t 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 moul