The Complete Sherlock Holmes

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 Mc-
Murdo 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 Boss a very rich as
well as powerful man. The more terrible, therefore,
seemed that glimpse of the prison or the gallows
which had risen before him the night before.
“Do you reckon he knows much?” he asked
anxiously.
McMurdo shook his head gloomily. “He’s been
here some time—six weeks at the least. I guess he
didn’t come into these parts to look at the prospect.
If he has been working among us all that time with
the railroad money at his back, I should expect that
The Valley Of Fear
CHAPTER VII.
The Trapping of Birdy Edwards
733
he has got results, and that he has passed them
on.”
“There’s not a weak man in the lodge,” cried
McGinty. “True as steel, every man of them. And
yet, by the Lord! there is that skunk Morris. What
about him? If any man gives us away, it would be
he. I’ve a mind to send a couple of the boys round
before evening to give him a beating up and see
what they can get from him.”
“Well, there would be no harm in that,” Mc-
Murdo answered. “I won’t deny that I have a liking
for Morris and would be sorry to see him come
to harm. He has spoken to me once or twice over
lodge matters, and though he may not see them
the same as you or I, he never seemed the sort that
squeals. But still it is not for me to stand between
him and you.”
“I’ll fix the old devil!” said McGinty with an
oath. “I’ve had my eye on him this year past.”
“Well, you know best about that,” McMurdo
answered. “But whatever you do must be tomorrow;
for we must lie low until the Pinkerton
affair is settled up. We can’t afford to set the police
buzzing, to-day of all days.”
“True for you,” said McGinty. “And we’ll learn
from Birdy Edwards himself where he got his
news if we have to cut his heart out first. Did he
seem to scent a trap?”
McMurdo laughed. “I guess I took him on his
weak point,” he said. “If he could get on a good
trail of the Scowrers, he’s ready to follow it into
hell. I took his money,” McMurdo grinned as he
produced a wad of dollar notes, “and as much
more when he has seen all my papers.”
“What papers?”
“Well, there are no papers. But I filled him up
about constitutions and books of rules and forms
of membership. He expects to get right down to
the end of everything before he leaves.”
“Faith, he’s right there,” said McGinty grimly.
“Didn’t he ask you why you didn’t bring him the
papers?”
“As if I would carry such things, and me a suspected
man, and Captain Marvin after speaking to
me this very day at the depot!”
“Ay, I heard of that,” said McGinty. “I guess
the heavy end of this business is coming on to you.
We could put him down an old shaft when we’ve
done with him; but however we work it we can’t
get past the man living at Hobson’s Patch and you
being there to-day.”