmes. You're a smoker yourself, if I +remember right, and you'll guess what it is to be sitting for two +days with tobacco in your pocket and afraid that the smell will +give you away." He leaned against the mantelpiece and sucked +at the cigar which Holmes had handed him. "I've heard of you +Mr. Holmes. I never guessed that I should meet you. But before +you are through with that," he nodded at my papers, "you will +say I've brought you something fresh." + +Inspector MacDonald had been staring at the newcomer with +the greatest amazement. "Well, this fairly beats me!" he cried at +last. "If you are Mr. John Douglas of Birlstone Manor, then +whose death have we been investigating for these two days, and +where in the world have you sprung from now? You seemed to +me to come out of the floor like a jack-in-a-box." + +"Ah, Mr. Mac," said Holmes, shaking a reproving forefinger, +"you would not read that excellent local compilation which +described the concealment of King Charles. People did not hide +in those days without excellent hiding places, and the 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." + +"Well, you figured it out about right," said Douglas approvingly. +"I thought I'd dodge your British law; for I was not sure how I +stood under it, and also I saw my chance to 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'm not going to begin at the beginning. That's all there," he +indicated my bundle of papers, "and a mighty queer yarn you'll +find it. It all comes down to this: That there are some men that +have good cause to hate me and would give their last dollar to +know that they had got me. So long as I am alive and they are +alive, there is no safety in this world for me. They hunted me +from Chicago to California, then they chased me out of America; +but when I married and settled down in this quiet spot I thought +my last years were going to be peaceable. + +"I never explained to my wife how things were. Why should I +pull her into it? She would never have a quiet moment again; but +would always be imagining trouble. I fancy she knew something, +for I may have dropped a word here or a word there; but until +yesterday, after you gentlemen had seen her, she never knew the +rights of the matter. She told you all she knew, and so did +Barker here; for on the night when this thing happened there was +mighty little time for explanations. She knows everything now, +and I would have been a wiser man if I had told her sooner. But +it was a hard question, dear," he took her hand for an instant in +his own, "and I acted for the best. + +"Well, gentlemen, the day before these happenings I was over +in Tunbridge Wells, and I got a glimpse of a man in the street. It +was only a glimpse; but I have a quick eye for these things, and I +never doubted who it was. It was the worst enemy I had among +them all -- one who has been after me like a hungry wolf after a +caribou all these years. I knew there was trouble coming, and I +came home and made ready for it. I guessed I'd fight through it +all right on my own, my luck was a proverb in the States about +'76. I never doubted that it would be with me still. + +"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 the +window curtain, and then I saw why plain enough. + +"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 Barker -- he took it all +in at a glance -- and we waited for the rest to come along. But +there was no sign of them. Then we understood that they could +hear nothing, and that all that had happened was known only to +ourselves. + +"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!" + +The man whom we had known as Douglas turned up his own +coat and cuff to show a brown triangle within a circle exactly +like that which we had seen upon the dead man. + +"It was the sight of that which started me on it. I seemed to +see it all clear at a glance. There were his height and hair and +figure, about the same as my own. No one could swear to his +face, poor devil! I brought down this suit of clothes, and in a +quarter of an hour Barker and I had put my dressing gown on +him and he lay as you found him. We tied all his things into a +bundle, and I weighted them with the only weight I could find +and put them through the window. The card he had meant to lay +upon my body was lying beside his own. + +"My rings were put on his finger; but when it came to the +wedding ring," he held out his muscular hand, "you can see 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. + +"I guess you can fill in for yourselves what he did. He opened +the window and made the mark on the sill to give an idea of how +the murderer escaped. It was a tall order, that; but as the bridge +was up there was no other way. Then, when everything was +fixed, he rang the bell for all he was worth. What happened +afterward you know. And so, gentlemen, you can do what you +please; but I've told you the truth and the whole truth, so help +me God! What I ask you now is how do I stand by the English +law?" + +There was a silence which was broken by Sherlock Holmes. + +"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?" + +"I know nothing of this." + +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." + +And now, my long-suffering readers, I will ask you to come +away with me for a time, far from the Sussex Manor House of +Birlstone, and far also from the year of grace in which we made +our eventful journey which ended with the strange story of the +man who had been known as John Douglas. I wish you to +journey back some twenty years in time, and westward some +thousands of miles in space, that I may lay before you a singular +and terrible narrative -- so singular and so terrible that you may +find it hard to believe that even as I tell it, even so did it occur. + +Do not think that I intrude one story before another is finished. +As you read on you will find that this is not so. And when I have +detailed those distant events and you have solved this mystery of +the past, we shall meet once more in those rooms on Baker +Street, where this, like so many other wonderful happenings, +will find its end. + + +PART 2 +The Scowrers + +Chapter 1 +The Man + + + +It was the fourth of February in the year 1875. It had been a +severe winter, and the snow lay deep in the gorges of the +Gilmerton Mountains. The steam ploughs had, however, kept the +railroad open, and the evening train which connects the long line +of coal-mining and iron-working settlements was slowly groaning +its way up the steep gradients which lead from Stagville on the +plain to Vermissa, the central township which lies at the head of +Vermissa Valley. From this point the track sweeps downward to +Bartons Crossing, Helmdale, and the purely agricultural county of +Merton. It was a single-track railroad; but at every siding -- +and they were numerous -- long lines of trucks piled with coal +and iron ore told of the hidden wealth which had brought a rude +population and a bustling life to this most desolate corner of the +United States of America. + +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, winding, tortuous valley in the +centre. Up this the little train was slowly crawling. + +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. + +Several women of the labouring class and one or two travellers +who might have been small local storekeepers made up the rest +of the company, with the exception of one young man in a +corner by himself. It is with this man that we are concerned. +Take a good look at him, for he is worth it. + +He is a fresh-complexioned, middle-sized young man, not far +one would guess, from his thirtieth year. He has large, shrewd, +humorous gray eyes which twinkle inquiringly from time to time +as he looks round through his spectacles at the people about him. +It is easy to see that he is of a sociable and possibly simple +disposition, anxious to be friendly to all men. Anyone could pick +him at once as gregarious in his habits and communicative in his +nature, with a quick wit and a ready smile. And yet the man who +studied him more closely might discern a certain firmness of jaw +and grim tightness about the lips which would warn him that +there were depths beyond, and that this pleasant, brown-haired +young Irishman might conceivably leave his mark for good or +evil upon any society to which he was introduced. + +Having made one or two tentative remarks to the nearest +miner, and receiving only short, gruff replies, the traveller +resigned himself to uncongenial silence, staring moodily out +of the window at the fading landscape. + +It was not a cheering prospect. Through the growing gloom +there pulsed the red glow of the furnaces on the sides of the hills. +Great heaps of slag and dumps of cinders loomed up on each +side, with the high shafts of the collieries towering above them. +Huddled groups of mean, wooden houses, the windows of which +were beginning to outline themselves in light, were scattered +here and there along the line, and the frequent halting places +were crowded with their swarthy inhabitants. + +The iron and coal valleys of the Vermissa district were no +resorts for the leisured or the cultured. Everywhere there 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. + +"Hullo, mate!" said he. "You seem heeled and ready." + +The young man smiled with an air of embarrassment. + +"Yes," said he, "we need them sometimes in the place I +come from." + +"And where may that be?" + +"I'm last from Chicago." + +"A stranger in these parts?" + +"Yes." + +"You may find you need it here," said the workman. + +"Ah! is that so?" The young man seemed interested. + +"Have you heard nothing of doings hereabouts?" + +"Nothing out of the way." + +"Why, I thought the country was full of it. You'll hear quick +enough. What made you come here?" + +"I heard there was always work for a willing man." + +"Are you a member of the union?" + +"Sure." + +"Then you'll get your job, I guess. Have you any friends?" + +"Not yet; but I have the means of making them." + +"How's that, then?" + +"I am one of the Eminent Order of Freemen. There's no town +without a lodge, and where there is a lodge I'll find my friends." + +The remark had a singular effect upon his companion. He +glanced round suspiciously at the others in the car. The miners +were still whispering among themselves. The two police officers +were dozing. He came across, seated himself close to the young +traveller, and held out his hand. + +"Put it there," he said. + +A hand-grip passed between the two. + +"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. + +"Dark nights are unpleasant," said the workman. + +"Yes, for strangers to travel," the other answered. + +"That's good enough. I'm Brother Scanlan, Lodge 341, +Vermissa Valley. Glad to see you in these parts." + +"Thank you. I'm Brother John McMurdo, Lodge 29, Chicago. +Bodymaster J. H. Scott. But I am in luck to meet a brother +so early." + +"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." + +"I found plenty of work to do," said McMurdo. + +"Then why did you leave?" + +McMurdo nodded towards the policemen and smiled. "I guess +those chaps would be glad to know," he said. + +Scanlan groaned sympathetically. "In trouble?" he asked in a +whisper. + +"Deep." + +"A penitentiary job?" + +"And the rest." + +"Not a killing!" + +"It's early days to talk of such things," said McMurdo with +the air of a man who had been surprised into saying more than he +intended. "I've my own good reasons for leaving Chicago, and +let that be enough for you. Who are you that you should take it +on yourself to ask such things?" His gray eyes gleamed with +sudden and dangerous anger from behind his glasses. + +"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?" + +McMurdo took out an envelope and held it close to the murky +oil lamp. "Here is the address -- Jacob Shafter, Sheridan Street. +It's a boarding house that was recommended by a man I knew in +Chicago." + +"Well, I don't know it; but Vermissa is out of my beat. I live +at Hobson's Patch, and that's here where we are drawing up. +But, say, there's one bit of advice I'll give you before we part: If +you're in trouble in Vermissa, go straight to the Union House +and see Boss McGinty. He is the Bodymaster of Vermissa +Lodge, and nothing can happen in these parts unless Black Jack +McGinty wants it. So long, mate! Maybe we'll meet in lodge +one of these evenings. But mind my words: If you are in trouble, +go to Boss McGinty." + +Scanlan descended, and McMurdo was left once again to his +thoughts. Night had now fallen, and the flames of the frequent +furnaces were roaring and leaping in the darkness. Against their +lurid background dark figures were bending and straining, twisting +and turning, with the motion of winch or of windlass, to the +rhythm of an eternal clank and roar. + +"I guess hell must look something like that," said a voice. + +McMurdo turned and saw that one of the policemen had +shifted in his seat and was staring out into the fiery waste. + +"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?" + +"Well, what if I am?" McMurdo answered in a surly voice. + +"Just this, mister, that I should advise you to be careful in +choosing your friends. I don't think I'd begin with Mike Scanlan +or his gang if I were you." + +"What the hell is it to you who are my friends?" roared +McMurdo in a voice which brought every head in the carriage +round to witness the altercation. "Did I ask you for your advice, +or did you think me such a sucker that I couldn't move without +it? You speak when you are spoken to, and by the Lord you'd +have to wait a long time if it was me!" He thrust out his face and +grinned at the patrolmen like a snarling dog. + +The two policemen, heavy, good-natured men, were taken +aback by the extraordinary vehemence with which their friendly +advances had been rejected. + +"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." + +"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 l? Day or night I dare to look the like of +you in the face -- don't make any mistake about that!" + +There was a murmur of sympathy and admiration from the +miners at the dauntless demeanour of the newcomer, while the +two policemen shrugged their shoulders and renewed a +conversation between themselves. + +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. + +"By Gar, mate! you know how to speak to the cops," he said +in a voice of awe. "It was grand to hear you. Let me carry your +grip and show you the road. I'm passing Shafter's on the way to +my own shack." + +There was a chorus of friendly "Good-nights" from the other +miners as they passed from the platform. Before ever he had set +foot in it, McMurdo the turbulent had become a character in +Vermissa. + +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. + +As they approached the centre of the town the scene was +brightened by a row of well-lit stores, and even more by a cluster +of saloons and gaming houses, in which the miners spent their +hard-earned but generous wages. + +"That's