statement:

The matter is now in the hands of the police; but it can hardly be hoped
that their exertions will be attended by any better results than in
the past. Some of the men were recognized, and there is hope that a
conviction may be obtained. The source of the outrage was, it need
hardly be said, that infamous society which has held this community in
bondage for so long a period, and against which the Herald has taken so
uncompromising a stand. Mr. Stanger's many friends will rejoice to hear
that, though he has been cruelly and brutally beaten, and though he has
sustained severe injuries about the head, there is no immediate danger
to his life.

Below it stated that a guard of police, armed with Winchester rifles,
had been requisitioned for the defense of the office.

McMurdo had laid down the paper, and was lighting his pipe with a hand
which was shaky from the excesses of the previous evening, when there
was a knock outside, and his landlady brought to him a note which had
just been handed in by a lad. It was unsigned, and ran thus:

I should wish to speak to you, but would rather not do so in your house.
You will find me beside the flagstaff upon Miller Hill. If you will come
there now, I have something which it is important for you to hear and
for me to say.

McMurdo read the note twice with the utmost surprise; for he could not
imagine what it meant or who was the author of it. Had it been in a
feminine hand, he might have imagined that it was the beginning of one
of those adventures which had been familiar enough in his past life. But
it was the writing of a man, and of a well educated one, too. Finally,
after some hesitation, he determined to see the matter through.

Miller Hill is an ill-kept public park in the very centre of the town.
In summer it is a favourite resort of the people, but in winter it is
desolate enough. From the top of it one has a view not only of the whole
straggling, grimy town, but of the winding valley beneath, with its
scattered mines and factories blackening the snow on each side of it,
and of the wooded and white-capped ranges flanking it.

McMurdo strolled up the winding path hedged in with evergreens until he
reached the deserted restaurant which forms the centre of summer gaiety.
Beside it was a bare flagstaff, and underneath it a man, his hat drawn
down and the collar of his overcoat turned up. When he turned his face
McMurdo saw that it was Brother Morris, he who had i