About the close of the same month, McKenna, only suffering the loss of some of his finger-nails, as the result of the mining accident, was sufficiently recovered to return to coal-shoveling in the shaft of the West Shenandoah colliery. McAndrew was employed in the same mine, not far from him, and they had Mike Lawler as a companion almost within speaking distance. During their dinner hour Mike Lawler suggested that he wanted McKenna well inside the ring before St. Patrick’s day, so that he could appear in the procession. It was then the intention to make as good a show as possible on that occasion. McAndrew readily acceded to the proposition, and the operative assenting, it was agreed that his name should be taken in at the ensuing regular meeting. But McKenna did not march in the procession on the seventeenth. A few members from a country division came out. The majority of the Mollies, preferring to remain incog., did not attempt to walk with those belonging to other societies. About the beginning of March the times were so hard that a number of men had to be discharged from the colliery, including McKenna and his companions. They were promised work when business was more lively. In the meantime, the detective’s efforts—which could not be very active without attracting undesirable attention—to gain admission to the Ancient Order, as it was sometimes called, were unavailing. Lawler sometimes referred to his promise, but seemed unwilling or afraid to proceed. McKenna was aware of the fact that he had not been black-balled, and all now wanting was a fairly attended meeting to call for his admission. McAndrew and Lawler had lately fallen out. They did not openly quarrel, but Lawler wanted to be re-elected Bodymaster of the division, and McAndrew thought it was due to him. Lawler urged that, as McAndrew could not read or write, he was ineligible, and there were a few members who sided with him. Others contended that lack of education made no difference. McAndrew being McKenna’s warm friend, that fact might have had something to do with the delay by Lawler in having the applicant initiated. Matters remained in this condition, McKenna and his friends working part of the time and then for weeks being unemployed, until about the thirteenth of the following April. Thinking to accelerate action a little, the detective, one day, proposed to Lawler, that, in a little while, he would have to bid him good-by, alleging that work was so dull he had concluded to go to Luzerne County, and there pass the spring and summer. He knew he could get work in Wilkesbarre, or find an old friend who had proposed to set him up in business—that is, give him a supply of bogus bank bills to be disposed of on commission. “Anything,” he remarked, “is better than idleness.” This had the desired effect. McKenna had been instructed to take some such course, but not to push the matter.