clattering together as they fell
upon him. He writhed, and his long, thin limbs quivered under the
blows. The others ceased at last; but Baldwin, his cruel face set in
an infernal smile, was hacking at the man's head, which he vainly
endeavoured to defend with his arms. His white hair was dabbled with
patches of blood. Baldwin was still stooping over his victim, putting in
a short, vicious blow whenever he could see a part exposed, when McMurdo
dashed up the stair and pushed him back.

"You'll kill the man," said he. "Drop it!"

Baldwin looked at him in amazement. "Curse you!" he cried. "Who are you
to interfere--you that are new to the lodge? Stand back!" He raised his
stick; but McMurdo had whipped his pistol out of his pocket.

"Stand back yourself!" he cried. "I'll blow your face in if you lay a
hand on me. As to the lodge, wasn't it the order of the Bodymaster that
the man was not to be killed--and what are you doing but killing him?"

"It's truth he says," remarked one of the men.

"By Gar! you'd best hurry yourselves!" cried the man below. "The windows
are all lighting up, and you'll have the whole town here inside of five
minutes."

There was indeed the sound of shouting in the street, and a little group
of compositors and pressmen was forming in the hall below and nerving
itself to action. Leaving the limp and motionless body of the editor
at the head of the stair, the criminals rushed down and made their way
swiftly along the street. Having reached the Union House, some of them
mixed with the crowd in McGinty's saloon, whispering across the bar to
the Boss that the job had been well carried through. Others, and among
them McMurdo, broke away into side streets, and so by devious paths to
their own homes.

Chapter 4--The Valley of Fear

When McMurdo awoke next morning he had good reason to remember his
initiation into the lodge. His head ached with the effect of the drink,
and his arm, where he had been branded, was hot and swollen. Having his
own peculiar source of income, he was irregular in his attendance at his
work; so he had a late breakfast, and remained at home for the morning
writing a long letter to a friend. Afterwards he read the Daily Herald.
In a special column put in at the last moment he read:

OUTRAGE AT THE HERALD OFFICE--EDITOR SERIOUSLY INJURED.

It was a short account of the facts with which he was himself more
familiar than the writer could have been. It ended with the