Con O'Donnel, who stood not far off, noted the drunken man's remark and was seen to smile significantly as McKenna and the lady moved from the spot.
The festivities were continued until nearly break of day, when the detective, learning that his partner had no male attendant, politely volunteered to accompany her home, which she said was no great distance away. Miss Kate accepted the proffer, as McKenna afterwards thought, with slight evidence of embarrassment, and looking furtively about her, as though in search of some one she had rather expected to see. But if there was any person present, her roguish eye failed to discern the fact, and, placing one hand 195upon the arm of her escort they were soon lost in the darkness.
"Placing one hand on the arm of her escort, they were soon lost in the darkness."
Con O'Donnel was still looking after the couple, around the protecting and shaded corner of the widow's shanty, from which, with a sly chuckle, when the coast was clear, he quickly emerged and walked to the vicinity of the drunken man. That he was bent upon mischief those who saw the merry twinkle in his eye were well convinced.
It is unnecessary to enter into a minute description of the pleasant walk that McKenna enjoyed with Miss McIntyre. Knowing well that his companions from Hazelton would await his reappearance among them—as the majority were in no condition, from the poteen they had imbibed, to undertake the home journey—he and his fair lady did not hurry toward the protecting paternal roof. On the contrary, as has been the usage since the days of Adam, they made haste slowly, enlivening the trip with cheerful conversation, reference to the festive occasion and lucky chance that brought them together, with such other talk as would naturally suggest itself to a pair in their exact mental and physical condition. It was a long story—and a wrong story, too, it appears—that vivacious Miss McIntyre related to her impromptu beau, about her parents' home, the family, and the trouble they had to get along during the suspension. McKenna was already hinting that, if he were a little better acquainted, perhaps he might be bold enough to ask the father to part with his child, press her to change her condition in life and become Mrs. McKenna, and Miss Kate had started and blushed—but that could hardly be seen in the dusky gray of the misty morning—when both distinctly heard sounds of footsteps coming swiftly toward them from the direction of widow Breslin's place. Miss McIntyre suddenly withdrew her arm from that of her chevalier, paused in her tracks and listened breathlessly for a moment, then, in a faint and trembling voice ejaculated:
196"My God! It is my husband! Our lives are in danger! He will kill us both! What shall I do?"
"Your husband, is it?" inquired McKenna, realizing the joke that had been put upon him and fully alive to the awkward predicament in which he was placed. "Your husband? Sure, didn't Con O'Donnel introduce ye as a single lady? Faix, but we are really in a purty kettle of fish! Tell me, is yer husband of the jealous sort? An' do ye think that's him, whose feet I hear makin' such a racket over the path?"
"Don't stand here askin' questions," answered Mrs. McIntyre! "Oh, why did I fall in with Con O'Donnel's wicked deceit? I might have known he would bring it about to punish me! He's just gone and roused Danny, and I don't doubt, if he catches me in your company, there'll be murder done upon the very spot! My husband'll shoot us both! Oh, that I should ever have been so foolish!"
McKenna had more than once heard of Danny McIntyre, but without for a moment suspecting that he was any kin to the young woman with whom he had been walking, dancing, and making himself generally agreeable.
"I'm jist of the mind to step out into the rand shoot that husband of yours before he has a chance to say a word or do wan single thing!"
"For mercy's sake, don't talk that way!" whispered the lady, trembling all over like an aspen leaf.
"We must not be seen! Here—get you behind this tree! The underbrush will hide me! Keep quiet until he goes beyond!"
And, without a moment to spare, they disappeared from view. When the man passed their place of concealment they were as still as death. McIntyre carried a pistol in his hand, and was walking as rapidly as his mellow condition permitted, surging from one side of the path to the other as he moved, but finally, without discovering the fugitives, he was lost to their sight.
197When his heavy tread could no longer be heard, the couple stood again in the r At least one of the two breathed more freely—and that was McKenna—when the husband's form could no longer be seen. He had caught sufficient, while he was going by, to convince him that he was the identical personage who had spoken to his lady companion near Mrs. Breslin's, and to whom Kate had, in his presence, refused recognition.
