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Updated: June 9, 2025
"Maybe you think if I was voted down from Bodymaster you would find yourself in my shoes. It's for the lodge to say that. But so long as I am the chief I'll have no man lift his voice against me or my rulings." "I have nothing against you," mumbled Baldwin, feeling his throat.
"Yes, he was delirious with fever once when he had his hunting accident three years ago. Then I remember that there was a name that came continually to his lips. He spoke it with anger and a sort of horror. McGinty was the name Bodymaster McGinty. I asked him when he recovered who Bodymaster McGinty was, and whose body he was master of.
"The Bodymaster orders that he shall be trussed, blinded, and entered," said he. The three of them removed his coat, turned up the sleeve of his right arm, and finally passed a rope round above the elbows and made it fast. They next placed a thick black cap right over his head and the upper part of his face, so that he could see nothing. He was then led into the assembly hall.
"June 24, 1872." "What Bodymaster?" "James H. Scott." "Who is your district ruler?" "Bartholomew Wilson." "Hum! You seem glib enough in your tests. What are you doing here?" "Working, the same as you but a poorer job." "You have your back answer quick enough." "Yes, I was always quick of speech." "Are you quick of action?" "I have had that name among those that knew me best."
The long room was crowded, and through the haze of tobacco smoke he saw the tangled black mane of the Bodymaster, the cruel, unfriendly features of Baldwin, the vulture face of Harraway, the secretary, and a dozen more who were among the leaders of the lodge. He rejoiced that they should all be there to take counsel over his news.
McMurdo's criminal soul seemed to have already absorbed the spirit of the vile association of which he was now a member. "I like it well," said he. "'Tis a proper place for a lad of mettle." Several of those who sat around heard his words and applauded them. "What's that?" cried the black-maned Bodymaster from the end of the table. "'Tis our new brother, sir, who finds our ways to his taste."
McMurdo rose to his feet for an instant. "I would say, Eminent Bodymaster, that if a man should be wanted I should take it as an honour to be chosen to help the lodge." There was great applause at this. It was felt that a new sun was pushing its rim above the horizon. To some of the elders it seemed that the progress was a little too rapid.
"Who will volunteer for the job?" Several young fellows held up their hands. The Bodymaster looked at them with an approving smile. "You'll do, Tiger Cormac. If you handle it as well as you did the last, you won't be wrong. And you, Wilson." "I've no pistol," said the volunteer, a mere boy in his teens. "It's your first, is it not? Well, you have to be blooded some time.
McMurdo, who had already been appointed Inner Deacon, with every prospect of some day succeeding McGinty as Bodymaster, was now so necessary to the councils of his comrades that nothing was done without his help and advice. The more popular he became, however, with the Freemen, the blacker were the scowls which greeted him as he passed along the streets of Vermissa.
"Eminent Bodymaster and Brethren," he said, "I am the bearer of ill news this day; but it is better that it should be known and discussed, than that a blow should fall upon us without warning which would destroy us all.
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