rmur of astonishment through the hall.

"I believe we hold him in the hollow of our hands," he continued with an
exulting smile upon his face. "If we act quickly and wisely, we can cut
this thing short. If I have your confidence and your help, it is little
that we have to fear."

"What have we to fear, anyhow? What can he know of our affairs?"

"You might say so if all were as stanch as you, Councillor. But this man
has all the millions of the capitalists at his back. Do you think there
is no weaker brother among all our lodges that could not be bought? He
will get at our secrets--maybe has got them already. There's only one
sure cure."

"That he never leaves the valley," said Baldwin.

McMurdo nodded. "Good for you, Brother Baldwin," he said. "You and I
have had our differences, but you have said the true word to-night."

"Where is he, then? Where shall we know him?"

"Eminent Bodymaster," said McMurdo, earnestly, "I would put it to you
that this is too vital a thing for us to discuss in open lodge. God
forbid that I should throw a doubt on anyone here; but if so much as a
word of gossip got to the ears of this man, there would be an end of
any chance of our getting him. I would ask the lodge to choose a trusty
committee, Mr. Chairman--yourself, if I might suggest it, and Brother
Baldwin here, and five more. Then I can talk freely of what I know and
of what I advise should be done."

The proposition was at once adopted, and the committee chosen. Besides
the chairman and Baldwin there were the vulture-faced secretary,
Harraway, Tiger Cormac, the brutal young assassin, Carter, the
treasurer, and the brothers Willaby, fearless and desperate men who
would stick at nothing.

The usual revelry of the lodge was short and subdued: for there was a
cloud upon the men's spirits, and many there for the first time began to
see the cloud of avenging Law drifting up in that serene sky under which
they had dwelt so long. The horrors they had dealt out to others
had been so much a part of their settled lives that the thought of
retribution had become a remote one, and so seemed the more startling
now that it came so closely upon them. They broke up early and left
their leaders to their council.

"Now, McMurdo!" said McGinty when they were alone. The seven men sat
frozen in their seats.

"I said just now that I knew Birdy Edwards," McMurdo explained. "I need
not tell you that he is not here under that name. He's a brave man