The feelings of both had undergone a sudden revulsion. McKenna was very angry with Con O'Donnel, as well as with the woman who had assisted that person in playing such a practical joke upon him, and Mrs. McIntyre was naturally much mortified to be caught in such an embarrassing situation, being also fearful of the treatment to be expected from her husband should he reach home before her. With a cold and crusty "good morning, sir!" for the gentleman to whom she had so recently been saying all manner of sweet things, she added that she "could take a short-cut, with which she was acquainted, and, going across lots, make their mutual place of destination before Danny." Then Kate took her departure.
It was still too dark, though almost daybreak, for a person with the sharpest eyes to see very far in any direction, and the probabilities were that the woman would get to her residence first and succeed in fooling the half-intoxicated McIntyre with the belief that she had deserted the dancing place before midnight.
McKenna gave utterance to a long, low whistle, somewhat expressive of surprise and partly seeming like a sigh of relief, as he returned by the rover which he had so recently passed.
He walked alone and hurriedly this time.
Arrived at the house of Mrs. Breslin, he went directly in pursuit of Con O'Donnel, but that individual was not to be found. He had made his exit. Throwing himself, therefore, 198upon a bundle of straw, under the branches of a tree, the detective soon forgot his wrath and his troubles in sleep. He had not been long in the land of Nod when he was aroused by the sound of a heavy voice calling loudly from different parts of the premises for Con O'Donnel. Nearing the operative's improvised bed, McIntyre—for it was he—exclaimed:
"Jist tell me where I'll find that spalpeen, Con O'Donnel, an' I'll tache him to be afther playin' practical jokes on me! I'll larn him to tell me that Kate's gone off wid that Jim McKenna! Jist let me lay these two han's on the mane scut, an' I'll mash the life out o' him! Sure, an' me wife war slapin' in her bed, as a dacent woman should be! Oh, tell me where to find Con O'Donnel!"
But nobody seemed to know where the object of McIntyre's anger had taken himself to, and the husband was compelled to satisfy himself with some more whisky-punch, and then subsided, by the wall of the sweet-smelling pig-pen, into a drunken stupor, from which, had he appeared, even Con O'Donnel would have failed to arouse him.
So Mrs. McIntyre had succeeded in duping her husband! This was sufficient to send the weary operative off again into slumber, and it was an hour after sunrise when he awoke. As he had expected, only three or four of the Hazelton Mollies were fit to return. The remainder could not be made sensible, and were scattered in various grotesque attitudes, like bodies on a sanguinary battle-field, about the dancing-grounds, oblivious to all surrounding them, where they were left to take care of themselves, while the detective and his more sober comrades pursued their path down Buck Mountain to the village.
Con O'Donnel was not foolish enough to put himself in the way of the Shenandoah Mollie during his short stay in Carbon County, but the story being far too good to keep bottled up was related to his boon companions, with many extraordinary 199embellishments, not well calculated to please Mr. and Mrs. McIntyre, or suit the ideas of McKenna, and in this way soon reached general circulation in a gossiping community. While the detective was able to laugh it off, and soon get away from the locality, Danny McIntyre, when he heard what was being said, went on another extended but still fruitless search after the defamer of his household. The man who had imposed his wife upon a stranger as a single lady, having business and employment offered him in another part of the State, accepted the opportunity and soon removed from the neighborhood. Still threatening vengeance that he was unable to wreak, McIntyre was forced to quiet down and endure the result as best he might. Thenceforward the agent was more than ordinarily on his guard, and extremely careful how he volunteered to see unprotected maidens to their homes, without first making diligent inquiry if there chanced to be one Con O'Donnel thereabouts.
Carbon County having been well gone over, during the early part of July McKenna returned to Shenandoah.
The few events following, to the first of August, may thus be summarized:
The detective soon found all his Shenandoah friends about him. Lawler, Cooney, Hurley, Monaghan, McAndrew, and the rest were very glad to see their fellow-Mollie.
