"
The proposition was at once adopted, and the committee chosen.
Besides the chairman and Baldwin there were the vulture-faced
secretary, Harraway, Tiger Cormac, the brutal young assassin,
Carter, the treasurer, and the brothers Willaby, fearless and
desperate men who would stick at nothing.
The usual revelry of the lodge was short and subdued: for there
was a cloud upon the men's spirits, and many there for the first
time began to see the cloud of avenging Law drifting up in that
serene sky under which they had dwelt so long. The horrors they
had dealt out to others had been so much a part of their settled
lives that the thought of retribution had become a remote one,
and so seemed the more startling now that it came so closely upon
them. They broke up early and left their leaders to their
council.
"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.
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