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out, with Dietz right behind him. "Won't have to, Charlie. McCullough took the Molly Maguire oath years ago. He was practically baptized with it."

Chapter 3
    Dietz and Patterson met up with Judge Brown in the street outside the meeting hall.
    "Judge Brown." Patterson sounded friendly, though Dietz knew he despised the judge.
    "Allison, who've you brought?" The judge's gruff manner matched his overall appearance.  
    What a pompous, egotistical bastard . Dietz disliked him immediately but smiled at him just the same.
    As the judge stared at Dietz, not a hint of a smile broke his lips. His eyes reflected nothing but darkness.
    "Let me introduce you to Ian McCullough," Patterson continued. "From Pennsylvania. Of union activist fame. Keely Byrne asked me to make introductions."
    Judge Brown grunted. "Friend of her dead brother. Byrne always spoke highly of him." The judge squinted at Dietz, studying him at length. "Younger looking than Byrne described you but similar enough." He grunted again. "Can't be too careful. Waters hired you to do some work for us?"  
    Dietz nodded.
    Brown waved a dismissive hand at Dietz. "Come on in. You can stay."
    The meeting room filled quickly. Patterson made all the necessary introductions. Dietz had read Patterson's reports. From them he knew how the union operated and recognized many names. Each town, or mining camp, had its own union. All the local unions elected delegates to represent them in the Central Union. Tim O'Brien was president, and Joe Poynton, secretary, of the Central Union. Both were present, as well as Sam Waters, president of the Gem Union, and of course, Judge Brown and Patterson.
    Patterson, as Allison, pulled out a pad of paper and a pen and prepared to take minutes. The Burke Union president called the meeting to order, but the judge quickly took over.
    "Gentlemen, we're here to discuss our next course of action against the owners. Our men have been out of work far too long, and the owners refuse to capitulate or negotiate. We must act, in the interest of our men, before they lose heart, before they face any more deprivation. We have men leaving the Valley, going off to seek temporary work elsewhere so that they can feed their families.
    "Gentlemen, can we afford to let our men go another month without wages?"
    A hearty round of no's sounded around the room. Brown's eyes sparkled with passion, or love of evil, Dietz couldn't decide which, and his voice shook with emotion. All apparently genuine. And terribly dangerous. Dietz stared at him with the same rapt attention the others gave, not daring to look any less interested.
    "What do you suggest, George?" O'Brien asked.
    The judge seemed to tremble with excitement. "We all know the owners won't act without a little prodding, some small incident to show we mean business." Giddy, that was how the judge looked.
    "The boys still want blood for that first load of scabs that sneaked past us to the Gem mine. I say it's time we let them have it. Those scabs are trapped up at the mine without supplies—"
    "Are you saying we hold up the supply train, George?" Poynton asked.
    "I don't see how we can get around the law to do that just now, Joe. It's one thing to have a phony warrant written out to arrest the train engineer for transporting illegal workers, but what reason can we give to hold up cargo? We aren't that desperate—yet. What I had in mind is a little more personal."  
    Brown outlined his plan to beat up a scab laborer from the Gem Mine. Petty stuff. Nothing worth reporting or risking his life for, Dietz thought. Boring. Dietz yawned. McCullough would have been asleep at such small stuff ten minutes ago. Maybe an eruption wasn't as close as Patterson thought.
    The private meeting adjourned. President O'Brien sent the bell ringers out ahead to Gem to signal a meeting of the general assembly so that they could present their plan to beat up a man.
     
    Back in Gem, anger, palpable and impatient, pulsed through the general