After the Fourth had passed, during which the members engaged in a general good time, celebrating the day of national independence, they commenced talking about securing a new Bodymaster for Shenandoah division, Lawler not having given satisfaction in several particulars. He seemed simply doing nothing. The boast that he would rapidly increase the membership had fallen short. Numbers were leaving, not liking the style of the presiding officer, instead of flocking in and joining the order. It was hinted to McKenna by several, that if he would accept, he might have the place of Bodymaster. He very wisely refused the tempting 200bait, but returned answer that, if they must honor him in this style—and for such an elevation he was by no means anxious—it should be in the bestowal of some subordinate position.
It was at this date that there arose considerable talk among the Mollies about one Gomer James, who had not long before shot and killed a member of the order named Cosgrove, living near Shenandoah. James was arrested, but secured bail and would soon be at large. Ned Monaghan and several others were desirous that Lawler should get some men from an adjoining body and have Gomer James quietly put out of harm's way, but, somehow, Muff could not, or would not, comply with their wishes. Therefore, ex-constable Monaghan—not Ed. Monaghan—expressed himself in favor of having an officer who would and could perform the job. Barney Dolan was sent for, and Lawler forced to send in his resignation, so that the Country Delegate might appoint a successor.
To make matters more unsettled, and the Mollies more lively, a general suspension of active operations occurred on the sixth of July, all the collieries belonging to the Philadelphia and Reading Coal and Iron Company, as well as those the property of, or leased by, individual operators, closing business and refusing longer to keep on at a loss, with expected permanent detriment to the mining interest. Labor of nearly all kinds was at a standstill. Thousands of men were without employment. The vicious and unprincipled of these being left to idleness, and naturally ready for anything, it was anticipated that outrages would quickly follow. Such always had been the case, and probably always would be, under the prevailing system of managing the coal regions. But one or two collieries kept at work in all Schuylkill County. Many of the miners and their helpers sought forgetfulness in liquor. Among this number were several of McKenna's associates, Hurley being notably one of the first 201to begin and the last to terminate a spree. He loudly and openly cursed the Modocs, and ended by saying that Gomer James, and those like him, who were responsible for hard times, must look out, as some of them would sup sorrow during that summer. How they could be chargeable with a stoppage of the works he did not pretend to explain, but put it upon them, without explanation, merely because he did not know where else to place it.
On one occasion Hurley exhibited a handsome set of brass knuckles, that he had borrowed of Martin Deane, and which were intended to be used upon somebody. Shortly thereafter, Deane left for Loss Creek, and he had been gone only a few days when a man named Reilly was shot and mortally wounded, by one Anthony Shaw, known to be Deane's butty. Suspicion fastened upon the latter as an accomplice in the shooting, but there was no evidence pointing him out as the accessory.
In the meantime, Frank McAndrew was the prominent candidate for Bodymaster, and, on the fifteenth of July, the big County Delegate, Barney Dolan, appeared in Shenandoah, saying something should be done, and done at once, otherwise their organization in the town should be disbanded. Dolan sought an early interview with McKenna and came out plainly with the wish that the detective should accept the Bodymastership; but he firmly refused, saying his conscience would not let him take it when there were so many more worthy men in the division; and he clinched the statement by hinting that he did not know at what moment the officers from Buffalo might pounce upon him. In such an event the division would be disgraced. No! he could not fill that office! Whatever he did must be in a subordinate position, or as a common member. The same day, Hurley, Monaghan, McAndrew, and the detective met in Lawler's house, at once shut Mrs. Lawler in the little, back kitchen, off the bar, locked and bolted the door against her, and proceeded 202to hold a special meeting, one man having been stationed without to give warning, should any straggling stranger chance to stroll to the vicinity. After some desultory conversation, Frank McAndrew was duly appointed Bodymaster for the remainder of the term, and instructed in the duties of the position. He was informed that he must make all the members pay up their dues, or be cut off. Dolan said that, hereafter, it must be a beneficial society. The charge had gained circulation that charity was not among the virtues practiced by the A. O. H., and it should be disproved. After some more talk of this sort, the County Delegate, quite muddled with drink, and well satisfied with himself and his official acts, left for home.
