“I have sent Tom Donahue,” said the County Delegate, “up to Locust Gap, to see Dennis Canning, County Delegate of Northumberland, but learned that he had gone to Pittsburg and was at work there; an’ I now intend getting Chris Donnelly, of Mt. Laffee, County Treasurer; Wm. Gavin, of Big Mine Run, County Secretary; Mike O’Brien, Bodymaster at Mahanoy City—and I invite you, McKenna, to be present—to hold a convention, on the first of June, at Clark’s, in Mahanoy, an’ we will see what is to be done wid the whelps, now barkin’ so lustily. Perhaps it might be the thing to just bouldly an’ publicly challenge the whole pack to come out an’ fight us. Some think we had best attack ’em in the night an’ shoot down every one we meet, sparin’ only women and children! I hate shedding of human blood, but these are mighty hot times, an’ something will have to be put to work to give us our rights!” “Sure, an’ I can’t but applaud your acts, Kehoe!” responded McKenna. “Fur wan that ye have invited, ye may count on my bein’ at Clark’s promptly on the day.” The County Delegate expressed his pleasure, and said, if all the gentlemen were like the Shenandoah Secretary the Modocs would soon be silenced. The men then parted, Kehoe to attend to home measures, and deal out whisky for his customers, and the detective to report to Mr. Franklin and prepare for the great convention. ————●———— CHAPTER XXIX. THE INQUISITION OF TEN. Other events crowding upon their attention seemed for a time to guard the threatened Gomer James from the bullets of his sworn assassins. The Welshman still lived and pursued his usual avocations, wherever he might be, unharmed and unmolested. At the annual borough election Jack Kehoe was unanimously chosen High Constable of Girardville. He was not only King of the Mollies of Schuylkill, but had the power of arrest and charge of the municipal prisoners. If the latter chanced to be of the order, they were handled tenderly and fared sumptuously. If of the Chain Gang, the Modoc, or Sheet Iron sort, he bundled them into jail without gloves, and fed them upon whatever might be cheap and unsavory. Surely, Jack Kehoe was a rising luminary in the heavens—or on the earth—and his luck fast improving. A few days before the date appointed for the convention at Mahanoy City, McKenna went to see Michael O’Brien and had a talk with him about the troubles in his vicinity. O’Brien was anxious to have three or four men, who could be depended upon, come over to Mahanoy, and he would appoint persons from his own division to show the strangers their work, which was to “fetch” Wm. M. Thomas and Jesse Major. He was of the opinion that, if these parties, and two or three others, were well out of the way, there might ensue a reign of peace in the community; but just as long as they lived, trouble would surely come. O’Brien said he had given Kehoe the situation of affairs.