Look at that clipping."
McGinty glanced his eyes over the account of the shooting of one
Jonas Pinto, in the Lake Saloon, Market Street, Chicago, in the
New Year week of 1874.
"Your work?" he asked, as he handed back the paper.
McMurdo nodded.
"Why did you shoot him?"
"I was helping Uncle Sam to make dollars. Maybe mine were not as
good gold as his, but they looked as well and were cheaper to
make. This man Pinto helped me to shove the queer--"
"To do what?"
"Well, it means to pass the dollars out into circulation. Then
he said he would split. Maybe he did split. I didn't wait to
see. I just killed him and lighted out for the coal country."
"Why the coal country?"
"'Cause I'd read in the papers that they weren't too particular
in those parts."
McGinty laughed. "You were first a coiner and then a murderer,
and you came to these parts because you thought you'd be
welcome."
"That's about the size of it," McMurdo answered.
"Well, I guess you'll go far. Say, can you make those dollars
yet?"
McMurdo took half a dozen from his pocket. "Those never passed
the Philadelphia mint," said he.
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