Page:The Valley of Fear.pdf/206

Rh wronged him,” said McMurdo. “I’ll fight him with fists, or, if that won’t satisfy him, I’ll fight him any other way he chooses. Now, I’ll leave it to you, Councilor, to judge between us as a Bodymaster should.”

“What is it, then?”

“A young lady. She’s free to choose for herself.”

“Is she?” cried Baldwin.

“As between two brothers of the lodge I should say that she was,” said the Boss.

“Oh, that’s your ruling, is it?”

“Yes, it is, Ted Baldwin,” said McGinty, with a wicked stare. “Is it you that would dispute it?”

“You would throw over one that has stood by you this five years in favor of a man that you never saw before in your life? You’re not Bodymaster for life, Jack McGinty, and by God! when next it comes to a vote”

The Councilor sprang at him like a tiger. His hand closed round the other’s neck, and he hurled him back across one of the barrels. In his mad fury he would have squeezed the life out of him if McMurdo had not interfered. [204]