Baldwin had to take the proffered hand, for the baleful eye of the terrible Boss was upon him.  But his sullen face showed how little the words of the other had moved him.

McGinty clapped them both on the shoulders.  “Tut!  These girls!  These girls!” he cried.  “To think that the same petticoats should come between two of my boys!  It’s the devil’s own luck!  Well, it’s the colleen inside of them that must settle the question for it’s outside the jurisdiction of a Bodymaster —­ and the Lord be praised for that!  We have enough on us, without the women as well.  You’ll have to be affiliated to Lodge 341, Brother McMurdo.  We have our own ways and methods, different from Chicago.  Saturday night is our meeting, and if you come then, we’ll make you free forever of the Vermissa Valley.”

Chapter 3 Lodge 341, Vermissa

On the day following the evening which had contained so many exciting events, McMurdo moved his lodgings from old Jacob Shafter’s and took up his quarters at the Widow MacNamara’s on the extreme outskirts of the town.  Scanlan, his original acquaintance aboard the train, had occasion shortly afterwards to move into Vermissa, and the two lodged together.  There was no other boarder, and the hostess was an easy-going old Irishwoman who left them to themselves; so that they had a freedom for speech and action welcome to men who had secrets in common.

Shafter had relented to the extent of letting McMurdo come to his meals there when he liked; so that his intercourse with Ettie was by no means broken.  On the contrary, it drew closer and more intimate as the weeks went by.

In his bedroom at his new abode McMurdo felt it safe to take out the coining moulds, and under many a pledge of secrecy a number of brothers from the lodge were allowed to come in and see them, each carrying away in his pocket some examples of the false money, so cunningly struck that there was never the slightest difficulty or danger in passing it.  Why, with such a wonderful art at his command, McMurdo should condescend to work at all was a perpetual mystery to his companions; though he made it clear to anyone who asked him that if he lived without any visible means it would very quickly bring the police upon his track.

One policeman was indeed after him already; but the incident, as luck would have it, did the adventurer a great deal more good than harm.  After the first introduction there were few evenings when he did not find his way to McGinty’s saloon, there to make closer acquaintance with “the boys,” which was the jovial title by which the dangerous gang who infested the place were known to one another.  His dashing manner and fearlessness of speech made him a favourite with them all; while the rapid and scientific way in which he polished off his antagonist in an “all in” bar-room scrap earned the respect of that rough community.  Another incident, however, raised him even higher in their estimation.