oose my own time, mister. You can leave the time to me. See
here!" He suddenly rolled up his sleeve and showed upon his forearm a
peculiar sign which appeared to have been branded there. It was a circle
with a triangle within it. "D'you know what that means?"

"I neither know nor care!"

"Well, you will know, I'll promise you that. You won't be much older,
either. Perhaps Miss Ettie can tell you something about it. As to you,
Ettie, you'll come back to me on your knees--d'ye hear, girl?--on
your knees--and then I'll tell you what your punishment may be. You've
sowed--and by the Lord, I'll see that you reap!" He glanced at them both
in fury. Then he turned upon his heel, and an instant later the outer
door had banged behind him.

For a few moments McMurdo and the girl stood in silence. Then she threw
her arms around him.

"Oh, Jack, how brave you were! But it is no use, you must fly!
To-night--Jack--to-night! It's your only hope. He will have your life.
I read it in his horrible eyes. What chance have you against a dozen of
them, with Boss McGinty and all the power of the lodge behind them?"

McMurdo disengaged her hands, kissed her, and gently pushed her back
into a chair. "There, acushla, there! Don't be disturbed or fear for me.
I'm a Freeman myself. I'm after telling your father about it. Maybe I am
no better than the others; so don't make a saint of me. Perhaps you hate
me too, now that I've told you as much?"

"Hate you, Jack? While life lasts I could never do that! I've heard that
there is no harm in being a Freeman anywhere but here; so why should
I think the worse of you for that? But if you are a Freeman, Jack, why
should you not go down and make a friend of Boss McGinty? Oh, hurry,
Jack, hurry! Get your word in first, or the hounds will be on your
trail."

"I was thinking the same thing," said McMurdo. "I'll go right now and
fix it. You can tell your father that I'll sleep here to-night and find
some other quarters in the morning."

The bar of McGinty's saloon was crowded as usual; for it was the
favourite loafing place of all the rougher elements of the town. The man
was popular; for he had a rough, jovial disposition which formed a
mask, covering a great deal which lay behind it. But apart from this
popularity, the fear in which he was held throughout the township, and
indeed down the whole thirty miles of the valley and past the mountains
on each side of it, was enough in itself to fill his bar; fo