ld not stop; but if you look back and think how often your man came
home the other road, or was down in town when you went for him, or
stayed indoors when you thought he would come out, you'll see my work."

"You blasted traitor!" hissed McGinty through his closed teeth.

"Ay, John McGinty, you may call me that if it eases your smart. You and
your like have been the enemy of God and man in these parts. It took a
man to get between you and the poor devils of men and women that you
held under your grip. There was just one way of doing it, and I did it.
You call me a traitor; but I guess there's many a thousand will call me
a deliverer that went down into hell to save them. I've had three
months of it. I wouldn't have three such months again if they let me
loose in the treasury at Washington for it. I had to stay till I had it
all, every man and every secret right here in this hand. I'd have
waited a little longer if it hadn't come to my knowledge that my secret
was coming out. A letter had come into the town 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