ctive, 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 a