m come
at ten o'clock at night, and he shall see everything. That will fetch
him sure."

"Well?"

"You can plan the rest for yourselves. Widow MacNamara's is a lonely
house. She's as true as steel and as deaf as a post. There's only
Scanlan and me in the house. If I get his promise--and I'll let you know
if I do--I'd have the whole seven of you come to me by nine o'clock.
We'll get him in. If ever he gets out alive--well, he can talk of Birdy
Edwards's luck for the rest of his days!"

"There's going to be a vacancy at Pinkerton's or I'm mistaken. Leave it
at that, McMurdo. At nine to-morrow we'll be with you. You once get the
door shut behind him, and you can leave the rest with us."

Chapter 7--The Trapping of Birdy Edwards

As McMurdo had said, the house in which he lived was a lonely one and
very well suited for such a crime as they had planned. It was on the
extreme fringe of the town and stood well back from the road. In any
other case the conspirators would have simply called out their man, as
they had many a time before, and emptied their pistols into his body;
but in this instance it was very necessary to find out how much he knew,
how he knew it, and what had been passed on to his employers.

It was possible that they were already too late and that the work had
been done. If that was indeed so, they could at least have their revenge
upon the man who had done it. But they were hopeful that nothing
of great importance had yet come to the detective's knowledge, as
otherwise, they argued, he would not have troubled to write down and
forward such trivial information as McMurdo claimed to have given him.
However, all this they would learn from his own lips. Once in their
power, they would find a way to make him speak. It was not the first
time that they had handled an unwilling witness.

McMurdo went to Hobson's Patch as agreed. The police seemed to take
particular interest in him that morning, and Captain Marvin--he who had
claimed the old acquaintance with him at Chicago--actually addressed him
as he waited at the station. McMurdo turned away and refused to speak
with him. He was back from his mission in the afternoon, and saw McGinty
at the Union House.

"He is coming," he said.

"Good!" said McGinty. The giant was in his shirt sleeves, with chains
and seals gleaming athwart his ample waistcoat and a diamond twinkling
through the fringe of his bristling beard. Drink and politics had
made the