Lincoln's Spymaster: Chapters 10–12

by Samantha Seiple
Hunted by Scottish authorities for fighting for workers' rights, Allan Pinkerton fled in 1842 to America, where he enforced the law as a Chicago police officer before founding both a private detective agency and the federal Secret Service.

Here are links to our lists for the book: Prologue–Chapter 2, Chapters 3–6, Chapters 7–9, Chapters 10–12, Chapter 13–Epilogue
40 words 12 learners

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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. complexion
    the coloring of a person's face
    He was a tall man with a ruddy complexion and muttonchop whiskers.
  2. culprit
    someone or something responsible for harm or wrongdoing
    The townsfolk suspected the Reno Brothers were the culprits in a rash of robberies—homes, business, and post offices.
  3. brawny
    possessing physical strength and weight; rugged and powerful
    But just before its scheduled arrival time, a special train, with only the locomotive and one car attached, pulled in. John didn’t think anything of it—until Pinkerton and his six brawniest detectives got off the train and quickly surrounded him.
  4. persistent
    stubbornly unyielding
    It turned out that the man was Michael Rogers, a wealthy and respected citizen in Council Bluffs. This bit of information didn’t stop Billy’s investigation.
    Like his father, Billy was persistent.
  5. painstaking
    characterized by extreme care and great effort
    He knew firsthand that detective work involved painstaking attention to details, a good memory, and some luck.
  6. disheveled
    in disarray; extremely disorderly
    The following morning, he saw Rogers and the three men come back to Rogers’s house. But now they were disheveled and covered in mud.
  7. hostility
    an unfriendly disposition
    When Rogers answered, he was clearly unhappy to have a visitor. Billy ignored his hostility, asking him who he had in the house.
  8. singe
    burn superficially or lightly
    He pulled off the lid and saw bundles of money on top of the hot coals. He reached in and grabbed them. Luckily, the bills had been so tightly wrapped that only the outer bills were singed.
  9. scoundrel
    someone who does evil deliberately
    “I’m here to bring justice to the worst gang of scoundrels in the country. It’s going to be a hard fight, but I’ll win.”
  10. stoke
    (of a fire) stir up or tend
    As the engine and express car headed down the tracks, they pushed the man in charge of stoking the fire out the door.
  11. audacious
    invulnerable to fear or intimidation
    Gang member John Moore was shot in his side, and Frank Sparks’s finger was shot clean off his hand. Even so, the bandits kept firing. Until their most audacious member, Volney Elliott, was shot in the shoulder and fell to the ground.
  12. dense
    hard to pass through because of heavy growth
    The search was on, and two days later, gang members Charlie Roseberry and Theodore Clifton were found hiding in a dense thicket.
  13. preliminary
    preceding or in preparation for something more important
    Roseberry, Clifton, and Elliott were scheduled to appear at their preliminary hearing.
  14. vigilante
    a person who takes the law into his or her own hands
    Typical for the times, citizens banded together, taking the law into their own hands and delivering swift, rough justice. This was especially common in the wild frontier, where law and order were hard to come by, and, as a result, there were hundreds of vigilante groups.
  15. defiant
    boldly resisting authority or an opposing force
    But Elliott was defiant.
    “Confess, hell; I’d tell you nothing,” he said. “You’ve got me here, a thousand of you, now do your worst.”
  16. assume
    make a pretence of
    The following day, fugitives John Moore, Henry Jerrell, and Frank Sparks were captured in Coles County, where they’d been working as farmhands, under assumed names.
  17. lynch
    kill without legal sanction
    The prisoners were to be taken to Brownstown on the night of July 25, but Pinkerton was worried they’d be lynched, too.
  18. dub
    give a nickname to
    John Moore, Henry Jerrell, and Frank Sparks were taken to the same beech tree. Nooses were tightened around their necks. The barrels under their feet were kicked away, and they were swinging from the beech tree, hanged by their necks. The area was soon dubbed Hangman’s Crossing.
  19. extradition
    surrender of an accused by one state or country to another
    Once Pinkerton had them in his custody, he was faced with the problem of extradition, or bringing them back, to America. The Canadian government didn’t want to extradite the gang members if they were going to be lynched.
  20. jostle