the Union House," said the guide, pointing to one +saloon which rose almost to the dignity of being a hotel. "Jack +McGinty is the boss there." + +"What sort of a man is he?" McMurdo asked. + +"What! have you never heard of the boss?" + +"How could I have heard of him when you know that I am a +stranger in these parts?" + +"Well, I thought his name was known clear across the country. +It's been in the papers often enough." + +"What for?" + +"Well," the miner lowered his voice -- "over the affairs." + +"What affairs?" + +"Good Lord, mister! you are queer, if I must say it without +offense. There's only one set of affairs that you'll hear of in +these parts, and that's the affairs of the Scowrers." + +"Why, I seem to have read of the Scowrers in Chicago. A +gang of murderers, are they not?" + +"Hush, on your life!" cried the miner, standing still in alarm, +and gazing in amazement at his companion. "Man, you won't +live long in these parts if you speak in the open street like that. +Many a man has had the life beaten out of him for less." + +"Well, I know nothing about them. It's only what I have +read." + +"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. + +It was opened at once by someone very different from what he +had expected. It was a woman, young and singularly beautiful. +She was of the German type, blonde and fair-haired, with the +piquant contrast of a pair of beautiful dark eyes with which she +surveyed the stranger with surprise and a pleasing embarrassment +which brought a wave of colour over her pale face. Framed in +the bright light of the open doorway, it seemed to McMurdo that +he had never seen a more beautiful picture; the more attractive +for its contrast with the sordid and gloomy surroundings. A +lovely violet growing upon one of those black slag-heaps of the +mines would not have seemed more surprising. So entranced was +he that he stood staring without a word, and it was she who +broke the silence. + +"I thought it was father," said she with a pleasing little touch +of a German accent. "Did you come to see him? He is downtown. +I expect him back every minute." + +McMurdo continued to gaze at her in open admiration until +her eyes dropped in confusion before this masterful visitor. + +"No, miss," he said at last, "I'm in no hurry to see him. But +your house was recommended to me for board. I thought it might +suit me -- and now I know it will." + +"You are quick to make up your mind," said she with a +smile. + +"Anyone but a blind man could do as much," the other +answered. + +She laughed at the compliment. "Come right in, sir," she +said. "I'm Miss Ettie Shafter, Mr. Shafter's daughter. My mother's +dead, and I run the house. You can sit down by the stove in the +front room until father comes along -- Ah, here he is! So you can +fix things with him right away." + + A heavy, elderly man came plodding up the path. In a few +words McMurdo explained his business. A man of the name of +Murphy had given him the address in Chicago. He in turn had +had it from someone else. Old Shafter was quite ready. The +stranger made no bones about terms, agreed at once to every +condition, and was apparently fairly flush of money. For seven +dollars a week paid in advance he was to have board and +lodging. + + So it was that McMurdo, the self-confessed fugitive from +justice, took up his abode under the roof of the Shafters, the first +step which was to lead to so long and dark a train of events, +ending in a far distant land. + + +Chapter 2 +The Bodymaster + + + +McMurdo was a man who made his mark quickly. Wherever he +was the folk around soon knew it. Within a week he had become +infinitely the most important person at Shafter's. There were ten +or a dozen boarders there; but they were honest foremen or +commonplace clerks from the stores, of a very different calibre +from the young Irishman. Of an evening when they gathered +together his joke was always the readiest, his conversation the +brightest, and his song the best. He was a born boon companion, +with a magnetism which drew good humour from all around +him. + +And yet he showed again and again, as he had shown in the +railway carriage, a capacity for sudden, fierce anger, which +compelled the respect and even the fear of those who met him. +For the law, too, and all who were connected with it, he +exhibited a bitter contempt which delighted some and alarmed +others of his fellow boarders. + +From the first he made it evident, by his open admiration, that +the daughter of the house had won his heart from the instant that +he had set eyes upon her beauty and her grace. He was no +backward suitor. On the second day he told her that he loved +her, and from then onward he repeated the same story with an +absolute disregard of what she might say to discourage him. + +"Someone else?" he would cry. "Well, the worse luck for +someone else! Let him look out for himself! Am I to lose my +life's chance and all my heart's desire for someone else? You +can keep on saying no, Ettie: the day will come when you will +say yes, and I'm young enough to wait." + +He was a dangerous suitor, with his glib Irish tongue, and his +pretty, coaxing ways. There was about him also that glamour of +experience and of mystery which attracts a woman's interest, and +finally her love. He could talk of the sweet valleys of County +Monaghan from which he came, of the lovely, distant island, the +low hills and green meadows of which seemed the more beautiful +when imagination viewed them from this place of grime and snow. + +Then he was versed in the life of the cities of the North, of +Detroit, and the lumber camps of Michigan, and finally of +Chicago, where he had worked in a planing mill. And afterwards +came the hint of romance, the feeling that strange things had +happened to him in that great city, so strange and so intimate that +they might not be spoken of. He spoke wistfully of a sudden +leaving, a breaking of old ties, a flight into a strange world, +ending in this dreary valley, and Ettie listened, her dark eyes +gleaming with pity and with sympathy -- those two qualities which +may turn so rapidly and so naturally to love. + +McMurdo had obtained a temporary job as bookkeeper; for he +was a well-educated man. This kept him out most of the day, and +he had not found occasion yet to report himself to the head of the +lodge of the Eminent Order of Freemen. He was reminded of his +omission, however, by a visit one evening from Mike Scanlan, +the fellow member whom he had met in the train. Scanlan, the +small, sharp-faced, nervous, black-eyed man, seemed glad to see +him once more. After a glass or two of whisky he broached the +object of his visit. + +"Say, McMurdo," said he, "I remembered your address, so l +made bold to call. I'm surprised that you've not reported to the +Bodymaster. Why haven't you seen Boss McGinty yet?" + +"Well, I had to find a job. I have been busy." + +"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!" + +McMurdo showed mild surprise. "I've been a member of the +lodge for over two years, Scanlan, but I never heard that duties +were so pressing as all that." + +"Maybe not in Chicago." + +"Well, it's the same society here." + +"Is it?" + +Scanlan looked at him long and fixedly. There was something +sinister in his eyes. + +"Isn't it?" + +"You'll tell me that in a month's time. I hear you had a talk +with the patrolmen after I left the train." + +"How did you know that?" + +"Oh, it got about -- things do get about for good and for bad in +this district." + +"Well, yes. I told the hounds what I thought of them." + +"By the Lord, you'll be a man after McGinty's heart!" + +"What, does he hate the police too?" + +Scanlan burst out laughing. "You go and see him, my lad," +said he as he took his leave. "It's not the police but you that +he'll hate if you don't! Now, take a friend's advice and go at +once!" + +It chanced that on the same evening McMurdo had another +more pressing interview which urged him in the same direction. +It may have been that his attentions to Ettie had been more +evident than before, or that they had gradually obtruded +themselves into the slow mind of his good German host; but, +whatever the cause, the boarding-house keeper beckoned the young +man into his private room and started on the subject without any +circumlocution . + +"It seems to me, mister," said he, "that you are gettin' set on +my Ettie. Ain't that so, or am I wrong?" + +"Yes, that is so," the young man answered. + +"Vell, I vant to tell you right now that it ain't no manner of +use. There's someone slipped in afore you." + +"She told me so." + +"Vell, you can lay that she told you truth. But did she tell you +who it vas?" + +"No, I asked her; but she wouldn't tell." + +"I dare say not, the leetle baggage! Perhaps she did not vish +to frighten you avay." + +"Frighten!" McMurdo was on fire in a moment. + +"Ah, yes, my friend! You need not be ashamed to be frightened +of him. It is Teddy Baldwin." + +"And who the devil is he?" + +"He is a boss of Scowrers." + +"Scowrers! I've heard of them before. It's Scowrers here and +Scowrers there, and always in a whisper! What are you all afraid +of? Who are the Scowrers?" + +The boarding-house keeper instinctively sank his voice, as +everyone did who talked about that terrible society. "The +Scowrers," said he, "are the Eminent Order of Freemen!" + +The young man stared. "Why, I am a member of that order +myself." + +"You! I vould never have had you in my house if I had known +it -- not if you vere to pay me a hundred dollar a week." + +"What's wrong with the order? It's for charity and good +fellowship. The rules say so." + +"Maybe in some places. Not here!" + +"What is it here?" + +"It's a murder society, that's vat it is." + +McMurdo laughed incredulously. "How can you prove that?" +he asked. + +"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?" + +"See here!" said McMurdo earnestly. "I want you to take +back what you've said, or else make it good. One or the other +you must do before I quit this room. Put yourself in my place. +Here am I, a stranger in the town. I belong to a society that I +know only as an innocent one. You'll find it through the length +and breadth of the States, but always as an innocent one. Now +when I am counting upon joining it here, you tell me that it is the +same as a murder society called the Scowrers. I guess you owe +me either an apology or else an explanation, Mr. Shafter." + +"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." + +"That's just gossip -- I want proof!" said McMurdo. + +"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!" + +McMurdo found himself under sentence of banishment both +from his comfortable quarters and from the girl whom he loved. +He found her alone in the sitting-room that same evening, and he +poured his troubles into her ear. + +"Sure, your father is after giving me notice," he said. "It's +little I would care if it was just my room, but indeed, Ettie, +though it's only a week that I've known you, you are the very +breath of life to me, and I can't live without you!" + +"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." + +"Suppose I had been first, Ettie, would I have had a chance?" + +The girl sank her face into her hands. "I wish to heaven that +you had been first!" she sobbed. + +McMurdo was down on his knees before her in an instant. +"For God's sake, Ettie, let it stand at that!" he cried. "Will you +ruin your life and my own for the sake of this promise? Follow +your heart, acushla! 'Tis a safer guide than any promise before +you knew what it was that you were saying." + +He had seized Ettie's white hand between his own strong +brown ones. + +"Say that you will be mine, and we will face it out together!" + +"Not here?" + +"Yes, here." + +"No, no, Jack!" His arms were round her now. "It could not +be here. Could you take me away?" + +A struggle passed for a moment over McMurdo's face; but it +ended by setting like granite. "No, here," he said. "I'll hold +you against the world, Ettie, right here where we are!" + +"Why should we not leave together?" + +"No, Ettie, I can't leave here." + +"But why?" + +"I'd never hold my head up again if I felt that I had been +driven out. Besides, what is there to be afraid of? Are we not +free folks in a free country? If you love me, and I you, who will +dare to come between?" + +"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." + +"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!" + +"Because no witness dares to appear against them. He would +not live a month if he did. Also because they have always their +own men to swear that the accused one was far from the scene of +the crime. But surely, Jack, you must have read all this. I had +understood that every paper in the United States was writing +about it." + +"Well, I have read something, it is true; but I had thought it +was a story. Maybe these men have some reason in what they +do. Maybe they are wronged and have no other way to help +themselves." + +"Oh, Jack, don't let me hear you speak so! That is how he +speaks -- the other one!" + +"Baldwin -- he speaks like that, does he?" + +"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." + +Again there was the struggle upon McMurdo's face, and again +it set like granite. "No harm shall come to you, Ettie -- nor to +your father either. As to wicked men, I expect you may find that +I am as bad as the worst of them before we're through." + +"No, no, Jack! I would trust you anywhere." + +McMurdo laughed bitterly. "Good Lord! how little you know +of me! Your innocent soul, my darling, could not even guess +what is passing in mine. But, hullo, who's the visitor?" + +The door had opened suddenly, and a young fellow came +swaggering in with the air of one who is the master. He was a +handsome, dashing young man of about the same age and build as +McMurdo himself. Under his broad-brimmed black felt hat, +which he had not troubled to remove, a handsome face with +fierce, domineering eyes and a curved hawk-bill of a nose looked +savagely at the pair who sat by the stove. + +Ettie had jumped to her feet full of confusion and alarm. "I'm +glad to see you, Mr. Baldwin," said she. "You're earlier than I +had thought. Come and sit down." + +Baldwin stood with his hands on his hips looking at McMurdo. +"Who is this?" he asked curtly. + +"It's a friend of mine, Mr. Baldwin, a new boarder here. Mr. +McMurdo, may I introduce you to Mr. Baldwin?'' + +The young men nodded in surly fashion to each other. + +"Maybe Miss Ettie has told you how it is with us?" said +Baldwin. + +"I didn't understand that there was any relation between +you." + +"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." + +"Thank you, I am in no humour for a walk." + +"Aren't you?" The man's savage eyes were blazing with +anger. "Maybe you are in a humour for a fight, Mr. Boarder!" + +"That I am!" cried McMurdo, springing to his feet. "You +never said a more welcome word." + +"For God's sake, Jack! Oh, for God's sake!" cried poor +distracted Ettie. "Oh, Jack, Jack, he will hurt you!" + +"Oh, it's Jack, is it?" said Baldwin with an oath. "You've +come to that already, have you?" + +"Oh, Ted, be reasonable -- be kind! For my sake, Ted, if ever +you loved me, be big-hearted and forgiving!" + +"I think, Ettie, that if you were to leave us alone we could get +this thing settled," said McMurdo quietly. "Or maybe, Mr. +Baldwin, you will take a turn down the street with me. It's a fine +evening, and there's some open ground beyond the next block." + +"I'll get even with you without needing to dirty my hands," +said his enemy. "You'll wish you had never set foot in this +house before I am through with you!" + +"No time like the present," cried McMurdo. + +"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?" + +"I neither know nor care!" + +"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. + +For a few moments McMurdo and the girl stood in silence. +Then she threw her arms around 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?" + +McMurdo disengaged her hands, kissed her, and gently pushed +her back into a chair. "There, acushla, there! Don't be disturbed +or fear for me. I'm a Freeman myself. I'm after telling your +father about it. Maybe I am no better than the others; so don't +make a saint of me. Perhaps you hate me too, now that I've told +you as much?" + +"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." + +The bar of McGinty's saloon was crowded as usual, for it was +the favourite loafing place of all the rougher elements of the +town. The man was popular; for he had a rough, jovial disposition +which formed a mask, covering a great deal which lay behind it. +But apart from this popularity, the fear in which he was held +throughout the township, and indeed down the whole thirty miles +of the valley and past the mountains on each side of it, was +enough in itself to fill his bar; for none could afford to neglect +his good will. + +Besides those secret powers which it was universally believed +that he exercised in so pitiless a fashion, he was a high public +official, a municipal councillor, and a commissioner of roads, +elected to the office through the votes of the ruffians who in turn +expected to receive favours at his hands. Assessments and taxes +were enormous; the public works were notoriously neglected, the +accounts were slurred over by bribed auditors, and the decent +citizen was terrorized into paying public blackmail, and holding +his tongue lest some worse thing befall him. + +Thus it was that, year by year, Boss McGinty's diamond pins +became more obtrusive, his gold chains more weighty across a +more gorgeous vest, and his saloon stretched farther and farther, +until it threatened to absorb one whole side of the Market Square. + +McMurdo pushed open the swinging door of the saloon and made his way +amid the crowd of men within, through an atmosphere blurred with +tobacco smoke and heavy with the smell of spirits. The place was +brilliantly lighted, and the huge, heavily gilt mirrors upon every +wall reflected and multiplied the garish illumination. There were +several bartenders in their shirt sleeves, hard at work mixing drinks +for the loungers who fringed the broad, brass-trimmed 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. + +All else in the man -- his noble proportions, his fine features, +and his frank bearing -- fitted in with that jovial, man-to-man +manner which he affected. Here, one would say, is a bluff, +honest fellow, whose heart would be sound however rude his +outspoken words might seem. It was only when those dead, dark +eyes, deep and remorseless, were turned upon a man that he +shrank within himself, feeling that he was face to face with an +infinite possibility of latent evil, with a strength and courage and +cunning behind it which made it a thousand times more deadly. + +Having had a good look at his man, McMurdo elbowed his way forward +with his usual careless audacity, and pushed himself through the +little group of courtiers who were fawning upon the powerful boss, +laughing uproariously at the smallest of his jokes. The young +stranger's bold gray eyes looked back fearlessly through their +glasses at the deadly black ones which turned sharply upon him. + +"Well, young man, I can't call your face to mind." + +"I'm new here, Mr. McGinty." + +"You are not so new that you can't give a gentleman his +proper title." + +"He's Councillor McGinty, young man," said a voice from +the group. + +"I'm sorry, Councillor. I'm strange to the ways of the place. +But I was advised to see you." + +"Well, you see me. This is all there is. What d'you think of +me?" + +"Well, it's early days. If your heart is as big as your body, and +your soul as fine as your face, then I'd ask for nothing better," +said McMurdo. + +"By Gar! you've got an Irish tongue in your head anyhow," +cried the saloon-keeper, not quite certain whether to humour this +audacious visitor or to stand upon his dignity. + +"So you are good enough to pass my appearance?" + +"Sure," said McMurdo. + +"And you were told to see me?" + +"I was." + +"And who told you?" + +"Brother Scanlan of Lodge 341, Vermissa. I drink your health +Councillor, and to our better acquaintance." He raised a glass +with which he had been served to his lips and elevated his little +finger as he drank it. + +McGinty, who had been watching him narrowly, raised his +thick black eyebrows. "Oh, it's like that, is it?" said he. "I'll +have to look a bit closer into this, Mister --" + +"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." + +There was a small room there, lined with barrels. McGinty +carefully closed the door, and then seated himself on one of +them, biting thoughtfully on his cigar and surveying his companion +with those disquieting eyes. For a couple of minutes he sat in +complete silence. McMurdo bore the inspection cheerfully, one +hand in his coat pocket, the other twisting his brown moustache. +Suddenly McGinty stooped and produced a wicked-looking revolver. + +"See here, my joker," said he, "if I thought you were +playing any game on us, it would be short work for you." + +"This is a strange welcome," McMurdo answered with some +dignity, "for the Bodymaster of a lodge of Freemen to give to a +stranger brother." + +"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?" + +"Lodge 29, Chicago." + +"When?" + +"June 24, 1872." + +"What Bodymaster?" + +"James H. Scott." + +"Who is your district ruler?" + +"Bartholomew Wilson." + +"Hum! You seem glib enough in your tests. What are you +doing here?" + +"Working, the same as you -- but a poorer job." + +"You have your back answer quick enough." + +"Yes, I was always quick of speech." + +"Are you quick of action?" + +"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?" + +"I've heard that it takes a man to be a brother." + +"True for you, Mr. McMurdo. Why did you leave Chicago?" + +"I'm damned if I tell you that!" + +McGinty opened his eyes. He was not used to being answered +in such fashion, and it amused him. "Why won't you tell me?" + +"Because no brother may tell another a lie." + +"Then the truth is too bad to tell?" + +"You can put it that way if you like." + +"See here, mister, you can't expect me, as Bodymaster, to +pass into the lodge a man for whose past he can't answer." + +McMurdo looked puzzled. Then he took a worn newspaper +cutting from an inner pocket. + +"You wouldn't squeal on a fellow?" said he. + +"I'll wipe my hand across your face if you say such words to +me!" cried McGinty hotly. + +"You are right, Councillor," said McMurdo meekly. "I should +apologize. I spoke without thought. Well, I know that I am safe +in your hands. Look at that clipping." + +McGinty glanced his eyes over the account of the shooting of +one Jonas Pinto, in the Lake Saloon, Market Street, Chicago, in +the New Year week of 1874. + +"Your work?" he asked, as he handed back the paper. + +McMurdo nodded. + +"Why did you shoot him?" + +"I was helping Uncle Sam to make dollars. Maybe mine were +not as good gold as his, but they looked as well and were cheaper +to make. This man Pinto helped me to shove the queer --" + +"To do what?" + +"Well, it means to pass the dollars out into circulation. Then +he said he would split. Maybe he did split. I didn't wait to see. I +just killed him and lighted out for the coal country." + +"Why the coal country?" + +" 'Cause I'd read in the papers that they weren't too particular +in those parts." + +McGinty laughed. "You were first a coiner and then a murderer, +and you came to these parts because you thought you'd be welcome." + +"That's about the size of it," McMurdo answered. + +"Well, I guess you'll go far. Say, can you make those dollars +yet?" + +McMurdo took half a dozen from his pocket. "Those never +passed the Philadelphia mint," said he. + +"You don't say!" McGinty held them to the light in his +enormous hand, which was hairy as a gorilla's. "I can see no +difference. Gar! you'll be a mighty useful brother, I'm thinking! +We can do with a bad man or two among us, Friend McMurdo: +for there are times when we have to take our own part. We'd +soon be against the wall if we didn't shove back at those that +were pushing us." + +"Well, I guess I'll do my share of shoving with the rest of the +boys." + +"You seem to have a good nerve. You didn't squirm when I +shoved this gun at you." + +"It was not me that was in danger." + +"Who then?" + +"It was you, Councillor." McMurdo drew a cocked pistol +from the side pocket of his peajacket. "I was covering you all +the time. I guess my shot would have been as quick as yours." + +"By Gar!" McGinty flushed an angry red and then burst into +a roar of laughter. "Say, we've had no such holy terror 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 have 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 +goodnight, Councillor." + +He left the bar-room; 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 feted 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: + + "DEAR SIR: + + "There is a job to be done on Andrew Rae of Rae & + + Sturmash, coal owners near this place. You will remember + + that your lodge owes us a return, having had the service of + + two brethren in the matter of the patrolman last fall. You + + will send two good men, they will be taken charge of by + + Treasurer Higgins of this lodge, whose address you know. + + He will show them when to act and where. Yours in freedom, + + "J. W. WINDLE D. M. A. 0. F. + +"Windle has never refused us when we have had occasion to +ask for the loan of a man or two, and it is not for us to refuse +him." McGinty paused and looked round the room with his dull, +malevolent eyes. "Who will volunteer for the job?" + +Several young fellows held up their hands. The Bodymaster +looked at them with an approving smile. + +"You'll do, Tiger Cormac. If you handle it as well as you did +the last, you won't be wrong. And you, Wilson." + +"I've no pistol," said the volunteer, a mere boy in his teens. + +"It's your first, is it not? Well, you have to be blooded some +time. It will be a great start for you. As to the pistol, you'll find +it waiting for you, or I'm mistaken. If you report yourselves on +Monday, it will be time enough. You'll get a great welcome +when you return." + +"Any reward this time?" asked Cormac, a thick-set, dark- +faced, brutal-looking young man, whose ferocity had earned him +the nickname of "Tiger." + +"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." + +"What has the man done?" asked young Wilson. + +"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." + +"Who are they?" asked someone. + +"Faith, it is wiser not to ask. If you know nothing, you can +testify nothing, and no trouble can come of it. But they are men +who will make a clean job when they are about it." + +"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." + +"Get what?" McMurdo whispered to his neighbour. + +"The business end of a buckshot cartridge!" cried the man +with a loud laugh. "What think you of our ways, Brother?" + +McMurdo's criminal soul seemed to have already absorbed the +spirit of the vile association of which he was now a member. "I +like it well," said he. " 'Tis a proper place for a lad of mettle." + +Several of those who sat around heard his words and applauded +them. + +"What's that?" cried the black-maned Bodymaster from the +end of the table. + +" 'Tis our new brother, sir, who finds our ways to his taste." + +McMurdo rose to his feet for an instant. "I would say, +Eminent Bodymaster, that if a man should be wanted I should +take it as an honour to be chosen to help the lodge." + +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. + +"I would move," said the secretary, Harraway, a vulture- +faced old graybeard who sat near the chairman, "that Brother +McMurdo should wait until it is the good pleasure of the lodge to +employ him." + +"Sure, that was what I meant; I'm in your hands," said +McMurdo. + +"Your time will come, Brother," said the chairman. "We +have marked you down as a willing man, and we believe that +you will do good work in these parts. There is a small matter +to-night in which you may take a hand if it so please you." + +"I will wait for something that is worth while." + +"You can come to-night, anyhow, and it will help you to know what +we stand for in this community. I will make the announcement later. +Meanwhile," he glanced at his agenda paper, "I have one or two more +points to bring before the meeting. First of all, I will ask the +treasurer as to our bank balance. There is the pension to Jim +Carnaway's widow. He was struck down doing the work of the lodge, +and it is for us to see that she is not the loser." + +"Jim was shot last month when they tried to kill Chester +Wilcox of Marley Creek," McMurdo's neighbour informed him. + +"The funds are good at the moment," said the treasurer, with +the bankbook in front of him. "The firms have been generous of +late. Max Linder & Co. paid five hundred to be left alone. +Walker Brothers sent in a hundred; but I took it on myself to +return it and ask for five. If I do not hear by Wednesday, their +winding gear may get out of order. We had to burn their breaker +last year before they became reasonable. Then the West Section +Coaling Company has paid its annual contribution. We have +enough on hand to meet any obligations." + +"What about Archie Swindon?" asked a brother. + +"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." + +An elderly, clean-shaved man with a kindly face and a good +brow rose from the end of the table which faced the chairman. +"Mr. Treasurer," he asked, "may I ask who has bought the +property of this man that we have driven out of the district?" + +"Yes, Brother Morris. It has been bought by the State & Merton +County Railroad Company." + +"And who bought the mines of Todman and of Lee that came +into the market in the same way last year?" + +"The same company, Brother Morris." + +"And who bought the ironworks of Manson and of Shuman and of +Van Deher and of Atwood, which