The Valley of Fear V 4 - The Darkest Hour

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Part II, Chapter five of the Valley of Fear by
Arthur Conan Doyle. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox
recordings are in the public domain. For more information or
to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Chapter five, The
Darkest Hour. If anything had been needed to give an

(00:21):
impetus to Jack macmurdo's popularity among his fellows, it would
have been his arrest and acquittal. That a man on
the very night of joining the lodge should have done
something which brought him before the magistrate was a new
record in the anals of the society. Already he had
earned the reputation of a good boon companion, a cheery reveler,

(00:43):
and withal a man of high temper who would not
take an insult even from the all powerful boss himself.
But in addition to this, he impressed his comrades with
the idea that among them all there was not one
whose brain was so ready to devise a bloodthirsty scheme,
or whose hand would be more capable of carrying it out.

Speaker 2 (01:06):
He'll be the boy for the clean job.

Speaker 1 (01:08):
Said the Ulsters to one another, and waited their time
until they could set him to his work. McGinty had
instruments enough already, but he recognized that this was a
supremely able one. He felt like a man holding a
fierce bloodhound in leash. There were curs to do the
smaller work, but someday he would slip this creature upon

(01:30):
its prey. A few members of the lodge, ted Baldwin
among them, resented the rapid rise of the stranger and
hated him for it, but they kept clear of him,
for he was as ready to fight as to laugh.
But if he gained favor with his fellows, there was
another quarter, one which had become even more vital to him,

(01:51):
in which he lost it. Etty Shafter's father would have
nothing more to do with him, nor would he allow
him to enter the house. Etty herself was too deeply
in love to give him up altogether, and yet her
own good sense warned her of what would come from
a marriage with a man who was regarded as a criminal.

(02:12):
One morning, after a sleepless night, she determined to see him,
possibly for the last time, and made one strong endeavor
to draw him from those evil influences which were sucking
him down. She went to his house as he had
often begged her to do, and made her way into
the room which he used as his sitting room. He

(02:33):
was seated at a table, with his back turned and
a letter in front of him. A sudden spirit of
girlish mischief came over her. She was still only nineteen.
He had not heard her when she pushed open the door.
Now she tiptoed forward and laid her hand lightly upon
his bended shoulders. If she had expected to startle him,

(02:54):
she certainly succeeded, but only in turn to be startled
herself with a tiger spring. He turned on her, and
his right hand was feeling for her throat. At the
same instant, with the other hand, he crumpled up the
paper that lay before him. For an instant he stood glaring,
Then astonishment and joy took the place of the ferocity

(03:16):
which had convulsed his features, a ferocity which had sent
her shrinking back in horror, as from something which had
never before intruded into her gentle life. It's you, said
he mopping his brow.

Speaker 3 (03:30):
And I think that you should come to me her
to be heard, And I should find nothing better to
do than to want to strangle you comed in.

Speaker 1 (03:38):
Darling, and he held out his arms.

Speaker 3 (03:41):
Let me make it up to you.

Speaker 1 (03:44):
But she had not recovered from that sudden glimpse of
guilty fear which she had read in the man's face.
All her woman's instinct told her that it was not
the mere fright of a man who is startled guilt.
That was it guilt and fear.

Speaker 4 (04:00):
What's come over you?

Speaker 3 (04:01):
Jack?

Speaker 1 (04:02):
She cried, Why are you.

Speaker 4 (04:04):
So scared of me? Oh? Jack, if your conscience was
at his, you would not have looked at me like that.

Speaker 3 (04:14):
Sure, I was thinking of other things, and when you came,
crepping so lightly under his fairy feet of yours.

Speaker 4 (04:21):
No, no, it was more than that, Jack.

Speaker 1 (04:26):
Then a sudden suspicion seized her.

Speaker 4 (04:29):
Let me see that letter you were writing.

Speaker 3 (04:33):
Ah, Eddy, he couldn't do that.

Speaker 1 (04:36):
Her suspicions became certain. Says it's to another woman, She cried,
I know it.

Speaker 4 (04:45):
Why else should you hold it from me? Was it
to your wife that you were writing? How am I
to know that you are not a married man? You
a stranger that nobody knows.

