It was just a benefit club and a meeting place for one's fellows.

Then I heard of this place--curse the hour that the name first fell upon my ears!--and I came to better myself! My God! to better myself! My wife and three children came with me.

I started a drygoods store on Market Square, and I prospered well.
The word had gone round that I was a Freeman, and I was forced to join the local lodge, same as you did last night.

I've the badge of shame on my forearm and something worse branded on my heart.

I found that I was under the orders of a black villain and caught in a meshwork of crime.
What could I do?
Every word I said to make things better was taken as treason, same as it was last night.