"I am a newcomer, as you know, and I am strange to it
all. It is not for me to open my mouth, Mr. Morris, and if you
think well to say anything to me I am here to hear it."
"And to take it back to Boss McGinty!" said Morris bitterly.
"Indeed, then, you do me injustice there," cried McMurdo. "For
myself I am loyal to the lodge, and so I tell you straight; but I
would be a poor creature if I were to repeat to any other what
you might say to me in confidence. It will go no further than
me; though I warn you that you may get neither help nor
sympathy."
"I have given up looking for either the one or the other," said
Morris. "I may be putting my very life in your hands by what I
say; but, bad as you are--and it seemed to me last night that you
were shaping to be as bad as the worst--still you are new to it,
and your conscience cannot yet be as hardened as theirs. That
was why I thought to speak with you."
"Well, what have you to say?"
"If you give me away, may a curse be on you!"
"Sure, I said I would not."
"I would ask you, then, when you joined the Freeman's society in
Chicago and swore vows of charity and fidelity, did ever it cross
your mind that you might find it would lead you to crime?"
"If you call it crime," McMurdo answered.
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