Speaker 3 (05:00):
I got married Etty. See now I swear it, You're
the only one woman on earth to me by the
cross of Christ. I swear it.

Speaker 1 (05:09):
He was so white with passionate earnestness that she could
not but believe him.

Speaker 4 (05:15):
Well, then she cried, why will you not show miss
a letter?

Speaker 1 (05:20):
I'll tell you a Cushla said he.

Speaker 3 (05:23):
I'm under oath not to show it. And just as
I wouldn't break my word to you, I would keep
it to those who hold my promise. It's the business
of the lodge, and even to you. It's secret. And
if I was scared when a hand fell on me,
can't you understand it? When it might have been the
hand of a detective?

Speaker 1 (05:41):
She felt that he was telling the truth. He gathered
her into his arms and kissed away her fears and
doubts sit.

Speaker 3 (05:49):
Here by me. Then it's a quiet road for such
a queen. But it's the best your poor lover can find.
You'll do better for you some of these days, I'm thinking, No,
your mind is easy once again, is it not?

Speaker 4 (06:04):
How can it ever be at ease?

Speaker 3 (06:06):
Jack?

Speaker 4 (06:07):
Then I know that you are a criminal among criminals.
When I never know the day that I may hear
you are in court for murder. Macmurdo the scrower. That's
what one of our boarders called you yesterday. It went
through my hut like a knife.

Speaker 3 (06:27):
Sure, heard words break no bones, but they were true. Well, dear,
it's not so bad as you think we are. But
poor men do I try no own way to get
our rights.

Speaker 1 (06:42):
Etty threw her arms round her lover's neck.

Speaker 4 (06:45):
Give it up, Jack, for my sake, for God's sake,
give it up. It was to ask you that I
came here to day. Oh Jack, see I beg it
of you. On my bended knees, kneeling here before you,
I implore you to give it up.

Speaker 1 (07:06):
He raised her and soothed her with her head against
his breast.

Speaker 3 (07:10):
Sure, my darleen, you don't know what it is you
are asking. How could I give it up? When it
would be to break my oath and to desert my comrades.
If you could see how things stand with me, you
could never ask it of me. Besides, if I wanted to,
how could I do it? You don't suppose that the
lodge would let a man go free with all its secrets.

Speaker 4 (07:33):
I've thought of that, Jack, I've planned it all. Father
has saved some money. He is weary of this place.
Where's a few of these people? Darkins our lives? He's
ready to go we would fly together to Philadelphia or
New York. Vevy would be safe from them.

Speaker 1 (07:53):
Matt Murdo laughed.

Speaker 3 (07:56):
The lodge is a long arm. Do you not think
it could stretch from here to Philadelphia or New York?

Speaker 4 (08:03):
Well, then to the vast or to England, or to
Germany where father came from, anywhere to get away from
this valley of fear.

Speaker 1 (08:14):
Matt Murdow thought of old brother Morris.

Speaker 3 (08:17):
Sure it is the second time I have heard the
valley so named.

Speaker 1 (08:21):
Said he.

Speaker 3 (08:22):
The shadow does indeed seem to lie heavy on some
of you.

Speaker 4 (08:27):
It darkens every moment of our lives. Do you suppose
that Ted Baldwin has ever forgiven us? If it were
not said he fears you? What do you suppose our
chances would be if you saw us? A look in
those dark, hungry eyes of his whin day.

Speaker 3 (08:44):
Fall on me, Oi girl, I teach him better manners
if I caught him at it. But see here, little girl,
I can't live here. I can't take that from me
once and for all. But if you leave me to
find my own way, I would try to prepare a
way of getting honorably out of it.

Speaker 4 (09:05):
It is no honor in such a matter.

Speaker 3 (09:08):
Will well, it's just how you look at it. But
if you'll give me six months, I'll work it so
I can leave without being ashamed to look at others
in the face.

Speaker 1 (09:18):
The girl laughed with joy.

Speaker 4 (09:21):
Six months, she cried, is it a promise?

Speaker 3 (09:26):
Well, there may be seven or eight, but within a year,
at the furthest we will leave the valley behind us.

