McKenna’s fears were not without foundation, as was shown from the action taken by members of his division the very day succeeding the one on which McAndrew, the Bodymaster, shook the dust of Shenandoah from his shoes and sought work near Wilkesbarre. On the morning of the eighteenth of May, the troubled Secretary was met at the street corner by Doyle and Garvey, who said they were on the way to his boarding-house, as Gibbons desired to see him immediately, down in the bush. The three men set out for the place of meeting, and meantime the mind of the detective was sorely agitated. What were these men about to do with him? Had they penetrated his disguise, now many months worn, and, as he thought, quite thick enough to defy the sharpest scrutiny? Were they taking him out to meet the fate he well knew must follow quick upon discovery of his real mission in the mines? But, despite dark reflections, keeping up a firm outward appearance and passing merry jokes, upon the usual subjects, without as much as a quaver in the tone of his voice, or a perceptible tremor in his nerves, he walked along; whether to his own death, or a conference to end in the murder of another, he could only guess. In the bush, not far from Muff Lawler’s house, a little later, were congregated Gibbons, Doyle, Garvey, Fenton Cooney, and James McKenna. Gibbons was the spokesman, and gruffly informed the Secretary that, now McAndrew was gone, Gomer James must be made away with. “I propose,” said he, “that two men be obtained from Mahanoy Plane, and two from Mahanoy City, to go with me an’ Doyle, here, an’ we’ll soon end the cursed Welshman!” “How is it to be done?” asked McKenna, and he did earnestly wish McAndrew was safe home again. “I’ll jist tell ye!” roughly responded Gibbons, while he smoked his pipe composedly, knocking off the burnt tobacco with the tip of his little finger, showing as much coolness as if sitting in his own chimney corner, talking to a friend about the weather. There was a cold, malevolent glitter in his restless eye which told those who knew him that he was wholly in earnest. “I’ll tell ye! All Doyle an’ I wants is fur the four men to kape a good watch, part on one side, an’ part on the other side of the road that Gomer James passes over, an’ we two’ll attend to the rest! Gomer is now watchman at the Little Drift, an’ we can catch him aisy like, early in the mornin’, when he’s goin’ home from work. The patch is not so very far from here, but far enough, an’ before anybody’ll be up an’ around, we can be back home, an’ the Mahanoy men well on their road for the Plane!” “Av coorse,” said McKenna, appreciating that, to show cowardice or hesitation, under the circumstances, would prove sure if not immediate death, “if the majority’s raally in favor of the thing, we’ll certainly have it done! I consent to whativer the division may ask!”