McMurdo had obtained a temporary job as bookkeeper for he was a well-educated man.  This kept him out most of the day, and he had not found occasion yet to report himself to the head of the lodge of the Eminent Order of Freemen.  He was reminded of his omission, however, by a visit one evening from Mike Scanlan, the fellow member whom he had met in the train.  Scanlan, the small, sharp-faced, nervous, black-eyed man, seemed glad to see him once more.  After a glass or two of whisky he broached the object of his visit.

“Say, McMurdo,” said he, “I remembered your address, so l made bold to call.  I’m surprised that you’ve not reported to the Bodymaster.  Why haven’t you seen Boss McGinty yet?”

“Well, I had to find a job.  I have been busy.”

“You must find time for him if you have none for anything else.  Good Lord, man! you’re a fool not to have been down to the Union House and registered your name the first morning after you came here!  If you run against him—­well, you mustn’t, that’s all!”

McMurdo showed mild surprise.  “I’ve been a member of the lodge for over two years, Scanlan, but I never heard that duties were so pressing as all that.”

“Maybe not in Chicago.”

“Well, it’s the same society here.”

“Is it?”

Scanlan looked at him long and fixedly.  There was something sinister in his eyes.

“Isn’t it?”

“You’ll tell me that in a month’s time.  I hear you had a talk with the patrolmen after I left the train.”

“How did you know that?”

“Oh, it got about—­things do get about for good and for bad in this district.”

“Well, yes.  I told the hounds what I thought of them.”

“By the Lord, you’ll be a man after McGinty’s heart!”

“What, does he hate the police too?”

Scanlan burst out laughing.  “You go and see him, my lad,” said he as he took his leave.  “It’s not the police but you that he’ll hate if you don’t!  Now, take a friend’s advice and go at once!”

It chanced that on the same evening McMurdo had another more pressing interview which urged him in the same direction.  It may have been that his attentions to Ettie had been more evident than before, or that they had gradually obtruded themselves into the slow mind of his good German host; but, whatever the cause, the boarding-house keeper beckoned the young man into his private room and started on the subject without any circumlocution.

“It seems to me, mister,” said he, “that you are gettin’ set on my Ettie.  Ain’t that so, or am I wrong?”

“Yes, that is so,” the young man answered.

“Vell, I vant to tell you right now that it ain’t no manner of use.  There’s someone slipped in afore you.”

“She told me so.”

“Vell, you can lay that she told you truth.  But did she tell you who it vas?”

“No, I asked her; but she wouldn’t tell.”