diff options
| author | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-14 20:09:27 -0700 |
|---|---|---|
| committer | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-14 20:09:27 -0700 |
| commit | 4bc0088e2933b01d0ff327d978d5650c5dcbf358 (patch) | |
| tree | c729f586fff9c7ea728d802be957e2dab595ccb2 /38062-h | |
Diffstat (limited to '38062-h')
| -rw-r--r-- | 38062-h/38062-h.htm | 11579 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 38062-h/images/img-003.jpg | bin | 0 -> 43905 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 38062-h/images/img-049.jpg | bin | 0 -> 43358 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 38062-h/images/img-111.jpg | bin | 0 -> 44930 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 38062-h/images/img-139.jpg | bin | 0 -> 48197 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 38062-h/images/img-171.jpg | bin | 0 -> 41026 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 38062-h/images/img-214.jpg | bin | 0 -> 43891 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 38062-h/images/img-259.jpg | bin | 0 -> 42650 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 38062-h/images/img-cover.jpg | bin | 0 -> 35329 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 38062-h/images/img-front.jpg | bin | 0 -> 40980 bytes |
10 files changed, 11579 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/38062-h/38062-h.htm b/38062-h/38062-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..7795889 --- /dev/null +++ b/38062-h/38062-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,11579 @@ +<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> +<HTML> +<HEAD> + +<META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1"> + +<TITLE> +The Project Gutenberg E-text of In Mr. Knox's Country, +by E. Œ. Somerville and Martin Ross +</TITLE> + +<STYLE TYPE="text/css"> +BODY { color: Black; + background: White; + margin-right: 10%; + margin-left: 10%; + font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; + text-align: justify } + +P {text-indent: 4% } + +P.noindent {text-indent: 0% } + +P.t1 {text-indent: 0% ; + font-size: 200%; + text-align: center } + +P.t2 {text-indent: 0% ; + font-size: 150%; + text-align: center } + +P.t3 {text-indent: 0% ; + font-size: 100%; + text-align: center } + +P.t3b {text-indent: 0% ; + font-size: 100%; + font-weight: bold; + text-align: center } + +P.t4 {text-indent: 0% ; + font-size: 80%; + text-align: center } + +P.t4b {text-indent: 0% ; + font-size: 80%; + font-weight: bold; + text-align: center } + +P.t5 {text-indent: 0% ; + font-size: 60%; + text-align: center } + +P.poem {text-indent: 0%; + margin-left: 10%; } + +P.letter {text-indent: 0%; + margin-left: 10% ; + margin-right: 10% } + +P.footnote {text-indent: 0% ; + font-size: 80%; + margin-left: 10% ; + margin-right: 10% } + +P.finis { font-size: larger ; + text-align: center ; + text-indent: 0% ; + margin-left: 0% ; + margin-right: 0% } + +H4.h4center { margin-left: 0; + margin-right: 0 ; + margin-bottom: .5% ; + margin-top: 0; + float: none ; + clear: both ; + text-align: center } + +IMG.imgcenter { margin-left: auto; + margin-bottom: 0; + margin-top: 1%; + margin-right: auto; } + +</STYLE> + +</HEAD> + +<BODY> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of In Mr. Knox's Country, by +E. OEnone Somerville and Martin Ross + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: In Mr. Knox's Country + +Author: E. OEnone Somerville + Martin Ross + +Illustrator: E. OEnone Somerville + +Release Date: November 19, 2011 [EBook #38062] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IN MR. KNOX'S COUNTRY *** + + + + +Produced by Al Haines + + + + + +</pre> + + +<BR><BR> + +<A NAME="img-cover"></A> +<CENTER> +<IMG CLASS="imgcenter" SRC="images/img-cover.jpg" ALT="Cover" BORDER="2"> +</CENTER> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="img-front"></A> +<CENTER> +<IMG CLASS="imgcenter" SRC="images/img-front.jpg" ALT=""If ever you see hounds pointing this way, don't spare spurs to get to the cliff before them!" [Page 4.]" BORDER="2"> +<H4 CLASS="h4center"> +"If ever you see hounds pointing this way, <BR> +don't spare spurs to get to the cliff before them!" [<A HREF="#p4">Page 4.</A>] +</H4> +</CENTER> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<P CLASS="t1"> +In Mr. Knox's Country +</P> + +<P CLASS="t3"> +By +</P> + +<P CLASS="t2"> +E. Œ. Somerville and Martin Ross +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="t4"> +Authors of "Some Experiences of an Irish R.M.," "Further<BR> +Experiences of an Irish R.M.," "Some Irish Yesterdays,"<BR> +"All on the Irish Shore," "Dan Russel the Fox,"<BR> +"The Real Charlotte," etc. etc. etc.