ell I knew that if I did not
it would be out of my house that they would come next with their bloody
hands and it would be my little Fred that would be screaming for his
father.

"But I was a criminal then, part sharer in a murder, lost forever in
this world, and lost also in the next. I am a good Catholic; but the
priest would have no word with me when he heard I was a Scowrer, and I
am excommunicated from my faith. That's how it stands with me. And I see
you going down the same road, and I ask you what the end is to be. Are
you ready to be a cold-blooded murderer also, or can we do anything to
stop it?"

"What would you do?" asked McMurdo abruptly. "You would not inform?"

"God forbid!" cried Morris. "Sure, the very thought would cost me my
life."

"That's well," said McMurdo. "I'm thinking that you are a weak man and
that you make too much of the matter."

"Too much! Wait till you have lived here longer. Look down the valley!
See the cloud of a hundred chimneys that overshadows it! I tell you that
the cloud of murder hangs thicker and lower than that over the heads of
the people. It is the Valley of Fear, the Valley of Death. The terror is
in the hearts of the people from the dusk to the dawn. Wait, young man,
and you will learn for yourself."

"Well, I'll let you know what I think when I have seen more," said
McMurdo carelessly. "What is very clear is that you are not the man for
the place, and that the sooner you sell out--if you only get a dime a
dollar for what the business is worth--the better it will be for you.
What you have said is safe with me; but, by Gar! if I thought you were
an informer--"

"No, no!" cried Morris piteously.

"Well, let it rest at that. I'll bear what you have said in mind,
and maybe some day I'll come back to it. I expect you meant kindly by
speaking to me like this. Now I'll be getting home."

"One word before you go," said Morris. "We may have been seen together.
They may want to know what we have spoken about."

"Ah! that's well thought of."

"I offer you a clerkship in my store."

"And I refuse it. That's our business. Well, so long, Brother Morris,
and may you find things go better with you in the future."

That same afternoon, as McMurdo sat smoking, lost in thought beside the
stove of his sitting-room, the door swung open and its framework was
filled with the huge figure of Boss McGinty. He passed the sign, and
then seating himself opposite to the young man he loo