enda 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. O. 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 turn