Page:The Valley of Fear.pdf/296

Rh 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, but not a crazy one. He passes under the name of Steve Wilson, and he is lodging at Hobsons Patch.”

“How do you know this?”

“Because I fell into talk with him. I thought little of it at the time, nor would have given it a [294]