    come into rough contact with while moving
    As the carriage jostled along the road, Pinkerton spoke to the two other passengers.
  21. diabolical
    extremely evil or cruel
    “This diabolical attempt to assassinate Pinkerton has created quite an excitement here, and all law-abiding citizens are thankful that the designs of the scoundrel and his employers have been frustrated,” the Sacramento Daily Union newspaper reported.
  22. charter
    engage for service under a term of contract
    Handcuffed and in iron shackles, Pinkerton took the prisoners aboard a tugboat that he had chartered.
  23. rafter
    one of several parallel sloping beams that support a roof
    Ignoring the Reno Gang’s pleas for mercy, the masked men grabbed the prisoners from their jail cells, tied a rope around each of their necks, and hanged them from rafters.
  24. retribution
    a justly deserved penalty
    Law enforcement officials were relieved that the Reno Brothers Gang’s reign had ended. No one was ever charged or convicted for the murders.
    “Retribution is not always swift, but it is always sure,” the Seymour Democrat newspaper in Seymour, Indiana, stated.
  25. delegate
    transfer power to someone
    The people will assume their delegated powers if those powers are misused. Give us better criminal code, or the Vigilantes, like a nightmare, will haunt all lawyers and judges for all time to come.
  26. rabble
    a disorderly crowd of people
    The Montreal Herald newspaper stated, “The American government was strictly responsible for the safety of these men and should be strictly held to account. Extradition must cease if men are sent over the border to be torn to pieces by unauthorized rabble.”
  27. demise
    the event of departure from life
    The demise of the Reno Brothers Gang brought an end to the reign of terror in Seymour, Indiana.
  28. deter
    turn away from as by fear or persuasion
    Even so, their gruesome fate didn’t deter other gangs of outlaws from breaking the law.
  29. grim
    causing dejection
    Pinkerton had suffered a massive stroke. At fifty years old, Pinkerton was paralyzed and unable to talk. The news from his doctors was grim. He would never talk or walk again.
  30. instill
    teach and impress by frequent repetitions or admonitions
    Like most of her neighbors in Clay County, Missouri, Zerelda was a die-hard Southern sympathizer. And she instilled her beliefs in her children.
  31. faction
    a dissenting clique
    Wanted for murder and stealing horses, former schoolteacher William Quantrill moved to Kansas in the 1850s at a time when deep-seated hatred between abolitionists and proslavery factions was raging, especially along the border between Kansas and Missouri.
  32. hone
    refine or make more perfect or effective
    Frank, Jesse, and the Younger brothers soon honed their taste for violence under another notorious Quantrill leader—William “Bloody Bill” Anderson.
  33. penchant
    a strong liking or preference
    Bloody Bill was known for wearing a necklace made of Yankee scalps and had a penchant for cutting off ears.
  34. mutilate
    destroy or injure severely
    In 1864, he led the James boys, Jim Younger, and the rest of his Raiders, into the small town of Centralia, Missouri, where they looted homes and savagely killed and mutilated more than one hundred unarmed Union soldiers who were on leave.
  35. antagonism
    a state of deep-seated ill-will
    Although the Civil War had officially ended four years earlier, for many Southern sympathizers like Jesse, their bitterness and antagonism raged on.
  36. noble
    having high or elevated character
    He wanted ex-Confederates to feel proud and get back their political power. So Edwards made contact with the James boys and had Jesse write a public statement regarding the robbery. The statement was the start of Edwards’s campaign to shape the public perception of Jesse James, transforming him from a villain into a noble Southern hero.
  37. sufficient
    of a quantity that can fulfill a need or requirement
    The past is sufficient to show that bushwhackers have been arrested in Missouri since the war, charged with bank robbery, and they most of all have been mobbed without trials.
  38. wane
    grow smaller
    As time passed, suspicions waned, especially after Jesse and Frank’s mom gave them an alibi.
  39. wariness
    the trait of being cautious and watchful
    Despite her wariness toward Bob, he pressed on, asking her questions.
  40. futile
    unproductive of success
    Realizing it was futile, Bob left. He tried to continue the investigation, but with no good leads, the trail went cold.
Created on Thu Jul 04 09:24:53 EDT 2024 (updated Fri Jul 05 10:32:57 EDT 2024)

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