SNARED BY KATE—HONORED BY “MOLLIE.”
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 upon the arm of her escort they were soon
lost in the darkness.
[Illustration: “_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:
“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 road and 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.
When his heavy tread could no longer be heard, the couple stood again in
the road. 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
road over 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, upon 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 embellishments, 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
bait, 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 to 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 to
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, in 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 would 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.
At 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 road by 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.
He 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 of 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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