In a few words
McMurdo explained his business. A man of the name of Murphy had
given him the address in Chicago. He in turn had had it from
someone else. Old Shafter was quite ready. The stranger made no
bones about terms, agreed at once to every condition, and was
apparently fairly flush of money. For seven dollars a week paid
in advance he was to have board and lodging.
So it was that McMurdo, the self-confessed fugitive from justice,
took up his abode under the roof of the Shafters, the first step
which was to lead to so long and dark a train of events, ending
in a far distant land.
Chapter 2 - The Bodymaster
McMurdo was a man who made his mark quickly. Wherever he was the
folk around soon knew it. Within a week he had become infinitely
the most important person at Shafter's. There were ten or a
dozen boarders there; but they were honest foremen or commonplace
clerks from the stores, of a very different calibre from the
young Irishman. Of an evening when they gathered together his
joke was always the readiest, his conversation the brightest, and
his song the best. He was a born boon companion, with a
magnetism which drew good humour from all around him.
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