Speaker 1 (09:34):
It was the most that Etty could obtain, and yet
it was something. There was this distant light to illuminate
the gloom of the immediate future. She returned to her
father's house more lighthearted than she had ever been since
Jack McMurdo had come into her life. It might be
thought that as a member, all the doings of the

(09:56):
society would be told to him, but he was soon
to discover but the organization was wider and more complex
than the simple lodge. Even Boss McGinty was ignorant as
to many things, for there was an official name, the
county delegate living at Hobson's Patch farther down the line,
who had power over several different lodges, which he wielded

(10:18):
in a sudden and arbitrary way. Only once did mac
murdo see him a sly, little, gray haired rat of
a man with a slinking gait and a sidelong glance,
which was charged with malice. Evans's Pot was his name,
and even the great boss of the Missa felt towards
him something of the repulsion and fear which the huge

(10:40):
Dantern may have felt for the puny but dangerous robes Pierre.
One day Scanlon, who was Matt Murdo's fellow, border, received
a note from McGuinty inclosing one from evans Pot, which
informed him that he was sending over to good men
Lawla and Andrews, who had instructions to act in the neighborhood.

(11:03):
Though it was best for the cause that no particulars
as to their objects should be given, would the body
Master see to it that suitable arrangements be made for
their lodgings and comfort until the time for action should arrive.
McGinty added that it was impossible for anyone to remain
secret at the Union House, and that therefore he would

(11:25):
be obliged if mac murdo and Scanlon would put the
strangers up for a few days in their boarding house.
The same evening, the two men arrived, each carrying his gripsack.
Lawler was an elderly man, shrewd, silent, and self contained,
clad in an old black frock coat, which, with his

(11:45):
soft felt hat and ragged, grizzled beard, gave him a
general resemblance to an itinerant preacher. His companion, Andrew's, was
little more than a boy, frank faced and cheerful, with
the breezy of one who is out for a holiday
and means to enjoy every minute of it. Both men

(12:06):
were total abstainers and behaved in all ways as exemplary
members of the society, with the one simple exception that
they were assassins who would often proved themselves to be
most capable instruments for this association of murder. Lawla had
already carried out fourteen commissions of the kind and Andrew's three.

(12:28):
They were, as Macmurdo found, quite ready to converse about
their deeds in the past, which they recounted with the
half bashful pride of men who had done good and
unselfish service for the community. They were reticent, however, as
to the immediate job in hand.

Speaker 2 (12:47):
They chose us because neither I nor the boy.

Speaker 1 (12:49):
Here drink, Lawla explained.

Speaker 2 (12:53):
They can count on us saying no more than we should.
You must not take it a mess. But it is
the orders of the county I get that we obey.

Speaker 1 (13:01):
Sure we are all in it together, said Scanlon, Matt
Murdo's mate, as the four sat together at supper.

Speaker 2 (13:09):
That's true enough, and we'll talk to the cows come
home of the killing of Charlie Williams, or of Simon
Bird or any other job in the past. Until the
work is done, we say nothing.

Speaker 3 (13:22):
There are half a dozen about here. Did I have
a word to.

Speaker 1 (13:25):
Say too, said Matt Murdo with an oath.

Speaker 3 (13:28):
I suppose it isn't jet noox of Erinhill that you
were after. I'd go some weaed to see him get
his desserts.

Speaker 2 (13:36):
No, it's not him yet.

Speaker 3 (13:38):
Poor hermann Strauss.

Speaker 2 (13:40):
No nor him either.

Speaker 3 (13:43):
Well, if you won't till us, we can't make you.
But I'd be glad to know.

Speaker 1 (13:49):
Laula smiled and shook his head. He was not to
be drawn. In spite of the reticence of their guests,
Scanlon and Matt Murdo were quite determined to be present
at what they called the fun when. Therefore, at an
early hour one morning, Matt Murdo heard them creeping down
the stairs. He awakened Scanlon and the two hurried on

(14:11):
their clothes. When they were dressed, they found that the
others had stolen out, leaving the door open behind them.
It was not yet dawn, and by the light of
the lamps they could see the two men some distance
down the street. They followed them warily, treading noiselessly in
the deep snow. The boarding house was near the edge