have all been given up of late?" + +"They were all bought by the West Gilmerton General Mining Company." + +"I don't see, Brother Morris," said the chairman, "that it matters to +us who buys them, since they can't carry them out of the district." + +"With all respect to you, Eminent Bodymaster, I think it may +matter very much to us. This process has been going on now for +ten long years. We are gradually driving all the small men out of +trade. What is the result? We find in their places great companies +like the Railroad or the General Iron, who have their directors in +New York or Philadelphia, and care nothing for our threats. We +can take it out of their local bosses, but it only means that others +will be sent in their stead. And we are making it dangerous for +ourselves. The small men could not harm us. They had not the money +nor the power. So long as we did not squeeze them too dry, they +would stay on under our power. But if these big companies find +that we stand between them and their profits, they will spare +no pains and no expense to hunt us down and bring us to court." + +There was a hush at these ominous words, and every face darkened +as gloomy looks were exchanged. So omnipotent and unchallenged +had they been that the very thought that there was possible +retribution in the background had been banished from their minds. +And yet the idea struck a chill to the most reckless of them. + +"It is my advice," the speaker continued, "that we go easier +upon the small men. On the day that they have all been driven +out the power of this society will have been broken." + +Unwelcome truths are not popular. There were angry cries as the +speaker resumed his seat. McGinty rose with gloom upon his brow. + +"Brother Morris," said he, "you were always a croaker. So +long as the members of this lodge stand together there is no +power in the United States that can touch them. Sure, have we +not tried it often enough in the law courts? I expect the big +companies will find it easier to pay than to fight, same as the +little companies do. And now, Brethren," McGinty took off his +black velvet cap and his stole as he spoke, "this lodge has +finished its business for the evening, save for one small matter +which may be mentioned when we are parting. The time has now +come for fraternal refreshment and for harmony." + +Strange indeed is human nature. Here were these men, to +whom murder was familiar, who again and again had struck +down the father of the family, some man against whom they had +no personal feeling, without one thought of compunction or of +compassion for his weeping wife or helpless children, and yet +the tender or pathetic in music could move them to tears. McMurdo +had a fine tenor voice, and if he had failed to gain the good +will of the lodge before, it could no longer have been withheld +after he had thrilled them with "I'm Sitting on the Stile, Mary," +and "On the Banks of Allan Water." + +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?" + +There was a murmur of assent, with many a muttered oath. +McGinty took a slip of paper from his waistcoat pocket. + + "LAW AND ORDER! + +That's how he heads it. + + "REIGN OF TERROR IN THE COAL AND IRON DISTRICT + + "Twelve years have now elapsed since the first assassinations + + which proved the existence of a criminal organization in our + + midst. From that day these outrages have never ceased, until + + now they have reached a pitch which makes us the opprobrium + + of the civilized world. Is it for such results as this that + + our great country welcomes to its bosom the alien who flies + + from the despotisms of Europe? Is it that they shall + + themselves become tyrants over the very men who have given + + them shelter, and that a state of terrorism and lawlessness + + should be established under the very shadow of the sacred + + folds of the starry Flag of Freedom which would raise horror + + in our minds if we read of it as existing under the most + + effete monarchy of the East? The men are known. The organization + + is patent and public. How long are we to endure it? Can we + + forever live -- + +Sure, I've read enough of the slush!" cried the chairman, +tossing the paper down upon the table. "That's what he says of us. +The question I'm asking you is what shall we say to him?" + +"Kill him!" cried a dozen fierce voices. + +"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." + +"And how would they bring about our destruction, Mr. Standback?" +cried McGinty. "Is it by the police? Sure, half of them are in our +pay and half of them afraid of us. Or is it by the law courts and +the judge? Haven't we tried that before now, and what ever came of it?" + +"There is a Judge Lynch that might try the case," said Brother Morris. + +A general shout of anger greeted the suggestion. + +"I have but to raise my finger," cried McGinty, "and I could +put two hundred men into this town that would clear it out from +end to end." Then suddenly raising his voice and bending his +huge black brows into a terrible frown, "See here, Brother +Morris, I have my eye on you, and have had for some time! +You've no heart yourself, and you try to take 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." + +Morris had turned deadly pale, and his knees seemed to give +way under him as he fell back into his chair. He raised his glass +in his trembling hand and drank before he could answer. "I +apologize, Eminent Bodymaster, to you and to every brother in +this lodge if I have said more than I should. I am a faithful +member -- you all know that -- and it is my fear lest evil come to +the lodge which makes me speak in anxious words. But I have +greater trust in your judgment than in my own, Eminent +Bodymaster, and I promise you that I will not offend again." + +The Bodymaster's scowl relaxed as he listened to the humble words. +"Very good, Brother Morris. It's myself that would be sorry if it +were needful to give you a lesson. But so long as I am in this +chair we shall be a united lodge in word and in deed. And now, boys," +he continued, looking round at the company, "I'll say this much, that +if Stanger got his full deserts there would be more trouble than we +need ask for. These editors hang together, and every journal in the +state would be crying out for police and troops. But I guess you can +give him a pretty severe warning. Will you fix it, Brother Baldwin?" + +"Sure!" said the young man eagerly. + +"How many will you take?" + +"Half a dozen, and two to guard the door. You'll come, Gower, +and you, Mansel, and you, Scanlan, and the two Willabys." + +"I promised the new brother he should go," said the chairman. + +Ted Baldwin looked at McMurdo with eyes which showed that +he had not forgotten nor forgiven. "Well, he can come if he +wants," he said in a surly voice. "That's enough. The sooner +we get to work the better." + +The company broke up with shouts and yells and snatches of +drunken song. The bar was still crowded with revellers, and +many of the brethren remained there. The little band who had +been told off for duty passed out into the street, proceeding in +twos and threes along the sidewalk so as not to provoke attention. +It was a bitterly cold night, with a half-moon shining brilliantly +in a frosty, star-spangled sky. The men stopped and gathered in a +yard which faced a high building. The words "Vermissa Herald" were +printed in gold lettering between the brightly lit windows. From +within came the clanking of the printing press. + +"Here, you," said Baldwin to McMurdo, "you can stand +below at the door and see that the road is kept open for us. +Arthur Willaby can stay with you. You others come with me. +Have no fears, boys; for we have a dozen witnesses that we are +in the Union Bar at this very moment." + +It was nearly midnight, and the street was deserted save for +one or two revellers upon their way home. The party crossed the +road, and, pushing open the door of the newspaper office, +Baldwin and his men rushed in and up the stair which faced +them. McMurdo and another remained below. From the room +above came a shout, a cry for help, and then the sound of +trampling feet and of falling chairs. An instant later a gray-haired +man rushed out on the landing. + +He was seized before he could get farther, and his spectacles +came tinkling down to McMurdo's feet. There was a thud and a +groan. He was on his face, and half a dozen sticks were clattering +together as they fell upon him. He writhed, and his long, thin +limbs quivered under the blows. The others ceased at last; but +Baldwin, his cruel face set in an infernal smile, was hacking at +the man's head, which he vainly endeavoured to defend with his +arms. His white hair was dabbled with patches of blood. Baldwin +was still stooping over his victim, putting in a short, vicious +blow whenever he could see a part exposed, when McMurdo dashed +up the stair and pushed him back. + +"You'll kill the man," said he. "Drop it!" + +Baldwin looked at him in amazement. "Curse you!" he cried. +"Who are you to interfere -- you that are new to the lodge? Stand +back!" He raised his stick; but McMurdo had whipped his pistol +out of his hip pocket. + +"Stand back yourself!" he cried. "I'll blow your face in if +you lay a hand on me. As to the lodge, wasn't it the order of the +Bodymaster that the man was not to be killed -- and what are you +doing but killing him?" + +"It's truth he says," remarked one of the men. + +"By Gar! you'd best hurry yourselves!" cried the man below. +"The windows are all lighting up, and you'll have the whole +town here inside of five minutes." + +There was indeed the sound of shouting in the street, and a +little group of compositors and pressmen was forming in the hall +below and nerving itself to action. Leaving the limp and motionless +body of the editor at the head of the stair, the criminals rushed +down and made their way swiftly along the street. Having reached +the Union House, some of them mixed with the crowd in McGinty's +saloon, 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 +The Valley of Fear + + + +When McMurdo awoke next morning he had good reason to +remember his initiation into the lodge. His head ached with the +effect of the drink, and his arm, where he had been branded, was +hot and swollen. Having his own peculiar source of income, he +was irregular in his attendance at his work; so he had a late +breakfast, and remained at home for the morning writing a long +letter to a friend. Afterwards he read the Daily Herald. In a +special column put in at the last moment he read: + + OUTRAGE AT THE HERALD OFFICE -- EDITOR + + SERIOUSLY INJURED. + +It was a short account of the facts with which he was himself more +familiar than the writer could have been. It ended with the statement: + + The matter is now in the hands of the police; but it can + + hardly be hoped that their exertions will be attended by any + + better results than in the past. Some of the men were + + recognized, and there is hope that a conviction may be + + obtained. The source of the outrage was, it need hardly be + + said, that infamous society which has held this community + + in bondage for so long a period, and against which the + + Herald has taken so uncompromising a stand. Mr. Stanger's + + many friends will rejoice to hear that, though he has been + + cruelly and brutally beaten, and though he has sustained + + severe injuries about the head, there is no immediate danger + + to his life. + +Below it stated that a guard of police, armed with Winchester +rifles, had been requisitioned for the defense of the office. + +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: + + I should wish to speak to you, but would rather not do so + + in your house. You will find me beside the flagstaff upon + + Miller Hill. If you will come there now, I have something + + which it is important for you to hear and for me to say. + +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. But it was the writing of a man, +and of a well educated one, too. Finally, after some hesitation, +he determined to see the matter through. + +Miller Hill is an ill-kept public park in the very centre of the +town. In summer it is a favourite resort of the people; but in +winter it is desolate enough. From the top of it one has a view +not only of the whole straggling, grimy town, but of the winding +valley beneath, with its scattered mines and factories blackening +the snow on each side of it, and of the wooded and white-capped +ranges flanking it. + +McMurdo strolled up the winding path hedged in with evergreens +until he reached the deserted restaurant which forms the centre +of summer gaiety. Beside it was a bare flagstaff, and underneath +it a man, his hat drawn down and the collar of his overcoat +turned up. When he turned his face McMurdo saw that it was Brother +Morris, he who had incurred the anger of the Bodymaster the night +before. The lodge sign was given and exchanged as they met. + +"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." + +"Why did you not put your name to the note?" + +"One has to be cautious, mister. One never knows in times +like these how a thing may come back to one. One never knows +either who to trust or who not to trust." + +"Surely one may trust brothers of the lodge." + +"No, no, not always," cried Morris with vehemence. "Whatever +we say, even what we think, seems to go back to that man McGinty." + +"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." + +McMurdo, who had been watching his companion very narrowly, +relaxed somewhat in his bearing. "Sure I spoke for myself +only," said he. "I am a newcomer, as you know, and I am +strange to it all. It is not for me to open my mouth, Mr. +Morris, and if you think well to say anything to me I am +here to hear it." + +"And to take it back to Boss McGinty!" said Morris bitterly. + +"Indeed, then, you do me injustice there," cried McMurdo. +"For myself I am loyal to the lodge, and so l tell you straight; +but I would be a poor creature if I were to repeat to any other +what you might say to me in confidence. It will go no further +than me; though I warn you that you may get neither help nor +sympathy." + +"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." + +"Well, what have you to say?" + +"If you give me away, may a curse be on you!" + +"Sure, I said I would not." + +"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?" + +"If you call it crime," McMurdo answered. + +"Call it crime!" cried Morris, his voice vibrating with passion. +"You have seen little of it if you can call it anything else. Was +it crime last night when a man old enough to be your father was +beaten till the blood dripped from his white hairs? Was that crime -- +or what else would you call it?" + +"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?" + +"No, I'm bound to say I did not." + +"Nor did I when I joined it at Philadelphia. It was just a +benefit club and a meeting place for one's fellows. Then I heard +of this place -- curse the hour that