The Complete Sherlock Holmes

his men were undisturbed by such reports. They
were numerous, resolute, and well armed. Their
opponents were scattered and powerless. It would
all end, as it had done in the past, in aimless talk
and possibly in impotent arrests. So said McGinty,
McMurdo, and all the bolder spirits.
It was a Saturday evening in May. Saturday
was always the lodge night, and McMurdo was
leaving his house to attend it when Morris, the
weaker brother of the order, came to see him. His
brow was creased with care, and his kindly face
was drawn and haggard.
“Can I speak with you freely, Mr. McMurdo?”
“Sure.”
“I can’t forget that I spoke my heart to you
once, and that you kept it to yourself, even though
the Boss himself came to ask you about it.”
“What else could I do if you trusted me? It
wasn’t that I agreed with what you said.”
“I know that well. But you are the one that I
can speak to and be safe. I’ve a secret here,” he
put his hand to his breast, “and it is just burning
the life out of me. I wish it had come to any one
of you but me. If I tell it, it will mean murder, for
sure. If I don’t, it may bring the end of us all. God
help me, but I am near out of my wits over it!”
McMurdo looked at the man earnestly. He was
trembling in every limb. He poured some whisky
into a glass and handed it to him. “That’s the
physic for the likes of you,” said he. “Now let me
hear of it.”
Morris drank, and his white face took a tinge
of colour. “I can tell it to you all in one sentence,”
said he. “There’s a detective on our trail.”
McMurdo stared at him in astonishment.
“Why, man, you’re crazy,” he said. “Isn’t the place
full of police and detectives and what harm did
they ever do us?”
“No, no, it’s no man of the district. As you say,
we know them, and it is little that they can do. But
you’ve heard of Pinkerton’s?”
“I’ve read of some folk of that name.”
“Well, you can take it from me you’ve no show
when they are on your trail. It’s not a take-it-ormiss-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.”
The Valley Of Fear
729
“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.