Summary
Chapter 6
It is the height of the Scowrers' reign of terror, and even the citizens are trying to arm themselves and push back against it. McMurdo continues to rise in the organization.
One Saturday night before the lodge meeting, Morris comes to see McMurdo. He is visibly afraid and anxious and says he has a secret that is burning inside him. He finally bursts out that a detective is on the union’s trail.
Astonished, McMurdo says there are always people trying to get them. Morris replies that it is one of the infamous Pinkerton detectives and is thus very serious. McMurdo earnestly grabs Morris and says he must tell him everything. Morris explains he had a friend back East who sent a telegram asking how the Scowrers were doing, and noting that he heard the Pinkertons and their best detective, Birdy Edwards, were on the case.
McMurdo feels as if an abyss is before him. He asks if Morris would know what this Edwards looked like and Morris says no; even his friend would not know this. McMurdo suddenly bursts out that he knows who it is, and vows to take of it. To Morris’s relief he says he will leave Morris's name out of whatever happens next.
Before the meeting McMurdo tells Ettie he is finally ready to go, and to wait for his word soon.
That night the meeting commences. McMurdo stands up and declares he has a matter of urgency. This quiets everyone down; the rules state everyone must heed this business before anything else.
McMurdo explains that he has a letter telling him of Edwards and the Pinkertons, and that he knows exactly who the man is. A ripple of astonishment and fear sweeps the hall. McGinty says the man must not be allowed to leave the valley. McMurdo agrees and asks leave to form a committee to discuss the plan.
That night the lodge’s revelry is subdued; for the first time the men see the arm of the law reaching closer to them.
McGinty, McMurdo, Baldwin, and the other men selected for the committee meet to discuss the plan. McMurdo identifies the man as Steve Wilson, lodging at Hobson’s Patch; Wilson was pretending to be a reporter. McMurdo then says his plan is to go to Wilson with his “secrets” of the Lodge for a price. This could happen at the trusty (and deaf) Widow MacNamara’s house. The seven men will meet there by nine; Edwards will show up, and they will take care of him.
Chapter 7
McMurdo and McGinty speak about the trap they are setting. McGinty frets over whether or not McMurdo has already told anyone anything. He wonders if Morris is involved; McMurdo tells him it is unlikely, but they have to focus on Edwards right now anyway. He then proceeds to explain how the plan will work: Edwards comes to the house at ten that night; the Freemen hide while he puts Edwards at his ease; he then jumps on Edwards and holds him until the others rush in. McGinty likes the plan and compliments McMurdo.
At the house McMurdo prepares his weapon and tells Scanlan, who confesses he does not like these bloody deeds, to stay away from the house that night.
The men arrive and wait; bloodlust is in their eyes. Three knocks sound on the door and McMurdo hushes them to be quiet and goes into the other room. They hear him talking to a man and anxiously await their cue.
McMurdo appears at the door and the men see his fierce eyes, firm expression, and glow of power. He announces that he is Birdy Edwards. For ten seconds there is silence, then several rifles crash through the glass windows. The police surround the men and point guns at them; the irate McGinty can do nothing.
Before the men are hauled off, McMurdo speaks to them of his dangerous game. He can tell that they are angry, but over sixty more Scowrers will be rounded up and jailed. The law was never after McMurdo: Captain Marvin knew him; he joined their “infernal lodge” (317) to expose them. Perhaps some will say he is as bad as they are, but he does not care what people say. He saved Stanger’s life; he warned Wilcox and his family.
McGinty bursts out that he is a traitor; the amused McMurdo says he does not mind the epithet, and remarks that others would call him a deliverer. He will die easier knowing that he has done good.
McMurdo and Ettie leave the Valley of Fear. The Scowrers are defeated and scattered; McGinty dies on the scaffold. Baldwin escapes, though, and vows to kill “McMurdo.” He thus follows them to Chicago and California (where Ettie dies) and then to England.
Epilogue
John Douglas is acquitted by the English law. Holmes warns him to get out of England, though, because there are worse forces at work. One day Holmes gets a letter that only says “Dear me, Mr. Holmes. Dear me!” (319.) Watson is confused, but Holmes is quiet.
Not long afterwards, Cecil Barker arrives. Clearly distraught, he says Mrs. Douglas cabled to say Douglas was lost at sea. It seems he was murdered, but there is no proof.
Barker thinks the Scowrers killed Douglas, but Holmes knows it is Moriarty, hired to kill Douglas. The man never leaves a commission unfulfilled. Barker rages and asks if anyone can do anything about Moriarty. Holmes simply says to give him time.
Analysis
The novel comes to a close with the revelation that McMurdo, Birdy Edwards, and John Douglas are all the same person; it also adds a disturbing coda in that Moriarty has Douglas killed on behalf of the Scowrers who hired him. Moriarty's involvement seems a little flimsy, but it emphasizes how connected, efficient, and deadly the Professor actually is.
However, anyone hoping to learn more about Holmes’s enigmatic foe is bound to be disappointed. Critic Catherine Wynne ties this in to the larger Irish issue: “Occlusion of criminal Irishness is more explicit when we examine Moriarty's faction, which retains its decidedly nebulous and pernicious quality throughout the canon. Moriarty's organization is never defined, never named.” She thinks Holmes’s explanation of how Moriarty was involved is unsatisfactory and “that the master criminal's reputation rests on the annihilation of a middle-aged and retired Pinkerton detective is improbable or indeed spurious. Rather, Moriarty's desire for Douglas' death is based upon Moriarty's alignment with American, and by extension Irish, secret societies, notably Fenianism and its counterpart Clann-na-Gael. Doyle, then, is unobtrusively allying Moriarty and his criminal organization with Irish physical force separatism.”
Wynne connects Moriarty’s shady organization to that of criminal Irish groups. This aligns with how Holmes describes Moriarty's modus operandi: “I may tell you that Moriarty rules with a rod of iron over his people. His discipline is tremendous. There is only one punishment in his code. It is death” (177). However, this is not a blanket condemnation of all Irish organizations or the Irish nationalist groups. Wynne writes of how Doyle’s entire oeuvre is a move toward rapprochement with his Irish lineage. The “early short stories examine militant Irish nationalism while attempting some understanding of the social conditions that propagate such extreme political movements. The Holmes stories investigate the nature of the secret society: Moriarty's criminal gang, the Pennsylvanian Scowrers who invoke Irish Molly Maguireism and finally Fenianism”; Moriarty is the link to Fenianism, and he challenges the detective in the same way Irish militancy posed a challenge for Doyle.
Ultimately, though, after The Valley of Fear, the story “The Final Bow,” Wynne says, “finally shatters the concept of identarian unity and racial purity.” Holmes leaves off his detective work and “Doyle retreats into the world of spiritualism—a world where the conflicting demands of British imperialism and Irish nationalism would have no place.”
Finally, the last chapters give readers an interesting moral question in whether or not McMurdo’s undercover actions are justified, and he answers this to an extent when he says, “Maybe they will say that I was as bad as you. They can say what they like, as long as I get you” and “there’s many a thousand that will call me a deliverer that went down to hell to save them” (317). McMurdo beat, terrorized, and perhaps even killed, but he justifies this by saying that it is all for the greater good. And it is indeed difficult, given such a black-and-white depiction of the Scowrers, to defend those whom McMurdo deceived.
