He in turn had had it from someone else.

Old Shafter was quite ready.

The stranger made no bones about terms, agreed at once to every condition, and was apparently fairly flush of money.

For seven dollars a week paid in advance he was to have board and lodging.
So it was that McMurdo, the self-confessed fugitive from justice, took up his abode under the roof of the Shafters, the first step which was to lead to so long and dark a train of events, ending in a far distant land..