That very night, at a late hour, as McKenna and Monaghan were passing the house of Gomer James, the obnoxious young Welshman, on the route homeward, the ex-constable pulled out his revolver and wanted to fire into the building, saying, if he "only knew where Gomer James' head rested he'd send a bullet there." He was only prevented from putting his project into execution by McKenna, who seized the pistol and compelled its owner to put it away. There was nothing in the programme of the detective authorizing him to become an accomplice in outrage when it could be avoided.
At the ensuing regular meeting of the division, held in McHugh's house, on the eighteenth of July, an election took place. McAndrew was confirmed as Bodymaster for the current term, James McHugh elected Treasurer, James McKenna, Secretary, and all were regularly installed. It was really a business meeting. James O'Brien, Charles Hayes, and John Travers were accepted, subsequently initiated, and other persons proposed as members.
Lawler was not present, having gone into a fit of the sulks, because of his removal by Barney Dolan, in the first place, and from the failure of the members to re-elect him Bodymaster, 203in the second place. He temporarily resigned membership, but promised, after he had been a quarter of a year in the Church, that he would resume active participation in their proceedings. This was perfectly satisfactory to those concerned.
All things considered, Shenandoah Division succeeded better than before. Although McAndrew was troubled to read writing, and even perused print indifferently, he soon made, with McKenna's assistance, a very fair presiding officer. The detective had to go to his assistance in the ceremony of initiation, was called upon to deliver the obligation, or test, as it was sometimes described, and instruct the novitiates in the signs, pass-words, and toasts, but otherwise McAndrew managed affairs exceedingly well. This election to the Secretaryship gave the agent standing with the members, furnished him a safe place in which to write his reports, and also an excuse for carrying on considerable correspondence. Should suspicion thereafter ask a single question, he could plainly answer: "Am I not the Secretary? And have I not the writing of the division to attend to?" While instructing the members in the "goods" his memory would be stored with their salient features and he be enabled the more correctly to report them to the Agency. The Mollies being generally uneducated, such a position gave its occupant high standing in the order.
It was not long after McAndrew's succession to the Bodymaster's chair, that he commenced, spurred on by Monaghan and Hurley, arguing seriously with the detective, whenever he found an opportunity, about the case of Gomer James, the murderer of Cosgrove, and to perfect plans for the Welshman's sudden taking off. He often referred to the timber of which Shenandoah Division was composed, and regretted that it had no suitable men to do a clean job. But he said there was encouragement now, as new members were fast coming in, and it could not be long before the right sort 204would be plentiful. When he found the persons for the deed he would not be slow in selecting and sending them upon the track of the enemy. One John Gibbons, who, about this date, came to the town with a letter from Barney Dolan, he had hopes of. He was looked upon as about the manner of man needed for any outrageous business, and certainly appeared bad enough to the eye, and consumed sufficient whisky to constitute a first-class ruffian.
McAndrew was excessively proud of the eminence to which he had been conducted, and acted as though not far from parting with his senses when a delegation of neighboring Bodymasters, comprising "Bucky" Donnelly, of Raven Run, James Munley, of Rappahannock, and several other prominent Mollies, called in a crowd at his house, with their congratulations upon his good luck, and wishing him every success in office. As a natural consequence of such a shower of compliments, McAndrew treated several times to the best that could be found in the city, and, after making a day of it, went to bed late at night as drunk as a lord, when he had bid his visitors farewell at the train by which they departed.
It was a considerable task for McKenna to teach McAndrew the prayers with which every meeting of the Mollie Maguires was opened and closed—for these men of blood did not hesitate to introduce and canvass their murderous acts and begin and end their councils, at which the taking of human life was deliberately discussed, with a petition for the blessing of the Father to rest upon them—therefore, after receiving one or two lessons at the house, and in the bush, the Bodymaster said if the operative would reduce the forms to writing he would have his wife repeat them to him until they were fixed in his memory. When this was done, and McAndrew had secured some instruction in parliamentary usage, the new-fledged President considered his education complete.