<BR> +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<P CLASS="t3"> +With 8 Illustrations by E. Œ. Somerville +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<P CLASS="t4"> +Longmans, Green and Co.<BR> +39 Paternoster Row, London<BR> +Fourth Avenue & 30th Street, New York<BR> +Bombay, Calcutta, and Madras<BR> +1915<BR> +<BR> +All rights reserved +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<P CLASS="t2"> +CONTENTS +</P> + +<TABLE ALIGN="center" WIDTH="80%"> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">I. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap01">THE AUSSOLAS MARTIN CAT</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">II. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap02">THE FINGER OF MRS. KNOX</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">III. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap03">THE FRIEND OF HER YOUTH</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">IV. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap04">HARRINGTON'S</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">V. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap05">THE MAROAN PONY</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">VI. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap06">MAJOR APOLLO RIGGS</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">VII. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap07">WHEN I FIRST MET DR. HICKEY</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">VIII. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap08">THE BOSOM OF THE McRORYS</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">IX. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap09">PUT DOWN ONE AND CARRY TWO</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">X. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap10">THE COMTE DE PRALINES</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XI. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap11">THE SHOOTING OF SHINROE</A></TD> +</TR> + +</TABLE> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<P CLASS="t2"> +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS +</P> + +<H4 STYLE="margin-left: 10%"> +<A HREF="#img-front"> +"If ever you see hounds pointing this way, don't spare spurs to get<BR> + to the cliff before them!" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . <I>Frontispiece</I> +</A> +</H4> + +<H4 STYLE="margin-left: 10%"> +<A HREF="#img-003"> +Kitty the Shakes +</A> +</H4> + +<H4 STYLE="margin-left: 10%"> +<A HREF="#img-049"> +"I heard scald-crow laughter behind me in the shawls" +</A> +</H4> + +<H4 STYLE="margin-left: 10%"> +<A HREF="#img-111"> +"Lyney's a tough dog!" +</A> +</H4> + +<H4 STYLE="margin-left: 10%"> +<A HREF="#img-139"> +"Walkin' Aisy" +</A> +</H4> + +<H4 STYLE="margin-left: 10%"> +<A HREF="#img-171"> +James +</A> +</H4> + +<H4 STYLE="margin-left: 10%"> +<A HREF="#img-214"> +Miss Cooney O'Rattigan +</A> +</H4> + +<H4 STYLE="margin-left: 10%"> +<A HREF="#img-259"> +Miss Larkie McRory +</A> +</H4> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap01"></A> + +<P CLASS="t2"> +IN MR. KNOX'S COUNTRY +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="t3b"> +I +</P> + +<P CLASS="t4b"> +THE AUSSOLAS MARTIN CAT +</P> + +<P> +Flurry Knox and I had driven some fourteen miles to a tryst with one +David Courtney, of Fanaghy. But, at the appointed cross-roads, David +Courtney was not. It was a gleaming morning in mid-May, when +everything was young and tense and thin and fit to run for its life, +like a Derby horse. Above us was such of the spacious bare country as +we had not already climbed, with nothing on it taller than a thorn-bush +from one end of it to the other. The hill-top blazed with yellow +furze, and great silver balls of cloud looked over its edge. Nearly as +white were the little white-washed houses that were tucked in and out +of the grey rocks on the hill-side. +</P> + +<P> +"It's up there somewhere he lives," said Flurry, turning his cart +across the road; "which'll you do, hold the horse or go look for him?" +</P> + +<P> +I said I would go to look for him. I mounted the hill by a wandering +bohireen resembling nothing so much as a series of bony elbows; a +white-washed cottage presently confronted me, clinging, like a +sea-anemone, to a rock. I knocked at the closed door, I tapped at a +window held up by a great, speckled foreign shell, but without success. +Climbing another elbow, I repeated the process at two successive +houses, but without avail. All was as deserted as Pompeii, and, as at +Pompeii, the live rock in the road was worn smooth by feet and scarred +with wheel tracks. +</P> + +<P> +An open doorway faced me; I stooped beneath its lintel and asked of +seeming vacancy if there were "anyone inside." There was no reply. I +advanced into a clean kitchen, with a well-swept earthen floor, and was +suddenly aware of a human presence very close to me. +</P> + +<P> +A youngish woman, with a heavy mop of dark hair, and brown eyes staring +at the opposite wall, was sitting at the end of a settle behind the +door. Every bit of her was trembling. She looked past me as if I did +not exist. Feeling uncertain as to whether she or I were mad, I put to +her my question as to where David Courtney lived, without much +expectation of receiving an answer. +</P> + +<P> +Still shaking from head to foot, and without turning her eyes, she +replied: +</P> + +<P> +"A small piece to the north. The house on the bare rock." +</P> + +<P> +The situation showed no symptom of expansion; I faltered thanks to her +profile and returned to Flurry. +</P> + +<P> +The house of David Courtney produced David Courtney's large and +handsome wife, who told us that Himself was gone to a funeral, and all +that was in the village was gone to it, but there was a couple of the +boys below in the bog. +</P> + +<P> +"What have they done with those cubs?" asked Flurry. +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Courtney shot at him a dark-blue side-glance, indulgent and +amused, and, advancing to the edge of her rock terrace, made a trumpet +of her hands and projected a long call down the valley. +</P> + +<P> +"Mikeen! Con! Come hither!" +</P> + +<P> +From a brown patch in the green below came a far-away response, and we +presently saw two tall lads coming towards us, running up the hill as +smoothly and easily as a couple of hounds. Their legs were bare and +stained with bog-mould, they were young and light and radiant as the +May weather. +</P> + +<P> +I did not withhold my opinion of them from their proprietor. +</P> + +<P> +"Why, then, I have six more as good as them!" replied Mrs. Courtney, +her hands on her hips. +</P> + +<P> +We took the horse from the shafts and pushed him, deeply suspicious, +into a darksome lair, in one corner of which glimmered a pale object, +either pig or calf. When this was done we followed Mikeen and Con up +through blossoming furze and blue-grey rock to the ridge of the hill, +and there came face to face with the vast blue dazzle of the Atlantic, +with a long line of cliffs standing it off, in snowy lather, as far as +eye could follow them into the easterly haze. +</P> + +<P> +"That's the cliff over-right you now," said one of the boys, pointing +downwards, with a hand dark with bog-stuff, to a grey and green wedge +thrust out into the blue. "It's there where she have her den. She +have a pat' down for herself in it—it's hardly a bird could walk +it—the five pups was following her, and two o' them rolled down into +the strand, and our dogs held them. Ourselves was below in the cove +gathering seaweed." +</P> + +<A NAME="p4"></A> + +<P> +"Make a note of it now, Major," said Flurry, "and if ever you see +hounds pointing this way, don't spare spurs to get to the cliff before +them!" +</P> + +<P> +"Why don't you get them out and blow up the place?" +</P> + +<P> +"Is it get them out of that hole!" said one of the boys. "If all the +foxes in Europe was inside in it you couldn't get them out!" +</P> + +<P> +"We mightn't want them either," said Flurry, his eye ranging the face +of the cliff, and assimilating its uncompromising negations. +</P> + +<P> +"Then there's plenty that would!" returned Mikeen, looking at us with +an eye as blue and bright as the sea. "There was a man east here that +cot a fox and her five young ones in the one night, and he got three +half-crowns for every lad o' them!" +</P> + +<P> +"He'd be turned out of hell for doing that," said Flurry, very severely. +</P> + +<P> +We went back to the cottage on the rock, and the matter entered upon +its more serious phase. I took no part in the negotiations, and +employed myself in converse with Mrs. Courtney, who—it may not be out +of place to recall—informed me, amongst other domestic