“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 Hobson’s 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 second thought but for this letter; but now I’m sure it’s the man.  I met him on the cars when I went down the line on Wednesday—­a hard case if ever there was one.  He said he was a reporter.  I believed it for the moment.  Wanted to know all he could about the Scowrers and what he called ‘the outrages’ for a New York paper.  Asked me every kind of question so as to get something.  You bet I was giving nothing away.  ‘I’d pay for it and pay well,’ said he, ’if I could get some stuff that would suit my editor.’  I said what I thought would please him best, and he handed me a twenty-dollar bill for my information.  ‘There’s ten times that for you,’ said he, ‘if you can find me all that I want.’”

“What did you tell him, then?”

“Any stuff I could make up.”

“How do you know he wasn’t a newspaper man?”

“I’ll tell you.  He got out at Hobson’s Patch, and so did I. I chanced into the telegraph bureau, and he was leaving it.

“‘See here,’ said the operator after he’d gone out, ’I guess we should charge double rates for this.’—­’I guess you should,’ said I. He had filled the form with stuff that might have been Chinese, for all we could make of it.  ’He fires a sheet of this off every day,’ said the clerk.  ‘Yes,’ said I; ’it’s special news for his paper, and he’s scared that the others should tap it.’  That was what the operator thought and what I thought at the time; but I think differently now.”

“By Gar!  I believe you are right,” said McGinty.  “But what do you allow that we should do about it?”

“Why not go right down now and fix him?” someone suggested.

“Ay, the sooner the better.”

“I’d start this next minute if I knew where we could find him,” said McMurdo.  “He’s in Hobson’s Patch; but I don’t know the house.  I’ve got a plan, though, if you’ll only take my advice.”

“Well, what is it?”

“I’ll go to the Patch to-morrow morning.  I’ll find him through the operator.  He can locate him, I guess.  Well, then I’ll tell him that I’m a Freeman myself.  I’ll offer him all the secrets of the lodge for a price.  You bet he’ll tumble to it.  I’ll tell him the papers are at my house, and that it’s as much as my life would be worth to let him come while folk were about.  He’ll see that that’s horse sense.  Let him come at ten o’clock at night, and he shall see everything.  That will fetch him sure.”

“Well?”