(14:33):
of the town, and soon they were at the crossroads,
which is beyond its boundary. Here three men were waiting,
with whom Lawla and Andrews held a short, eager conversation.
Then they all moved on together. It was clearly some
notable job which needed numbers. At this point there are
several trails which lead to various mines. The strangers took

(14:56):
that which led to the crow Hill, a huge business
which was in strong hands, which had been able thanks
to their energetic and fearless New England manager Josiah H. Dunn,
to keep some order and discipline during the long rain
of terror. Day was breaking now and a line of

(15:16):
workmen were slowly making their way singly and in groups
along the blackened path. Matt Murdo and Scanlon strolled on
with the others, keeping in sight of the men whom
they followed. A thick mist lay over them, and from
the heart of it there came the sudden scream of
a steam whistle. It was the ten minute signal before

(15:37):
the cages descended and the day's labor began. When they
reached the open space around the mine shaft, there were
one hundred miners waiting, stamping their feet and blowing on
their fingers, for it was bitterly cold. The strangers stood
in a little group under the shadow of the engine house.

(15:58):
Scanlon and Matt Murdo climbed up heap of slag, from
which the whole scene lay before them. They saw the
mine engineer, a great bearded scotchman named Menzies, come out
of the engine house and blow his whistle for the
cages to be lowered. At the same instant, a tall,
loose framed young man with a clean shaved, ernest face

(16:20):
advanced eagerly towards the pit head. As he came forward,
his eyes fell upon the group, silent and motionless under
the engine house. The men had drawn down their hats
and turned up their collars to screen their faces. For
a moment, the presentiment of death laid its cold hand

(16:40):
upon the manager's heart. At the next he had shaken
it off and saw only his duty towards intrusive strangers.
Who are you, he asked as he advanced.

Speaker 3 (16:52):
What are you latering there?

Speaker 1 (16:53):
For? There was no answer, but the lad Andrews stepped
forward and shot him in the stomach. The hundred waiting
miners stood as motionless and helpless as if they were paralyzed.
The manager clapped his two hands to the wound and
doubled himself up. Then he staggered away, but another of
the assassins fired and he went down sideways, kicking and cloying,

(17:16):
among a heap of clinkers menzies. The scotchman gave a
roar of rage at the sight and rushed with an
iron spanner at the murderers, but was met by two
balls in the face, which dropped him dead at their
very feet. There was a surge forward of some of
the miners, and an inarticulate cry of pity and of anger,

(17:37):
But a couple of the strangers emptied their six shooters
over the heads of the crowd, and they broke and scattered,
some of them rushing wildly back to their homes in Vermissa.
When a few of the bravest had rallied and there
was a return to the mine, the murderous gang had
vanished in the mists of morning, without a single witness

(17:57):
being able to swear to the identity of these men, who,
in front of a hundred spectators, had wrought this double crime.
Scanlon and mac murdo made their way back, Scanlon somewhat subdued,
for it was the first murder job that he had
seen with his own eyes, and it appeared less funny
than he had been led to believe. The horrible screams

(18:20):
of the dead manager's wife pursued them as they hurried
to the town. Matt Murdo was absorbed and silent, but
he showed no sympathy for the weakening of his companion.
Sure it is like a war, he repeated, What is
it but a.

Speaker 3 (18:36):
War between us and them? And we hit back were
we best guns.

Speaker 1 (18:41):
There was high revel in the lodge room at the
Union House that night, not only over the killing of
the manager and engineer of the crow Hill mine, which
would bring this organization into line with the other blackmailed
and terror stricken companies of the district, but also over
a distant triumph which had been wrought by the hands
of the lodge itself. It would appear that when the

(19:03):
county delegate had sent over five good men to strike
a blow in the Missa, he had demanded that in return,
three the Missa men should be secretly selected and sent
across to kill William Hales of Stake Royal, one of
the best known and most popular mine owners in the
Gilmurton district, a man who was believed not to have

(19:24):
an enemy in the world, for he was in all
ways a model employer. He had insisted, however, upon efficiency
in the work, and had therefore paid off certain drunken
and idle employees who were members of the all powerful society.
Coffin notices hung outside his door had not weakened his resolution,

(19:45):
and so, in a free, civilized country he found himself
condemned to death. The execution had now been duly carried out.
Ted Baldwin, who sprawled now in the seat of honor
beside the bodymaster, had been chief of the party. His
flushed face and glazed, bloodshot eyes told of sleeplessness and drink.