details, that +the farm wouldn't carry all the children she had, and that nowadays, +when the ger'rls would be going to America, it's white nightdresses and +flannelette nightdresses she should give them; and further, that she +thought, if she lived to be as old as a goat, she'd never see them so +tasty. +</P> + +<P> +On the way home I asked Flurry what he was going to do with the two +cubs, now immured in a market basket under the seat of the dog-cart. +</P> + +<P> +Flurry was ambiguous and impenetrable; there were certain matters in +which Flurry trusted nobody, knowing the darkness of his own heart and +the inelasticity of other people's points of view. +</P> + +<P> +"That woman, you know, that told you the way," he remarked, with +palpable irrelevance, "'Kitty the Shakes,' they call her—they say she +mightn't speak to anyone once in three months, and she shakes that way +then. It's a pity that was the house you went into first." +</P> + +<A NAME="img-003"></A> +<CENTER> +<IMG CLASS="imgcenter" SRC="images/img-003.jpg" ALT="Kitty the Shakes." BORDER="2"> +<H4 CLASS="h4center"> +Kitty the Shakes. +</H4> +</CENTER> + +<P> +"Why so?" said I. +</P> + +<P> +"That's the why!" said Flurry. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +It was during the week following this expedition that Philippa and I +stayed for a few days at Aussolas, where Flurry and Mrs. Flurry were +now more or less permanently in residence. The position of guest in +old Mrs. Knox's house was one often fraught with more than the normal +anxieties proper to guests. Her mood was like the weather, a matter +incalculable and beyond control; it governed the day, and was the <I>leit +motif</I> in the affairs of the household. I hope that it may be given to +me to live until my mood also is as a dark tower full of armed men. +</P> + +<P> +On the evening of our arrival my wife, whose perception of danger is +comparable only to that of the wild elephant, warned me that Mrs. Knox +was rheumatic, and that I was on no account to condole with her. Later +on the position revealed itself. Mrs. Knox's Dublin doctor had ordered +her to Buxton with as little delay as possible; furthermore, she was to +proceed to Brighton for the summer, possibly for the winter also. She +had put Aussolas on a house agent's books, "out of spite," Flurry said +sourly; "I suppose she thinks I'd pop the silver, or sell the feather +beds." +</P> + +<P> +It was a tribute to Mrs. Knox's character that her grandson treated her +as a combatant in his own class, and did not for an instant consider +himself bound to allow her weight for either age or sex. +</P> + +<P> +At dinner that night Mrs. Knox was as favourable to me as usual; yet it +was pointed out to me by Mrs. Flurry that she was wearing two shawls +instead of one, always an indication to be noted as a portent of storm. +At bridge she played a very sharp-edged game, in grimness scarcely +mitigated by two well-brought-off revokes on the part of Philippa, who +was playing with Flurry; a gross and unprincipled piece of chivalry on +my wife's part that was justly resented by Mr. Knox. +</P> + +<P> +Next morning the lady of the house was invisible, and Mullins, her +maid, was heard to lament to an unknown sympathiser on the back stairs +that the divil in the wild woods wouldn't content her. +</P> + +<P> +In the grove at Aussolas, on a height behind the castle, romantically +named Mount Ida, there is a half-circle of laurels that screens, with +pleasing severity, an ancient bench and table of stone. The spot +commands a fair and far prospect of Aussolas Lake, and, nearer at hand, +it permitted a useful outlook upon the kitchen garden and its affairs. +When old Mrs. Knox first led me thither to admire the view, she +mentioned that it was a place to which she often repaired when the cook +was on her trail with enquiries as to what the servants were to have +for dinner. +</P> + +<P> +Since our expedition to Fanaghy the glory of the weather had remained +unshaken, and each day there was a shade of added warmth in the +sunshine and a more caressing quality in the wind. Flurry and I went +to Petty Sessions in the morning, and returned to find that Mrs. Knox +was still in her room, and that our respective wives were awaiting us +with a tea-basket in the classic shades of Mount Ida. Mrs. Knox had +that mysterious quality of attraction given to some persons, and some +dogs, of forming a social vortex into which lesser beings inevitably +swim; yet I cannot