205At each and every conference of the two men, McAndrew now would say to the detective that Monaghan, or some other party, had once more been urging the necessity of doing something with Gomer James. McKenna endeavored to make the Bodymaster believe it useless to pay any attention to these demands, holding that they would soon cease and their cause be forgotten. But that official, while he did not wish to assume any such responsibility, was not able to see the rby which it could be avoided. And McKenna, on his part, did not dare oppose too strenuously. Such a course would cause McAndrew to drop his communications on the subject, and then possibly the work might go on without his Secretary's knowledge. One day the head of the division arrived at the decided stand that, as soon as the number of members should justify, he would levy an assessment, and collect a fund to pay for the services of men from some adjoining division to come over to Shenandoah and "put Gomer James off his legs."
McKenna saw that McAndrew's mind was firmly made up in this direction, hence gave no further check to the business. A contrary plan, he was well aware, would prove of no avail, and, resolving merely to watch closely the course of events, he remained silent. Should the Mollies undertake to murder the young Welshman, as he feared they might, his duty was plain. He must, while appearing to favor the deed, do all he could to prevent its consummation, and at the same time keep Mr. Franklin well informed in every stage of the game, to the end that the Superintendent might, if he deemed it advisable, capture the criminals before the act, or notify James of his danger. It did not trouble the brain of the agent much, as he was fixed in his belief that nobody could attempt the crime without his knowledge. And he felt sure that, being fully advised as to what was going on, he would be in good time to preserve the intended victim's life.
206He quickly found out that there was a general complaint, which neither Bodymaster nor Secretary could afford to overlook. It was in the shape of an inquiry, set on foot by Monaghan and Hurley, asking: "Why is not something done for the removal of Gomer James?" There was but one response to be made to this question, and that must be: "It shall have attention."
Having done all he could to counteract this demand on the part of the Mollies, McKenna visited Pottsville, where he found his particular friend, Pat Dormer, of the far-famed Sheridan House, in a terribly shattered condition of mind and body. After a long debauch, during the course of which Pat had driven his wife almost insane, and finally out of doors, he was suffering the consequences of his errors and keeping house by himself, which was lonely enough to make the giant quite distracted. In fact, he was about as miserable a piece of six-foot humanity as ever the detective looked upon. He brightened up a little, however, when he grasped McKenna's hand and heard his cheerful voice, and tried to become more like his former jovial self, but it was a failure, and ended with subsidence into a deeper fit of despondency than had before possessed him.
McKenna exerted himself to bring Dormer around to his senses again, partly because he hated to see him so wretched, partly to learn what he knew of the Mollies, and finally so far succeeded that Dormer invited him to enjoy a carriage ride over the mountain. During their journey Pat begged his companion to visit Mrs. Dormer and try to induce her once more to return to his and her home, engaging faithfully to go before the priest and take an oath never to drink another drop of liquor if she would forgive him. This the detective had to promise. He did, later in the day, try his hand as family peacemaker with the lady in question, but without success, as she utterly refused ever to have anything to do with her husband. She said he thought nothing 207of an oath, and might break it within thirty days. Her life would be in constant danger, and McKenna could hardly blame her for preferring a comfortable and quiet home, where she was, to the trouble and disorder in which Dormer was always embroiled.
After wandering over the mines, calling upon the principal Mollies, and thoroughly sounding the miners on the subject of the suspension, the Secretary returned, about the first of August, to Shenandoah. There he was gladly received by the officers and members of his division, and soon learned that, on the fourth of the month, there was to be a meeting of County Delegates at Tremont. It now became his special object to lay his wires in such shape that he would be reasonably sure of discovering, at an early day, the general purport, if not full particulars, of the business transacted by the convention.
Could it be that this arrangement foreshadowed evil to Gomer James?
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