the name first fell upon my +ears! -- and I came to better myself! My God! to better myself! +My wife and three children came with me. I started a dry goods +store on Market Square, and I prospered well. The word had +gone round that I was a Freeman, and I was forced to join the +local lodge, same as you did last night. I've the badge of shame +on my forearm and something worse branded on my heart. I +found that I was under the orders of a black villain and caught in +a meshwork of crime. What could I do? Every word I said to +make things better was taken as treason, same as it was last +night. I can't get away; for all I have in the world is in my store. +If I leave the society, I know well that it means murder to me, +and God knows what to my wife and children. Oh, man, it is +awful -- awful!" He put his hands to his face, and his body shook +with convulsive sobs. + +McMurdo shrugged his shoulders. "You were too soft for the job," +said he. "You are the wrong sort for such work." + +"I had a conscience and a religion; but they made me a +criminal among them. I was chosen for a job. If I backed down +I knew well what would come to me. Maybe I'm a coward. +Maybe it's the thought of my poor little woman and the children +that makes me one. Anyhow I went. I guess it will haunt me forever. + +"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 Fred that would be screaming for his father. + +"But I was a criminal then, part sharer in a murder, lost +forever in this world, and lost also in the next. I am a good +Catholic; but the priest would have no word with me when he +heard I was a Scowrer, and I am excommunicated from my faith. +That's how it stands with me. And T see you going down the same +road, and I ask you what the end is to be. Are you ready to be +a cold-blooded murderer also, or can we do anything to stop it?" + +"What would you do?" asked McMurdo abruptly. "You would not inform?" + +"God forbid!" cried Morris. "Sure, the very thought would +cost me my life." + +"That's well," said McMurdo. "I'm thinking that you are a +weak man and that you make too much of the matter." + +"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." + +"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 --" + +"No, no!" cried Morris piteously. + +"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." + +"Ah! that's well thought of." + +"I offer you a clerkship in my store." + +"And I refuse it. That's our business. Well, so long, Brother Morris, +and may you find things go better with you in the future." + +That same afternoon, as McMurdo sat smoking, lost in thought +beside the stove of his sitting-room, the door swung open and its +framework was filled with the huge figure of Boss McGinty. He +passed the sign, and then seating himself opposite to the young +man he looked at him steadily for some time, a look which was +as steadily returned. + +"I'm not much of a visitor, Brother McMurdo," he said at last. +"I guess I am too busy over the folk that visit me. But I thought +I'd stretch a point and drop down to see you in your own house." + +"I'm proud to see you here, Councillor," McMurdo answered heartily, +bringing his whisky bottle out of the cupboard. "It's an honour +that I had not expected." + +"How's the arm?" asked the Boss. + +McMurdo made a wry face. "Well, I'm not forgetting it," he said; +"but it's worth it." + +"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?" + +The question came so suddenly that it was well that he had his +answer prepared. He burst into a hearty laugh. "Morris didn't +know I could earn a living here at home. He shan't know either; +for he has got too much conscience for the likes of me. But he's +a good-hearted old chap. It was his idea that I was at a loose +end, and that he would do me a good turn by offering me a +clerkship in a dry goods store." + +"Oh, that was it?" + +"Yes, that was it." + +"And you refused it?" + +"Sure. Couldn't I earn ten times as much in my own bedroom +with four hours' work?" + +"That's so. But I wouldn't get about too much with Morris." + +"Why not?" + +"Well, I guess because I tell you not. That's enough for most +folk in these parts." + +"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." + +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." + +"Nor against me?" + +"No." + +"Well, that's because he daren't trust you. But in his heart he +is not a loyal brother. We know that well. So we watch him and +we wait for the time to admonish him. I'm thinking that the time +is drawing near. There's no room for scabby sheep in our pen. +But if you keep company with a disloyal man, we might think +that you were disloyal, too. See?" + +"There's no chance of my keeping company with him; for I +dislike the man," McMurdo answered. "As to being disloyal, if +it was any man but you he would not use the word to me twice." + +"Well, that's enough," said McGinty, draining off his glass. +"I came down to give you a word in season, and you've had it." + +"I'd like to know," said McMurdo, "how you ever came to +learn that I had spoken with Morris at all?" + +McGinty laughed. "It's my business to know what goes on in +this township," said he. "I guess you'd best reckon on my +hearing all that passes. Well, time's up, and I'll just say --" + +But his leavetaking was cut short in a very unexpected fashion. +With a sudden crash the door flew open, and three frowning, +intent faces glared in at them from under the peaks of police +caps. McMurdo sprang to his feet and half drew his revolver; but +his arm stopped midway as he became conscious that two +Winchester rifles were levelled at his head. A man in uniform +advanced into the room, a six-shooter in his hand. It was Captain +Marvin, once of Chicago, and now of the Mine Constabulary. +He shook his head with a half-smile at McMurdo. + +"I thought you'd be getting into trouble, Mr. Crooked +McMurdo of Chicago," said he. "Can't keep out of it, can you? +Take your hat and come along with us." + +"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?" + +"You're standing out in this deal, Councillor McGinty," said +the police captain. "We are not out after you, but after this man +McMurdo. It is for you to help, not to hinder us in our duty," + +"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." + +"There's my pistol," said McMurdo coolly. "Maybe, Captain +Marvin, if you and I were alone and face to face you would not +take me so easily." + +"Where's your warrant?" asked McGinty. "By Gar! a man +might as well live in Russia as in Vermissa while folk like you +are running the police. It's a capitalist outrage, and you'll hear +more of it, I reckon." + +"You do what you think is your duty the best way you can, +Councillor. We'll look after ours." + +"What am I accused of?" asked McMurdo. + +"Of being concerned in the beating of old Editor Stanger at +the Herald office. It wasn't your fault that it isn't a murder +charge." + +"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." + +"That's your affair, and I guess you can settle it in court +to-morrow. Meanwhile, come on, McMurdo, and come quietly +if you don't want a gun across your head. You stand wide, +Mr. McGinty; for I warn you I will stand no resistance when +I am on duty!" + +So determined was the appearance of the captain that both +McMurdo and his boss were forced to accept the situation. The +latter managed to have a few whispered words with the prisoner +before they parted. + +"What about --" he jerked his thumb upward to signify the +coining plant. + +"All right," whispered McMurdo, who had devised a safe +hiding place under the floor. + +"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." + +He did so; but apparently found no trace of the concealed +plant. When he had descended he and his men escorted McMurdo +to headquarters. Darkness had fallen, and a keen blizzard +was blowing so that the streets were nearly deserted; but a few +loiterers followed the group, and emboldened by invisibility +shouted imprecations at the prisoner. + +"Lynch the cursed Scowrer!" they cried. "Lynch him!" They +laughed and jeered as he was pushed into the police station. +After a short, formal examination from the inspector in charge he +was put into the common cell. Here he found Baldwin and three +other criminals of the night before, all arrested that afternoon and +waiting their trial next morning. + +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. + +Nor had they cause, as the result was to show. The magistrate +could not possibly, on the evidence, have held them for a higher +court. On the one hand the compositors and pressmen were forced +to admit that the light was uncertain, that they were themselves +much perturbed, and that it was difficult for them to swear to the +identity of the assailants; although they believed that the accused +were among them. Cross examined by the clever attorney who +had been engaged by McGinty, they were even more nebulous in +their evidence. + +The injured man had already deposed that he was so taken by +surprise by the suddenness of the attack that he could state +nothing beyond the fact that the first man who struck him wore a +moustache. He added that he knew them to be Scowrers, since +no one else in the community could possibly have any enmity to +him, and he had long been threatened on account of his outspoken +editorials. On the other hand, it was clearly shown by the +united and unfaltering evidence of six citizens, including that +high municipal official, Councillor McGinty, that the men had +been at a card party at the Union House until an hour very much +later than the commission of the outrage. + +Needless to say that they were discharged with something very +near to an apology from the bench for the inconvenience to +which they had been put, together with an implied censure of +Captain Marvin and the police for their officious zeal. + +The verdict was greeted with loud applause by a court in +which McMurdo saw many familiar faces. Brothers of the lodge +smiled and waved. But there were others who sat with compressed +lips and brooding eyes as the men filed out of the dock. One of +them, a little, dark-bearded, resolute fellow, put the thoughts +of himself and comrades into words as the ex-prisoners passed him. + +"You damned murderers!" he said. "We'll fix you yet!" + + +Chapter 5 +The Darkest Hour + + + +If anything had been needed to give an impetus to Jack McMurdo's +popularity among his fellows it would have been his arrest and +acquittal. That a man on the very night of joining the lodge should +have done something which brought him before the magistrate was a +new record in the annals of the society. Already he had earned +the reputation of a good boon companion, a cheery reveller, and +withal a man of high temper, who would not take an insult even +from the all-powerful Boss himself. But in addition to this he +impressed his comrades with the idea that among them all there +was not one whose brain was so ready to devise a bloodthirsty +scheme, or whose hand would be more capable of carrying it out. +"He'll be the boy for the clean job," said the oldsters to one +another, and waited their time until they could set him to his work. + +McGinty had instruments enough already; but he recognized +that this was a supremely able one. He felt like a man holding a +fierce bloodhound in leash. There were curs to do the smaller +work; but some day he would slip this creature upon its prey. A +few members of the lodge, Ted Baldwin among them, resented +the rapid rise of the stranger and hated him for it; but they kept +clear of him, for he was as ready to fight as to laugh. + +But if he gained favour with his fellows, there was another +quarter, one which had become even more vital to him, in which +he lost it. Ettie Shafter's father would have nothing more to do +with him, nor would he allow him to enter the house. Ettie +herself was too deeply in love to give him up altogether, and yet +her own good sense warned her of what would come from a +marriage with a man who was regarded as a criminal. + +One morning after a sleepless night she determined to see him, +possibly for the last time, and make one strong endeavour to +draw him from those evil influences which were sucking him +down. She went to his house, as he had often begged her to do, +and made her way into the room which he used as his sitting- +room. He was seated at a table, with his back turned and a letter +in front of him. A sudden spirit of girlish mischief came over +her -- she was still only nineteen. He had not heard her when she +pushed open the door. Now she tiptoed forward and laid her +hand lightly upon his bended shoulders. + +If she had expected to startle him, she certainly succeeded; but +only in turn to be startled herself. With a tiger spring he turned +on her, and his right hand was feeling for her throat. At the same +instant with the other hand he crumpled up the paper that lay before him. +For an instant he stood glaring. Then astonishment and joy took the +place of the ferocity which had convulsed his features -- a ferocity +which had sent her shrinking back in horror as from something which +had never before intruded into her gentle life. + +"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." + +But she had not recovered from that sudden glimpse of guilty +fear which she had read in the man's face. All her woman's +instinct told her that it was not the mere fright of a man who is +startled. Guilt -- that was it -- guilt and fear! + +"What's come over you, lack?" 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!" + +"Sure, I was thinking of other things, and when you came +tripping so lightly on those fairy feet of yours --" + +"No, no, it was more than that, Jack." Then a sudden +suspicion seized her. "Let me see that letter you were writing." + +"Ah, Ettie, I couldn't do that." + +Her suspicions became certainties. "It's to another woman," +she cried. "I know it! Why else should you hold it from me? +Was it to your wife that you were writing? How am I to know +that you are not a married man -- you, a stranger, that nobody +knows?" + +"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!" + +He was so white with passionate earnestness that she could not +but believe him. + +"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?" + +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?" + +"How can it ever be at ease, Jack, when I know that you are a +criminal among criminals, when I never know the day that I may +hear you are in court for murder? 