(20:08):
He and his two comrades had spent the night before
among the mountains. They were unkempt and weather stained. But
no heroes returning from a forlorn hope could have had
a warmer welcome from their comrades. The story was told
and retold amid cries of delight and shouts of laughter.
They had waited for their man as he drove home

(20:30):
at nightfall, taking their station at the top of a
steep hill where his horse must be at a walk.
He was so furred to keep out the cold that
he could not lay his hand on his pistol. They
had pulled him out and shot him again and again.
He had screamed for mercy. The screams were repeated for
the amusement of the lodge.

Speaker 4 (20:52):
Did he again, how he squealed?

Speaker 3 (20:54):
They cried.

Speaker 1 (20:56):
None of them knew the man, but there is eternal
drama in a killing, and they had shown the scourers
of Gilmurton that the Vermissa men were to be relied upon.
There had been one contretemps, for a man and his
wife had driven up while they were still emptying their
revolvers into the silent body. It had been suggested that

(21:16):
they should shoot them both, but they were harmless folk
who were not connected with the mines. So they were
sternly bidden to drive on and keep silence, lest a
worse thing before them, And so the blood mottled figure
had been left as a warning to all such hard
hearted employers, and the three noble avengers had hurried off

(21:37):
into the mountains, where unbroken nature comes down to the
very edge of the furnaces and the slag heaps. Here
they were safe and sound, their work well done, and
the plaudits of their companions in their ears. It had
been a great day for the scourers. The shadow had
fallen even darker over the valley. But as the wise

(21:59):
general choose, is the moment of victory in which to
redouble his efforts, so that his foes may have no
time to steady themselves after disaster. So Boss McGinty, looking
out upon the scene of his operations with his brooding
and malicious eyes, had devised a new attack upon those
who opposed him. That very night, as the half drunken

(22:23):
company broke up, he touched Matt Murdo on the arm
and led him aside into that inner room where they
had their first interview.

Speaker 5 (22:32):
See here, my lad said he, I've got a job
that's worthy of you. At last you'll have the doing
of it in your own hands.

Speaker 3 (22:42):
Broad I am to hear it.

Speaker 1 (22:44):
Matt Murdo answered, you can.

Speaker 5 (22:46):
Take two men with you, Manders and Riley. They have
been warned for service. Will never be right in this
district until Chester Wilcox has been settled, and you'll have
the thanks of very large in the fields. If you
can down him.

Speaker 3 (23:03):
I'll do my best. Anyho who is he and where
shall I find him?

Speaker 1 (23:08):
McGinty took his eternal half chewed, half smoked cigar from
the corner of his mouth and proceeded to draw a
rough diagram on a page torn from his notebook.

Speaker 5 (23:19):
He's the chief foreman of the Iron Dike Company. He's
a hard citizen, an old color sergeant of the war,
all scars and grizzle. We've had two tries at him
but had no luck, and Jim Carnaway lost his life
over it. Now it's for you to take it over.

(23:40):
That's the house all alone at the Iron Dyke Crossroad,
same as you see here on this map, without another
within earshot. It's no good. By day he's armed and
shoots quick and straight with no questions asked. But at night, well,
there he is with his wife, three children, and a

(24:02):
hired help. He can't pick or choose. It's all or none.
If you could get a bag of blasting powder at
the front door, the slow match to it?

Speaker 3 (24:12):
What's the man done?

Speaker 5 (24:14):
Didn't I tell you? He shot Jim Carnaway?

Speaker 3 (24:17):
Way did he shoot him?

Speaker 5 (24:19):
What in thunder has that to do with you? Carnaway
was about his house at night and he shot him.
That's enough for me and you. You've got to settle
the thing right.

Speaker 3 (24:30):
There's these two women and the children. Do they go
up too?

Speaker 5 (24:35):
They have to else? How can we get him?

Speaker 3 (24:38):
It seems hard on them, for they've done nothing.

Speaker 5 (24:42):
What sort of fool's talk is this? Do you back out?