deny that her absence induced a sneaking sensation +of holiday. Had she been there, for example, Mrs. Flurry would +scarcely have indicated, with a free gesture, the luxuriance of the +asparagus beds in the kitchen garden below, nor promised to have a +bundle of it cut for us before we went home; still less would she and +Philippa have smoked cigarettes, a practice considered by Mrs. Knox to +be, in women, several degrees worse than drinking. +</P> + +<P> +To us there, through the green light of young beech leaves and the +upstriking azure glare of myriads of bluebells, came the solid presence +of John Kane. It would be hard to define John Kane's exact status at +Aussolas; Flurry had once said that, whether it was the house, or the +garden, or the stables, whatever it'd be that you wanted to do, John +Kane'd be in it before you to hinder you; but that had been in a moment +of excusable irritation, when John Kane had put a padlock on the oat +loft, and had given the key to Mrs. Knox. +</P> + +<P> +John Kane now ascended to us, and came to a standstill, with his soft +black hat in his hands; it was dusty, so were his boots, and the +pockets of his coat bulked large. Among the green drifts and flakes of +the pale young beech leaves his bushy beard looked as red as a +squirrel's tail. +</P> + +<P> +"I have the commands here, Master Flurry," he began, "and it's to +yourself I'd sooner give them. As for them ger'rls that's inside in +the kitchen, they have every pup in the place in a thrain at the back +door, and, if your tobacco went asthray, it's me that would be blemt." +</P> + +<P> +"The commands"—<I>i.e.</I> some small parcels—were laid on the stone +table, minor pockets yielded an assortment of small moneys that were +each in turn counted and placed in heaps by their consort parcels. +</P> + +<P> +"And as for the bottle, the misthress wrote down for me," said John +Kane, his eye rounding up his audience like a sheep-dog, "I got me +'nough with the same bottle. But sure them's the stupidest people in +Hennessy's! 'Twas to Hennessy himself I gave the misthress's paper, +and he was there looking at it for a while. 'What have she in it?' +says he to me. 'How would I know,' says I, 'me that have no learning?' +He got the spy-glass to it then, and 'twas shortly till all was in the +shop was gethered in it looking at it. 'Twould take an expairt to read +it!' says one fella——" +</P> + +<P> +"True for him!" said Flurry. +</P> + +<P> +"—— 'She have written it in Latin!' says Hennessy. 'Faith she's +able to write it that way, or anny other way for yee!' says I. 'Well, +I'll tell ye now what ye'll do,' says Hennessy. 'There's a boy in the +Medical Hall, and he's able to read all languages. Show it to him,' +says he. I showed it then to the boy in the Medical Hall. Sure, the +very minute he looked at it—'Elliman's Embrocation,' says he." John +Kane waved his hand slightly to one side; his gestures had throughout +been supple and restrained. "Sure them's the stupidest people in +Hennessy's!" +</P> + +<P> +My sympathies were with the house of Hennessy; I, too, had encountered +Mrs. Knox's handwriting, and realised the high imaginative and +deductive qualities needed in its interpreter. No individual word was +decipherable, but, with a bold reader, groups could be made to conform +to a scheme based on probabilities. +</P> + +<P> +"You can tell the mistress what they were saying at Hennessy's about +her," said Flurry. +</P> + +<P> +"I will, your honour," replied John, accepting the turn in the +conversation as easily as a skilful motorist changes gear. "I suppose +you'll have a job for me at Tory Lodge when I get the sack from the +misthress?" +</P> + +<P> +"No, but they tell me I'm to be put on the Old Age Pension Committee," +returned Flurry, "and I might get a chance to do something for you if +you'd give over dyeing that beard you have." +</P> + +<P> +"I'm sorry to say it's the Almighty is dyeing my beard for me, sir," +replied John Kane, fingering a grey streak on his chin, "and I think +He's after giving yourself a touch, too!" He glanced at the side of +Flurry's head, and his eye travelled on to mine. There was an almost +flagrant absence of triumph in it. +</P> + +<P> +He put aside a beechen bough with his hand; "I'll leave the things on +the hall table for you, sir," he said, choosing the perfect moment for +departure, and passed out of sight. The bough swung into place behind +him; it was like an exit in a pastoral play. +</P> + +<P> +"She