'McMurdo the Scowrer,' that's +what one of our boarders called you yesterday. It went through +my heart like a knife." + +"Sure, hard words break no bones." + +"But they were true." + +"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!" + +He raised her and soothed her with her head against his breast. + +"Sure, my darlin', you don't know what it is you are asking. +How could I give it up when it would be to break my oath and to +desert my comrades? If you could see how things stand with me +you could never ask it of me. Besides, if I wanted to, how could +I do it? You don't suppose that the lodge would let a man go free +with all its secrets?" + +"I've thought of that, Jack. I've planned it all. Father has +saved some money. He is weary of this place where the fear of +these people darkens our lives. He is ready to go. We would fly +together to Philadelphia or New York, where we would be safe +from them." + +McMurdo laughed. "The lodge has a long arm. Do you think +it could not stretch from here to Philadelphia or New York?" + +"Well, then, to the West, or to England, or to Germany, +where father came from -- anywhere to get away from this +Valley of Fear!" + +McMurdo thought of old Brother Morris. "Sure, it is the second +time I have heard the valley so named," said he. "The shadow +does indeed seem to lie heavy on some of you." + +"It darkens every moment of our lives. Do you suppose that +Ted Baldwin has ever forgiven us? If it were not that he fears +you, what do you suppose our chances would be? If you saw the +look in those dark, hungry eyes of his when they fall on me!" + +"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." + +"There is no honour in such a matter." + +"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?" + +"Well, it may be seven or eight. But within a year at the +furthest we will leave the valley behind us." + +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. + +It might be thought that as a member, all the doings of the +society would be told to him; but he was soon to discover that +the organization was wider and more complex than the simple +lodge. Even Boss McGinty was ignorant as to many things; for +there was an official named the County Delegate, living at +Hobson's Patch farther down the line, who had power over +several different lodges which he wielded in a sudden and +arbitrary way. Only once did McMurdo see him, a sly, little gray- +haired rat of a man, with a slinking gait and a sidelong glance +which was charged with malice. Evans Pott was his name, and +even the great Boss of Vermissa felt towards him something of +the repulsion and fear which the huge Danton may have felt for +the puny but dangerous Robespierre. + +One day Scanlan, who was McMurdo's fellow boarder, received +a note from McGinty inclosing one from Evans Pott, which +informed him that he was sending over two good men Lawler +and Andrews, who had instructions to act in the neighbourhood; +though it was best for the cause that no particulars as to +their objects should be given. Would the Bodymaster see to it +that suitable arrangements be made for their lodgings and +comfort until the time for action should arrive? McGinty added +that it was impossible for anyone to remain secret at the +Union House, and that, therefore, he would be obliged if +McMurdo and Scanlan would put the strangers up for a few days in +their boarding house. + +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. + +They were, as McMurdo found, quite ready to converse about +their deeds in the past, which they recounted with the half- +bashful pride of men who had done good and unselfish service +for the community. They were reticent, however, as to the +immediate job in hand. + +"They chose us because neither I nor the boy here drink," +Lawler explained. "They can count on us saying no more than +we should. You must not take it amiss, but it is the orders +of the County Delegate that we obey." + +"Sure, we are all in it together," said Scanlan, McMurdo's +mate, as the four sat together at supper. + +"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." + +"There are half a dozen about here that I have a word to say to," +said McMurdo, with an oath. "I suppose it isn't Jack Knox of Ironhill +that you are after. I'd go some way to see him get his deserts." + +"No, it's not him yet." + +"Or Herman Strauss?" + +"No, nor him either." + +"Well, if you won't tell us we can't make you; but I'd be glad to know." + +Lawler smiled and shook his head. He was not to be drawn. + +In spite of the reticence of their guests, Scanlan and McMurdo +were quite determined to be present at what they called "the +fun." When, therefore, at an early hour one morning McMurdo +heard them creeping down the stairs he awakened Scanlan, and +the two hurried on their clothes. When they were dressed they +found that the others had stolen out, leaving the door open +behind them. It was not yet dawn, and by the light of the lamps +they could see the two men some distance down the street. They +followed them warily, treading noiselessly in the deep snow. + +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. Dunn, +to keep some order and discipline during the long reign of terror. + +Day was breaking now, and a line of workmen were slowly making +their way, singly and in groups, along the blackened path. + +McMurdo and Scanlan strolled on with the others, keeping in +sight of the men whom they followed. A thick mist lay over +them, and from the heart of it there came the sudden scream of a +steam whistle. It was the ten-minute signal before the cages +descended and the day's labour began. + +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. + +At the same instant a tall, loose-framed young man with a +clean-shaved, earnest face advanced eagerly towards the pit head. +As he came forward his eyes fell upon the group, silent and +motionless, under the engine house. The men had drawn down +their hats and turned up their collars to screen their faces. For a +moment the presentiment of Death laid its cold hand upon the +manager's heart. At the next he had shaken it off and saw only +his duty towards intrusive strangers. + +"Who are you?" he asked as he advanced. "What are you +loitering there for?" + +There was no answer; but the lad Andrews stepped forward and shot +him in the stomach. The hundred waiting miners stood as motionless +and helpless as if they were paralyzed. The manager clapped his +two hands to the wound and doubled himself up. Then he staggered +away; but another of the assassins fired, and he went down sidewise, +kicking and clawing among a heap of clinkers. Menzies, the Scotchman, +gave a roar of rage at the sight and rushed with an iron spanner at +the murderers; but was met by two balls in the face which dropped +him dead at their very feet. + +There was a surge forward of some of the miners, and an inarticulate +cry of pity and of anger; but a couple of the strangers emptied their +six-shooters over the heads of the crowd, and they broke and scattered, +some of them rushing wildly back to their homes in Vermissa. + +When a few of the bravest had rallied, and there was a return +to the mine, the murderous gang had vanished in the mists of +morning, without a single witness being able to swear to the +identity of these men who in front of a hundred spectators had +wrought this double crime. + +Scanlan and McMurdo made their way back; Scanlan somewhat +subdued, for it was the first murder job that he had seen +with his own eyes, and it appeared less funny than he had been +led to believe. The horrible screams of the dead manager's +wife pursued them as they hurried to the town. McMurdo was +absorbed and silent; but he showed no sympathy for the +weakening of his companion. + +"Sure, it is like a war," he repeated. "What is it but a war +between us and them, and we hit back where we best can." + +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. + +It would appear that when the County Delegate had sent over +five good men to strike a blow in Vermissa, he had demanded +that in return three Vermissa men should be secretly selected and +sent across to kill William Hales of Stake Royal, one of the best +known and most popular mine owners in the Gilmerton district, a +man who was believed not to have an enemy in the world; for he +was in all ways a model employer. He had insisted, however, +upon efficiency in the work, and had, therefore, paid off certain +drunken and idle employees who were members of the all- +powerful society. Coffin notices hung outside his door had not +weakened his resolution, and so in a free, civilized country he +found himself condemned to death. + +The execution had now been duly carried out. Ted Baldwin, who +sprawled now in the seat of honour beside the Bodymaster, had +been chief of the party. His flushed face and glazed, blood-shot +eyes told of sleeplessness and drink. He and his two comrades +had spent the night before among the mountains. They were unkempt +and weather-stained. But no heroes, returning from a forlorn hope, +could have had a warmer welcome from their comrades. + +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 steep hill, where his +horse must be at a walk. He was so furred to keep out the cold +that he could not lay his hand on his pistol. They had pulled him +out and shot him again and again. He had screamed for mercy. +The screams were repeated for the amusement of the lodge. + +"Let's hear again how he squealed," they cried. + +None of them knew the man; but there is eternal drama in a +killing, and they had shown the Scowrers of Gilmerton that the +Vermissa men were to be relied upon. + +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. + +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." + +"Proud I am to hear it," McMurdo answered. + +"You can take two men with you -- Manders and Reilly. They +have been warned for service. We'll never be right in this district +until Chester Wilcox has been settled, and you'll have the thanks +of every lodge in the coal fields if you can down him." + +"I'll do my best, anyhow. Who is he, and where shall I find him?" + +McGinty took his eternal half-chewed, half-smoked cigar from +the corner of his mouth, and proceeded to draw a rough diagram +on a page torn from his notebook. + +"He's the chief foreman of the Iron Dike Company. He's a +hard citizen, an old colour sergeant of the war, all scars and +grizzle. We've had two tries at him; but had no luck, and Jim +Carnaway lost his life over it. Now it's for you to take it over. +That's the house -- all alone at the Iron Dike crossroad, same as +you see here on the map -- without another within earshot. It's no +good by day. He's armed and shoots quick and straight, with no +questions asked. But at night -- well, there he is with his wife +three children, and a hired help. You can't pick or choose. It's +all or none. If you could get a bag of blasting powder at the front +door with a slow match to it " + +"What's the man done?" + +"Didn't I tell you he shot Jim Carnaway?" + +"Why did he shoot him?" + +"What in thunder has that to do with you? Carnaway was +about his house at night, and he shot him. That's enough for me +and you. You've got to settle the thing right." + +"There's these two women and the children. Do they go up too?" + +"They have to -- else how can we get him?" + +"It seems hard on them; for they've done nothing." + +"What sort of fool's talk is this? Do you back out?" + +"Easy, Councillor, easy! What have I ever said or done that you +should think I would be after standing back from an order of the +Bodymaster of my own lodge? If it's right or if it's wrong, +it's for you to decide." + +"You'll do it, then?" + +"Of course I will do it." + +"When?" + +"Well, you had best give me a night or two that I may see the +house and make my plans. Then --" + +"Very good," said McGinty, shaking him by the hand. "I leave it with you. +It will be a great day when you bring us the news. It's just the last +stroke that will bring them all to their knees." + +McMurdo thought long and deeply over the commission which +had been so suddenly placed in his hands. The isolated house in +which Chester Wilcox lived was about five miles off in an +adjacent valley. That very night he started off all alone to +prepare for the attempt. It was daylight before he returned from +his reconnaissance. Next day he interviewed his two subordinates, +Manders and Reilly, reckless youngsters who were as elated as if +it were a deer-hunt. + +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. + +McMurdo listened at the door of the lonely house; but all was +still within. Then he leaned the powder bag against it, ripped a +hole in it with his knife, and attached the fuse. When it was well +alight he and his two companions took to their heels, and were +some distance off, safe and snug in a sheltering ditch, before the +shattering roar of the explosion, with the low, deep rumble of the +collapsing building, told them that their work was done. No +cleaner job had ever been carried out in the bloodstained annals +of the society. + +But alas that work so well organized and boldly carried out +should all have gone for nothing! Warned by the fate of the +various 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. + +"Leave him to me," said McMurdo. "He's my man, and I'll +get him sure if I have to wait a year for him." + +A vote of thanks and confidence was passed in full lodge, and +so for the time the matter ended. When a few weeks later it was +reported in the papers that Wilcox had been shot at from an +ambuscade, it was an open secret that McMurdo was still at +work upon his unfinished job. + +Such were the methods of the Society of Freemen, and such +were the deeds of the Scowrers by which they spread their rule +of fear over the great and rich district which was for so long a +period haunted by their terrible presence. Why should these +pages be stained by further crimes? Have I not said enough to +show the men and their methods? + +These deeds are written in history, and there are records +wherein one may read the details of them. There one may learn +of the shooting of Policemen Hunt and Evans because they +had ventured to arrest two members of the society -- a double +outrage planned at the Vermissa lodge and carried out in cold +blood upon two helpless and disarmed men. There also one may +read of the shooting of Mrs. Larbey when she was nursing her +husband, who had been beaten almost to death by orders of +Boss McGinty. The killing of the elder Jenkins, shortly followed +by that of his brother, the mutilation of James Murdoch, the +blowing up of the Staphouse family, and the murder of the +Stendals all followed hard upon one another in the same terrible +winter. + +Darkly the shadow lay upon the Valley of Fear. The spring +had 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. + + +Chapter 6 +Danger + + + +It was the height of the reign of terror. McMurdo, who had +already been appointed Inner Deacon, with every prospect of +some day succeeding McGinty as Bodymaster, was now so +necessary to the councils of his comrades that nothing was done +without his help and advice. The more popular he became, +however, with the Freemen, the blacker were the scowls which +greeted him as he passed along the streets of Vermissa. In spite +of their terror the citizens were taking heart to band themselves +together against their oppressors. Rumours had reached the lodge +of secret gatherings