Speaker 3 (24:46):
Easy, counselor easy? What have I ever said to have
done that you should think I'll be after standing back
from an order of the body, master of my own ludge.
It was right, derv it's wrong. It's for you to
decide you'll do it, then, of course I will do it.
When well, you'd misgive me a night or two that

(25:07):
I may see the house should make my plans, then, very.

Speaker 1 (25:12):
Good, said mc ginty, shaking him by the hand.

Speaker 5 (25:17):
I'll leave it with you. It will be a great
day when you bring us the news. It's just the
last stroke. They'll bring them all to their knees.

Speaker 1 (25:27):
Mac murdo thought long and deeply over the commission which
had been so suddenly placed in his hands. The isolated
house in which Chester Wilcox lived was about five miles
off in an adjacent valley. That very night he started
off all alone to prepare for the attempt. It was
daylight before he returned from his reconnaissance. Next day he

(25:51):
interviewed his two subordinates, Manders and Riley, reckless youngsters who
were as elated as if it were a deer hunt.
Two nights later they met outside the town, all three armed,
and one of them carrying a sack stuff with the
powder which was used in the quarries. It was two
in the morning before they came to the lonely house.

(26:13):
The night was a windy one, with broken clouds drifting
swiftly across the face of a three quarter moon. They
had been worn to be on their guard against bloodhounds,
so they moved forward cautiously with their pistols cocked in
their hands, But there was no sound save the howling
of the wind, and no movement but the swaying branches

(26:33):
above them. Matt Murdo listened at the door of the
lonely house, but all was still within. Then he leaned
the powder bag against it, ripped a hole in it
with his knife, and attached the fuse. When it was
well alight, he and his two companions took to their
heels and were some distance off, safe and snug in
a sheltering ditch before the shattering roar of the explosion,

(26:58):
with the low, deep rumble of the collapsing building told
them that their work was done. No cleaner job had
ever been carried out in the blood stained anals of
the society. But alas that work, so well organized and
boldly carried out, should all have gone for nothing. Warned
by the fate of the various victims, and knowing that

(27:20):
he was marked down for destruction, Chester Wilcox had moved
himself and his family only the day before to some
safer and less known quarters, where a guard of police
should watch over them. It was an empty house which
had been torn down by the gunpowder, and the grim
old color sergeant of the war was still teaching discipline

(27:41):
to the miners of iron Dyke. Leave him to me,
said Matt Murdo.

Speaker 3 (27:47):
He's my man, and I'll let him sure if I
have to wait a year for him.

Speaker 1 (27:52):
A vote of thanks and confidence was passed in full lodge,
and so for the time the matter ended. When a
few weeks later it was reported in the papers that
will Cox had been shot at from an ambuscade, it
was an open secret that Matt Murdo was still at
work upon his unfinished job. Such were the methods of

(28:12):
the Society of Freemen, and such were the deeds of
the scourers by which they spread their rule of fear
over the great and rich district, which was, for so
long a period haunted by their terrible presence. Why should
these pages be stained by further crimes? Have I not
said enough to show the men and their methods. These

(28:34):
deeds are written in history, and there are records wherein
one may read the details of them.

Speaker 3 (28:40):
There one may.

Speaker 1 (28:41):
Learn of the shooting of policemen Hunt and Evans, because
they had ventured to arrest two members of the society,
a double outrage planned at the Vermissa Lodge, and carried
out in cold blood upon two helpless and disarmed men.
There also one may read of the shooting of Missus
Larby when she was nursing her husband, who had been

(29:03):
beaten almost to death by orders of Boss McGinty, The
killing of the elder Jenkins, shortly followed by that of
his brother, the mutilation of James Murdoch, the blowing up
of the Staphouse family, and the murder of the Stendals
all followed hard upon one another in the same terrible winter.

(29:24):
Darkly the shadow lay upon the Valley of Fear. The
spring had come, with running brooks and blossoming trees. There
was hope for all nature bound so long in an
iron grip. But nowhere was there any hope for the
men and women who lived under the yoke of the terror.
Never had the cloud above them been so dark and

(29:44):
hopeless as in the early summer of the year eighteen
seventy five. End of Part two, Chapter five