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