in the Herald office and of distribution of +firearms among the law-abiding people. But McGinty and his +men were undisturbed by such reports. They were numerous, +resolute, and well armed. Their opponents were scattered and +powerless. It would all end, as it had done in the past, in +aimless talk and possibly in impotent arrests. So said McGinty, +McMurdo, and all the bolder spirits. + +It was a Saturday evening in May. Saturday was always the +lodge night, and McMurdo was leaving his house to attend it +when Morris, the weaker brother of the order, came to see him. +His brow was creased with care, and his kindly face was drawn +and haggard. + +"Can I speak with you freely, Mr. McMurdo?" + +"Sure." + +"I can't forget that I spoke my heart to you once, and that you +kept it to yourself, even though the Boss himself came to ask +you about it." + +"What else could I do if you trusted me? It wasn't that I +agreed with what you said." + +"I know that well. But you are the one that I can speak to and +be safe. I've a secret here," he put his hand to his breast, "and +it is just burning the life out of me. I wish it had come to any one +of you but me. If I tell it, it 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!" + +McMurdo looked at the man earnestly. He was trembling in +every limb. He poured some whisky into a glass and handed it to +him. "That's the physic for the likes of you," said he. "Now let +me hear of it." + +Morris drank, and his white face took a tinge of colour. "I can +tell it to you all in one sentence," said he. "There's a detective +on our trail." + +McMurdo stared at him in astonishment. "Why, man, you're +crazy," he said. "Isn't the place full of police and detectives +and what harm did they ever do us?" + +"No, no, it's no man of the district. As you say, we know +them, and it is little that they can do. But you've heard of +Pinkerton's?" + +"I've read of some folk of that name." + +"Well, you can take it from me you've no show when they +are on your trail. It's not a take-it-or-miss-it government +concern. It's a dead earnest business proposition that's out for +results and keeps out till by hook or crook it gets them. If a +Pinkerton man is deep in this business, we are all destroyed." + +"We must kill him." + +"Ah, it's the first thought that came to you! So it will be up at +the lodge. Didn't I say to you that it would end in murder?" + +"Sure, what is murder? Isn't it common enough in these +parts?" + +"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. + +But his words had moved McMurdo deeply. It was easy to see +that he shared the other's opinion as to the danger, and the need +for meeting it. He gripped Morris's shoulder and shook him in +his earnestness. + +"See here, man," he cried, and he almost screeched the +words in his excitement, "you won't gain anything by sitting +keening like an old wife at a wake. Let's have the facts. Who is +the fellow? Where is he? How did you hear of him? Why did +you come to me?" + +"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." + +This was what McMurdo read: + + How are the Scowrers getting on in your parts? We read + + plenty of them in the papers. Between you and me I expect + + to hear news from you before long. Five big corporations + + and the two railroads have taken the thing up in dead + + earnest. They mean it, and you can bet they'll get there! + + They are right deep down into it. Pinkerton has taken hold + + under their orders, and his best man, Birdy Edwards, is + + operating. The thing has got to be stopped right now. + +"Now read the postscript." + + Of course, what I give you is what I learned in business; + + so it goes no further. It's a queer cipher that you handle by + + the yard every day and can get no meaning from. + +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. + +"Does anyone else know of this?" he asked. + +"I have told no one else." + +"But this man -- your friend -- has he any other person that he +would be likely to write to?" + +"Well, I dare say he knows one or two more." + +"Of the lodge?" + +"It's likely enough." + +"I was asking because it is likely that he may have given +some description of this fellow Birdy Edwards -- then we could +get on his trail." + +"Well, it's possible. But I should not think he knew him. He +is just telling me the news that came to him by way of business. +How would he know this Pinkerton man?" + +McMurdo gave a violent start. + +"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?" + +"Sure, if you will only take it off mine." + +"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?" + +"lt's just what I would ask." + +"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." + +"You wouldn't kill this man?" + +"The less you know, Friend Morris, the easier your conscience +will be, and the better you will sleep. Ask no questions, and +let these things settle themselves. I have hold of it now." + +Morris shook his head sadly as he left. "I feel that his blood is +on my hands," he groaned. + +"Self-protection is no murder, anyhow," said McMurdo, smiling +grimly. "It's him or us. I guess this man would destroy us all +if we left him long in the valley. Why, Brother Morris, we'll +have to elect you Bodymaster yet; for you've surely saved the +lodge." + +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 is preparing for the worst. +Every paper which would incriminate him was destroyed before +he left the house. After that he gave a long sigh of satisfaction; +for it seemed to him that he was safe. And yet the danger must +still have pressed somewhat upon him; for on his way to the +lodge he stopped at old man Shafter's. The house was forbidden +him; but when he tapped at the window Ettie came out to him. +The dancing Irish deviltry had gone from her lover's eyes. She +read his danger in his earnest face. + +"Something has happened!" she cried. "Oh, Jack, you are in +danger!" + +"Sure, it is not very bad, my sweetheart. And yet it may be +wise that we make a move before it is worse." + +"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?" + +"Well, a Pinkerton. But, sure, you wouldn't know what that +is, acushla, nor what it may mean to the likes of me. I'm too +deep in this thing, and I may have to get out of it quick. You +said you would come with me if I went." + +"Oh, Jack, it would be the saving of you!" + +"I'm an honest man in some things, Ettie. I wouldn't hurt a +hair of your bonny head for all that the world can give, nor ever +pull you down one inch from the golden throne above the clouds +where I always see you. Would you trust me?" + +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!" + +"I'd come after you, Jack." + +"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?" + +"Yes, Jack, I will 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." + +"Day or night, I'll come at the word, Jack." + +Somewhat eased in mind, now that his own preparations for +escape had been begun, McMurdo went on to the lodge. It had +already assembled, and only by complicated signs and counter- +signs could he pass through the outer guard and inner guard who +close-tiled it. A buzz of pleasure and welcome greeted him as he +entered. The long room was crowded, and through the haze of +tobacco smoke he saw the tangled black mane of the Bodymaster +the cruel, unfriendly features of Baldwin, the vulture face of +Harraway, the secretary, and a dozen more who were among the +leaders of the lodge. He rejoiced that they should all be there to +take counsel over his news. + +"Indeed, it's glad we are to see you, Brother!" cried the +chairman. "There's business here that wants a Solomon in judgment +to set it right." + +"It's Lander and Egan," explained his neighbour as he took +his seat. "They both claim the head money given by the lodge +for the shooting of old man Crabbe over at Stylestown, and +who's to say which fired the bullet?" + +McMurdo rose in his place and raised his hand. The expression +of his face froze the attention of the audience. There was a +dead hush of expectation. + +"Eminent Bodymaster," he said, in a solemn voice, "I claim +urgency!" + +"Brother McMurdo claims urgency," said McGinty. "It's a +claim that by the rules of this lodge takes precedence. Now +Brother, we attend you." + +McMurdo took the letter from his pocket. + +"Eminent Bodymaster and Brethren," he said, "I am the +bearer of ill news this day; but it is better that it should be known +and discussed, than that a blow should fall upon us without +warning which would destroy us all. I have information that the +most powerful and richest organizations in this state have bound +themselves together for our destruction, and that at this very +moment there is a Pinkerton detective, one Birdy Edwards, at +work in the valley collecting the evidence which may put a rope +round the necks of many of us, and send every man in this room +into a felon's cell. That is the situation for the discussion of +which I have made a claim of urgency." + +There was a dead silence in the room. It was broken by the +chairman. + +"What is your evidence for this, Brother McMurdo?" he +asked. + +"It is in this letter which has come into my hands," said +McMurdo. Me read the passage aloud. "It is a matter of honour +with me that I can give 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 name +of being the best man in the Pinkerton service." + +"Does anyone know him by sight?" asked McGinty. + +"Yes," said McMurdo, "I do." + +There was a murmur of astonishment through the hall. + +"I believe we hold him in the hollow of our hands," he +continued with an exulting 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 might 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 among all our lodges that +could not be bought? He will get at our secrets -- maybe has got +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 much as a word of gossip got to the ears of this man, +there would be an end of any chance of our getting him. I would +ask the lodge to choose a trusty committee, Mr. Chairman -- +yourself, if I might suggest 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 Cormac, the brutal young +assassin, Carter, the treasurer, and the brothers Willaby, +fearless and desperate men who would stick at nothing. + +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. + +"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 name of Steve Wilson, and he is lodging at Hobson's Patch." + +"How do you know this?" + +"Because I fell into talk with him. I thought little of it at the +time, nor would have given 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. Asked me every kind of +question so as to get something. You bet I was giving nothing +away. 'I'd pay for it and pay well,' said he, 'if I could get some +stuff that would suit my editor.' I said what I thought 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 know he wasn't a newspaper man?" + +"I'll tell you. He got 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 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?" + +"Why not go right down now and fix him?" someone suggested. + +"Ay, the sooner the better." + +"I'd start this next minute if I knew where 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 my +advice." + +"Well, what is it?" + +"I'll go to the Patch to-morrow morning. I'll find him through +the operator. He can locate him, I guess. Well, then I'll tell him +that I'm a Freeman myself. I'll offer him all the secrets of the +lodge 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 him come at ten o'clock at night, and he +shall see everything. 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 me in the house. If I get his promise -- +and I'll let you know if I do -- I'd have the whole seven of you +come to me by nine o'clock. We'll get him in. If ever he gets 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-morrow we'll be with you. +You once get 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 crime as they had +planned. It was on the extreme fringe 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 knew +how 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 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. + +McMurdo went to Hobson's Patch as agreed. The police +seemed to take particular interest in him that morning, and +Captain Marvin -- he who had claimed the old acquaintance with +him at Chicago -- 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 coming," he said. + +"Good!" said McGinty. The giant was in his shirt sleeves, +with chains and seals gleaming athwart his ample waistcoat and a +diamond twinkling through the fringe of his bristling beard. +Drink and politics had made the Boss a very rich as well as +powerful man. The more terrible, therefore, seemed that glimpse +of the prison or the gallows which had risen before him the night +before. + +"Do you reckon he knows much?" he asked anxiously. + +McMurdo shook his head gloomily. "He's been here some +time -- six weeks at the least. I guess he didn't come into these +parts to look at the prospect. If he has been working among us +all that time with the railroad money at his back, I should expect +that he has got results, and that he has passed them on." + +"There's not a weak man in the lodge," cried McGinty. +"True as steel, every man of them. And yet, by the Lord! there +is that skunk Morris. What about him? If any man gives us +away, it would be he. I've a mind to send a couple of the boys +round before evening to give him a beating up and see what they +can get 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 him come to harm. He has spoken to me once or twice +over lodge matters, and though 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 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?" + +McMurdo laughed. "I guess I took him on his weak point," +he said. "If he could get on a good trail of the Scowrers, he's +ready to follow it into hell. I took his money," McMurdo +grinned as he produced a wad of dollar notes, "and as much +more when he has seen all my papers." + +"What papers?" + +"Well, there are no papers. But I filled him up about +constitutions and books of rules and forms of membership. +He expects to get right down to the end of everything +before he leaves." + +"Faith, he's right there," said McGinty grimly. "Didn't he +ask you why you didn't bring him the papers?" + +"As if I would carry such things, and me a suspected man, +and Captain Marvin after speaking to me this very day at the +depot!" + +"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." + +McMurdo shrugged his shoulders. "If we handle it right, they +can never prove the killing," said he. "No one can see him +come to the house after dark, and I'll lay to it that no one will +see him go. Now see here, Councillor, I'll show you my plan +and I'll ask you to fit the others into it. You will all come in +good time. Very well. He comes at ten. He is to tap three times, +and me to open the door for him. Then I'll get behind him and +shut