never told me about the embrocation," said Sally, leaning back +against the mossed stones of the bench and looking up into the web of +branches. "She never will admit that she's ill." +</P> + +<P> +"Poor old Mrs. Knox!" said Philippa compassionately, "I thought she +looked so ill last night when she was playing bridge. Such a tiny +fragile thing, sitting wrapped up in that great old chair——" +</P> + +<P> +Philippa is ineradicably romantic, yet my mind, too, dwelt upon the old +autocrat lying there, ill and undefeated, in the heart of her ancient +fortress. +</P> + +<P> +"Fragile!" said Flurry, "you'd best not tell her that. With my +grandmother no one's ill till they're dead, and no one's dead till +they're buried!" +</P> + +<P> +Away near the house the peacock uttered his defiant screech, a note of +exclamation that seemed entirely appropriate to Aussolas; the +turkey-cock in the yard accepted the challenge with effusion, and from +further away the voice of Mrs. Knox's Kerry bull, equally instant in +taking offence, ascended the gamut of wrath from growl to yell. +Blended with these voices was another—a man's voice, in loud harangue, +advancing down the long beech walk to the kitchen garden. As it +approached, the wood-pigeons bolted in panic, with distracted clappings +of wings, from the tall firs by the garden wall in which they were wont +to sit arranging plans of campaign with regard to the fruit. We sat in +tense silence. The latch of the garden gate clicked, and the voice +said in stentorian tones: +</P> + +<P> +"——My father 'e kept a splendid table!" +</P> + +<P> +"I hear wheels!" breathed Sally Knox. +</P> + +<P> +A hawthorn tree and a laburnum tree leaned over the garden gate, and +from beneath their canopy of cream and pale gold there emerged the +bath-chair of Mrs. Knox, with Mrs. Knox herself seated in it. It was +propelled by Mullins—even at that distance the indignation of Mullins +was discernible—and it progressed up the central path. Beside it +walked the personage whose father had kept a splendid table. +Parenthetically it may be observed that he did credit to it. +</P> + +<P> +"Glory be to Moses! Look at my grandmother!" said Flurry under his +breath. "How fragile she is! Who the dickens has she got hold of?" +</P> + +<P> +"He thinks she's deaf, anyhow," said Sally. +</P> + +<P> +"That's where he makes the mistake!" returned Flurry. +</P> + +<P> +"I don't see your glawss, Mrs. Knox," shouted the stout gentleman. +</P> + +<P> +"That's very possible," replied the incisive and slightly cracked voice +of Mrs. Knox, "because the little that is left of it is in the mortar +on the wall, to keep thieves out, which it fails to do." +</P> + +<P> +The pair passed on, and paused, still in high converse, at the +asparagus beds; Mullins, behind the bath-chair, wiped her indignant +brow. +</P> + +<P> +"You'll go home without the asparagus," whispered Flurry, "she has +every stick of it counted by now!" +</P> + +<P> +They moved on, heading for the further gate of the garden. +</P> + +<P> +"I'll bet a sovereign he's come after the house!" Flurry continued, +following the <I>cortège</I> with a malevolent eye. +</P> + +<P> +Later, when we returned to the house, we found a motor-bicycle, dusty +and dwarfish, leaning against the hall door steps. Within was the +sound of shouting. It was then half-past seven. +</P> + +<P> +"Is it possible that she's keeping him for dinner?" said Sally. +</P> + +<P> +"Take care he's not staying for the night!" said Flurry. "Look at the +knapsack he has on the table!" +</P> + +<P> +"There's only one room he can possibly have," said Mrs. Flurry, with a +strange and fixed gaze at her lord, "and that's the James the Second +room. The others are cleared for the painters." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, that will be all right," replied her lord, easily. +</P> + +<P> +When I came down to dinner I found the new arrival planted on his +short, thick legs in front of the fireplace, still shouting at Mrs. +Knox, who, notwithstanding the sinister presence of the two shawls of +ill-omen, was listening with a propitious countenance. She looked very +tired, and I committed the <I>gaucherie</I> of saying I was sorry to hear +she had not been well. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, that was nothing!" said Mrs. Knox, with a wave of her tiny, +sunburnt, and bediamonded hand. "I've shaken that off, 'like dewdrops +from the lion's mane!' This is Mr. Tebbutts, from—er—England, Major +Yeates." +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Tebbutts, after a bewildered stare, presumably in search of the +lion, proclaimed his gratification at meeting me, in a voice that might +have been heard in the stable yard. +</P> + +<P> +At dinner the position developed apace. The visitor was, it appeared, +the representative of a patriarchal family, comprising samples of all +the relationships mentioned in the table of affinities, and +<I>fortissimo</I>, and at vast length, he laid down their personal histories +and their various requirements. It was pretty to see how old Mrs. +Knox, ill as she looked, and suffering as she undoubtedly was, mastered +the bowling. +</P> + +<P> +Did the Tebbutts ladies exact bathing for their young? The lake +supplied it. +</P> + +<P> +("It's all mud and swallow-holes!" said Flurry in an audible aside.) +</P> + +<P> +Did the brothers demand trout fishing? the schoolboys rabbit shooting? +the young ladies lawn tennis and society?—all were theirs, especially +the latter. "My grandson and his wife will be within easy reach in +their own house, Tory Lodge!" +</P> + +<P> +The remark about the swallow-holes had not been lost upon the Lady of +the Lake. +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Knox had her glass of port at dessert, an act equivalent to +snapping her rheumatic fingers in our faces, and withdrew, stiff but +erect, and still on the best of terms with her prospective tenant. As +I held the door open for her, she said to me: +</P> + +<P> +"''Twas whispered in heaven, 'twas muttered in hell.'" +</P> + +<P> +By an amazing stroke of luck I was enabled to continue: +</P> + +<P> +"'And echo caught softly the sound as it fell!'" with a glance at Mr. +Tebbutts that showed I was aware the quotation was directed at his +missing aspirates. +</P> + +<P> +As the door closed, the visitor turned to Flurry and said impressively: +</P> + +<P> +"There's just one thing, Mr. Knox, I should like to mention, if you +will allow me. Are the drains quite in order?" +</P> + +<P> +"God knows," said Flurry, pulling hard at a badly-lighted cigarette and +throwing himself into a chair by the turf fire. +</P> + +<P> +"Mrs. Knox's health has held out against them for about sixty years," I +remarked. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, as to that," replied Mr. Tebbutts, "I feel it is only right to +mention that the dear old lady was very giddy with me in the garden +this afternoon." +</P> + +<P> +Flurry received this remarkable statement without emotion. +</P> + +<P> +"Maybe she's taken a fancy to you!" he said brutally. "If it wasn't +that it was whipped cream." +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Tebbutts' bulging eyes sought mine in complete mystification; I +turned to the fire, and to it revealed my emotions. Flurry was not at +all amused. +</P> + +<P> +"Well—er—I understood her maid to say she 'ad bin ailing," said the +guest after a pause. "I'd have called it a kind of a megrim myself, +and, as I say, I certainly perceived a sort of charnel-'ouse smell in +the room I'm in. And look 'ere, Mr. Knox, 'ere's another thing. 'Ow +about rats? You know what ladies are; there's one of my +sisters-in-law, Mrs. William Tebbutts, who'd just scream the 'ouse down +if she 'eard the 'alf of what was goin' on behind the panelling in my +room this evening." +</P> + +<P> +"Anyone that's afraid of rats had better keep out of Aussolas," said +Flurry, getting up with a yawn. +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. Tebbutts is in the James the Second room, isn't he?" said I, idly. +"Isn't that the room with the powdering-closet off it?" +</P> + +<P> +"It is," said Flurry. "Anything else you'd like to know?" +</P> + +<P> +I recognised that someone had blundered, presumably myself, and made a +move for the drawing-room. +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Knox had retired when we got there; my wife and Mrs. Flurry +followed suit as soon as might be; and the guest said that, if the +gentlemen had no objection, he thought he'd turn in too. +</P> + +<P> +Flurry and I shut the windows—fresh air is a foible of the female +sex—heaped turf on the fire, drew up chairs in front of it, and +composed ourselves for that sweetest sleep of all, the sleep that has +in it the bliss of abandonment, and is made almost passionate by the +deep underlying knowledge that it can be but temporary. +</P> + +<P> +How long we had slumbered I cannot say; it seemed