ed
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 m