ke it from me you've no show when they are on your
trail. It's not a take-it-or-miss-it government concern. It's a dead
earnest business proposition that's out for results and keeps out
till by hook or crook it gets them. If a Pinkerton man is deep in this
business, we are all destroyed."

"We must kill him."

"Ah, it's the first thought that came to you! So it will be up at the
lodge. Didn't I say to you that it would end in murder?"

"Sure, what is murder? Isn't it common enough in these parts?"

"It is, indeed; but it's not for me to point out the man that is to be
murdered. I'd never rest easy again. And yet it's our own necks that may
be at stake. In God's name what shall I do?" He rocked to and fro in his
agony of indecision.

But his words had moved McMurdo deeply. It was easy to see that he
shared the other's opinion as to the danger, and the need for meeting
it. He gripped Morris's shoulder and shook him in his earnestness.

"See here, man," he cried, and he almost screeched the words in his
excitement, "you won't gain anything by sitting keening like an old wife
at a wake. Let's have the facts. Who is the fellow? Where is he? How did
you hear of him? Why did you come to me?"

"I came to you; for you are the one man that would advise me. I told you
that I had a store in the East before I came here. I left good friends
behind me, and one of them is in the telegraph service. Here's a letter
that I had from him yesterday. It's this part from the top of the page.
You can read it yourself."

This was what McMurdo read:

How are the Scowrers getting on in your parts? We read plenty of them
in the papers. Between you and me I expect to hear news from you before
long. Five big corporations and the two railroads have taken the thing
up in dead earnest. They mean it, and you can bet they'll get there!
They are right deep down into it. Pinkerton has taken hold under their
orders, and his best man, Birdy Edwards, is operating. The thing has got
to be stopped right now.

"Now read the postscript."

Of course, what I give you is what I learned in business; so it goes no
further. It's a queer cipher that you handle by the yard every day and
can get no meaning from.

McMurdo sat in silence for some time, with the letter in his listless
hands. The mist had lifted for a moment, and there was the abyss before
him.

"Does anyone else know of this?" he asked.

"I have told no one else."

"But this man--your frie