it. He's our man then." + +"That's all easy and plain." + +"Yes; but the next step wants considering. He's a hard +proposition. He's heavily armed. I've fooled him proper, and yet +he is likely to be on his guard. Suppose I show him right into a +room with seven men in it where he expected to find me alone. +There is going to be shooting, and somebody is going to be hurt." + +"That's so." + +"And the noise is going to bring every damned copper in the +township on top of it." + +"I guess you are right." + +"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 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." + +"Sure, Councillor, I am little more than a recruit," said +McMurdo; but his face showed what he thought of the great +man's compliment. + +When he had returned home he made his own preparations for +the grim evening in front of him. First he cleaned, oiled, and +loaded his Smith & Wesson revolver. Then he surveyed the +room in which the detective was to be trapped. It was a large +apartment, with a long deal table in the centre, and the big stove +at one side. At each of the other sides were windows. There +were no shutters on these: only light curtains which drew across. +McMurdo examined these attentively. No doubt it must have +struck him that the apartment was very exposed for so secret a +meeting. Yet its distance from the road made it of less consequence. +Finally he discussed the matter with his fellow lodger. Scanlan, +though a Scowrer, was an inoffensive little man who was too weak +to stand against the opinion of his comrades, but was secretly +horrified by the deeds of blood at which he had sometimes been +forced to assist. McMurdo told him shortly what was intended. + +"And if I were you, Mike Scanlan, I would take a night off +and keep clear of it. There will be bloody work here before +morning." + +"Well, indeed then, Mac," Scanlan answered. "It's not the +will but the nerve that is wanting in me. When I saw Manager +Dunn go down at the colliery yonder it was just more than I +could stand. I'm not made for it, same as you or McGinty. If the +lodge will think none the worse of me, I'll just do as you advise +and leave you to yourselves for the evening." + +The men came in good time as arranged. They were outwardly +respectable citizens, well clad and cleanly; but a judge of +faces would have read little hope for Birdy Edwards in those +hard mouths and remorseless eyes. There was not a man in the +room whose hands had not been reddened a dozen times before. +They were as hardened to human murder as a butcher to sheep. + +Foremost, of course, both in appearance and in guilt, was the +formidable Boss. Harraway, the secretary, was a lean, bitter man +with a long, scraggy neck and nervous, jerky limbs, a man of +incorruptible fidelity where the finances of the order were +concerned, and with no notion of justice or honesty to anyone +beyond. The treasurer, Carter, was a middle-aged man, with an +impassive, rather sulky expression, and a yellow parchment skin. +He was a capable organizer, and the actual details of nearly +every outrage had sprung from his plotting brain. The two +Willabys were men of action, tall, lithe young fellows with +determined faces, while their companion, Tiger Cormac, a heavy, +dark youth, was feared even by his own comrades for the +ferocity of his disposition. These were the men who assembled +that night under the roof of McMurdo for the killing of the +Pinkerton detective. + +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. + +"That will do," said he, with an oath. + +"Ay," said Baldwin, catching his meaning. "If he is strapped +to that, we will have the truth out of him." + +"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. + +"You are the one to handle him," said the Boss approvingly. +"Not a warning will he get till your hand is on his throat. It's a +pity there are no shutters to your windows." + +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." + +"Maybe he won't come. Maybe he'll get a sniff of danger," +said the secretary. + +"He'll come, never fear," McMurdo answered. "He is as +eager to come as you can be to see him. Hark to that!" + +They all sat like wax figures, some with their glasses arrested +halfway to their lips. Three loud knocks had sounded at the door. + +"Hush!" McMurdo raised his hand in caution. An exulting +glance went round the circle, and hands were laid upon hidden +weapons. + +"Not a sound, for your lives!" McMurdo whispered, as he +went from the room, closing the door carefully behind him. + +With strained ears the murderers waited. They counted the +steps of their comrade down the passage. Then they heard him +open the outer door. There were a few words as of greeting. +Then they were aware of a strange step inside and of an +unfamiliar voice. An instant later came the slam of the door +and the turning of the key in the lock. Their prey was safe +within the trap. Tiger Cormac laughed horribly, and Boss +McGinty clapped his great hand across his mouth. + +"Be quiet, you fool!" he whispered. "You'll be the undoing +of us yet!" + +There was a mutter of conversation from the next room. It +seemed interminable. Then the door opened, and McMurdo +appeared, his finger upon his lip. + +He came to the end of the table and looked round at them. A +subtle change had come over him. His manner was as of one +who has great work to do. His face had set into granite firmness. +His eyes shone with a fierce excitement behind his spectacles. +He had become a visible leader of men. They stared at him with +eager interest; but he said nothing. Still with the same singular +gaze he looked from man to man. + +"Well!" cried Boss McGinty at last. "Is he here? Is Birdy +Edwards here?" + +"Yes," McMurdo answered slowly. "Birdy Edwards is here. +I am Birdy Edwards!" + +There were ten seconds after that brief speech during which +the room might have been empty, so profound was the silence. +The hissing of a kettle upon the stove rose sharp and strident to +the ear. Seven white faces, all turned upward to this man who +dominated them, were set motionless with utter terror. Then, +with a sudden shivering of glass, a bristle of glistening rifle +barrels broke through each window, while the curtains were torn +from their hangings. + +At the sight Boss McGinty gave the roar of a wounded bear +and plunged for the half-opened door. A levelled revolver met +him there with the stern blue eyes of Captain Marvin of the Mine +Police gleaming behind the sights. The Boss recoiled and fell +back into his chair. + +"You're safer there, Councillor," said the man whom they +had known as McMurdo. "And you, Baldwin, if you don't take +your hand off your pistol, you'll cheat the hangman yet. Pull it +out, or by the Lord that made me -- There, that will do. There are +forty armed men round this house, and you can figure it out for +yourself what chance you have. Take their pistols, Marvin!" + +There was no possible resistance under the menace of those +rifles. The men were disarmed. Sulky, sheepish, and amazed, +they still sat round the table. + +"I'd like to say a word to you before we separate," said the +man who had trapped them. "I guess we may not meet again +until you see me on the stand in the courthouse. I'll give you +something to think over between now and then. You know me +now for what I am. At last I can put my cards on the table. I am +Birdy Edwards of Pinkerton's. I was chosen to break up your +gang. I had a hard and dangerous game to play. Not a soul, not +one soul, not my nearest and dearest, knew that I was playing it. +Only Captain Marvin here and my employers knew that. But it's +over to-night, thank God, and I am the winner!" + +The seven pale, rigid faces looked up at him. There was +unappeasable hatred in their eyes. He read the relentless threat. + +"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. + +"Still, I had to carry out my job, and I came to the coal +valleys. When I reached this place I learned that I was wrong +and that it wasn't a dime novel after all. So I stayed to look after +it. I never killed a man in Chicago. I never minted a dollar in my +life. Those I gave you were as good as any others; but I never +spent money better. But I knew the way into your good wishes +and so l pretended to you that the law was after me. It all worked +just as I thought. + +"So I joined your infernal lodge, and I took my share in your +councils. Maybe they will say that I was as bad as you. They can +say what they like, so long as I get you. But what is the truth? +The night I joined you beat up old man Stanger. I could not warn +him, for there was no time; but I held your hand, Baldwin, when +you would have killed him. If ever I have suggested things, so as +to keep my place among you, they were things which I knew I +could prevent. I could not save Dunn and Menzies, for I did not +know enough; but I will see that their murderers are hanged. I +gave Chester Wilcox warning, so that when I blew his house in +he and his folk were in hiding. There was many a crime that I +could not stop; but if you look back and think how often your +man came home the other road, or was down in town when you +went for him, or stayed indoors when you thought he would +come out, you'll see my work." + +"You blasted traitor!" hissed McGinty through his closed +teeth. + +"Ay, John McGinty, you may call me that if it eases your +smart. You and your like have been the enemy of God and man +in these parts. It took a man to get between you and the poor +devils of men and women that you held under your grip. There +was just one way of doing it, and I did it. You call me a traitor; +but I guess there's many a thousand will call me a deliverer that +went down into hell to save them. I've had three months of it. I +wouldn't have three such months again if they let me loose in the +treasury at Washington for it. I had to stay till I had it all, every +man and every secret right here in this hand. I'd have waited a +little longer if it hadn't come to my knowledge that my secret +was coming out. A letter had come into the town that would +have set you wise to it all. Then I had to act and act quickly. + +"I've nothing more to say to you, except that when my time +comes I'll die the easier when I think of the work I have done in +this valley. Now, Marvin, I'll keep you no more. Take them in +and get it over." + +There is little more to tell. Scanlan had been given a sealed +note to be left at the address of Miss Ettie Shafter, a mission +which he had accepted with a wink and a knowing smile. In the +early hours of the morning a beautiful woman and a much +muffled man boarded a special train which had been sent by the +railroad company, and made a swift, unbroken journey out of the +land of danger. It was the last time that ever either Ettie or her +lover set foot in the Valley of Fear. Ten days later they were +married in Chicago, with old Jacob Shafter as witness of the +wedding. + +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 and scattered. The cloud was lifted forever from the +valley. + +McGinty met his fate upon the scaffold, cringing and whining +when the last hour came. Eight of his chief followers shared his +fate. Fifty-odd had various degrees of imprisonment. The work +of Birdy Edwards was complete. + +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! + +From Chicago he was chased, after two attempts so near +success that it was sure that the third would get him. From Chicago +he went under a changed name to California, and it was there +that the light went for a time out of his life when Ettie Edwards +died. Once again he was nearly killed, and once again under the +name of Douglas he worked in a lonely canyon, where with an +English partner named Barker he amassed a fortune. At last there +came a warning to him that the bloodhounds were on his track +once more, and he cleared -- only just in time -- for England. And +thence came the John Douglas who for a second time married a worthy +mate, and lived for five years as a Sussex county gentleman, a life +which ended with the strange happenings of which we have heard. + + +Epilogue + + + +The police trial had passed, in which the case of John Douglas +was referred to a higher court. So had the Quarter Sessions, at +which he was acquitted as having acted in self-defense. + +"Get him out of England at any cost," wrote Holmes to the +wife. "There are forces here which may be more dangerous than +those he has escaped. There is no safety for your husband in +England." + +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. + +"Deviltry, Watson!" he remarked, and sat long with a clouded +brow. + +Late last night Mrs. Hudson, our landlady, brought up a +message that a gentleman wished to see Holmes, and that the +matter was of the utmost importance. Close at the heels of his +messenger came Cecil Barker, our friend of the moated Manor +House. His face was drawn and haggard. + +"I've had bad news -- terrible news, Mr. Holmes," said he. + +"I feared as much," said Holmes. + +"You have not had a cable, have you?" + +"I have had a note from someone who has." + +"It's poor Douglas. They tell me his name is Edwards; but he +will always be Jack Douglas of Benito Canyon to me. I told you +that they started together for South Africa in the Palmyra three +weeks ago." + +"Exactly." + +"The ship reached Cape Town last night.I received this cable from Mrs +Douglas this morning: -- + +"Jack has been lost overboard in gale off St Helena.No one knows how +accident occurred. -- Ivy Douglas." + +"Ha!It came like that, did it?" said Holmes, thoughtfully. "Well, I've +no doubt it was well stage-managed." + +"You mean that you think there was no accident?" + +"None in the world." + +"He was murdered?" + +"Surely!" + +"So I think also.These infernal Scowrers, this cursed vindictive nest of +criminals --" + + "No, no, my good sir," said Holmes. "There is a master hand here. It is no +case of sawed-off shot-guns and clumsy six-shooters. You can tell an old +master by the sweep of his brush. I can tell a Moriarty when I see one. This +crime is from London, not from America." + +"But for what motive?" + +"Because it is done by a man who cannot afford to fail -- one whose whole +unique position depends upon the fact that all he does must succeed. A +great brain and a huge organization have been turned to the extinction of +one man. It is crushing the nut with the hammer -- an absurd extravagance +of energy -- but the nut is very effectually crushed all the same." + +"How came this man to have anything to do with it?" + +"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 you tell me that we have to sit down under this? Do you say that +no one can ever get level with this king-devil?" + +"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!" + +We all sat in silence for some minutes, while those fateful eyes still +strained to pierce the veil. + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg Etext The Valley of Fear, by Arthur Conan Doyle + |