but a moment when a +door opened in our dreams, and the face of Mr. Tebbutts was developed +before me in the air like the face of the Cheshire cat, only without +the grin. +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. Knox! Gentlemen!" he began, as if he were addressing a meeting. +The thunder had left his voice; he stopped to take breath. He was in +his shirt and trousers, and the laces of his boots trailed on the floor +behind him. "I've 'ad a bit of a start upstairs. I was just winding +up my watch at the dressing-table when I saw some kind of an animal +gloide past the fireplace and across the room——" +</P> + +<P> +"What was it like?" interrupted Flurry, sitting up in his chair. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, Mr. Knox, it's 'ard to say what it was like. It wasn't a cat, +nor yet it wasn't what you could call a squirrel——" +</P> + +<P> +Flurry got on to his feet. +</P> + +<P> +"By the living Jingo!" he said, turning to me an awestruck countenance; +"he's seen the Aussolas Martin Cat!" +</P> + +<P> +I had never before heard of the Aussolas Martin Cat, and it is +indisputable that a slight chill crept down my backbone. +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Tebbutts' eyes bulged more than ever, and his lower lip fell. +</P> + +<P> +"What way did it go?" said Flurry; "did it look at you?" +</P> + +<P> +"It seemed to disappear in that recess by the door," faltered the seer +of the vision; "it just vanished!" +</P> + +<P> +"I don't know if it's for my grandmother or for me," said Flurry in a +low voice, "but it's a death in the house anyway." +</P> + +<P> +The colour in Mr. Tebbutts' face deepened to a glossy sealing-wax red. +</P> + +<P> +"If one of you gents would come upstairs with me," he said, "I think +I'll just get my traps together. I can be back at the 'otel in 'alf an +'our——" +</P> + +<P> +Flurry and I accompanied Mr. Tebbutts to the James the Second room. +Over Mrs. Knox's door there were panes of glass, and light came forth +from them. (It is my belief that Mrs. Knox never goes to bed.) We +trod softly as we passed it, and went along the uncarpeted boards of +the Musicians' Gallery above the entrance hall. +</P> + +<P> +There certainly was a peculiar odour in the James the Second room, and +the adjective "charnel-'ouse" had not been misapplied. +</P> + +<P> +I thought about a dead rat, and decided that the apparition had been +one of the bandit tribe of tawny cats that inhabited the Aussolas +stables. And yet legends of creatures that haunted old houses and +followed old families came back to me; of one in particular, a tale of +medieval France, wherein "a yellow furry animal" ran down the throat of +a sleeping lady named Sagesse. +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Tebbutts, by this time fully dressed, was swiftly bestowing a brush +and comb in his knapsack. Perhaps he, too, had read the legend about +Madame Sagesse. Flurry was silently, and with a perturbed countenance, +examining the room; rapping at the panelling and peering up the +cavernous chimney; I heard him sniff as he did so. Possibly he also +held the dead-rat theory. He opened the flap in the door of the +powdering-closet, and, striking a match, held it through the opening. +I looked over his shoulder, and had a glimpse of black feathers on the +floor, and a waft of a decidedly "charnel-'ouse" nature. "Damn!" +muttered Flurry to himself, and slammed down the flap. +</P> + +<P> +"I think, sir," said Mr. Tebbutts, with his knapsack in his hand and +his cap on his head, "I must ask you to let Mrs. Knox know that this +'ouse won't suit Mrs. William Tebbutts. You might just say I was +called away rather sudden. Of course, you won't mention what I saw +just now—I wouldn't wish to upset the pore old lady——" +</P> + +<P> +We followed him from the room, and treading softly as before, traversed +the gallery, and began to descend the slippery oak stairs. Flurry was +still looking furtively about him, and the thought crossed my mind that +in the most hard-headed Irishman there wanders a vein of superstition. +</P> + +<P> +Before we had reached the first landing, the violent ringing of a +handbell broke forth in the room with the light over the door, followed +by a crash of fire-irons; then old Mrs. Knox's voice calling +imperatively for Mullins. +</P> + +<P> +There was a sound of rushing, slippered feet, a bumping of furniture; +with a squall from Mullins the door flew open, and I was endowed with a +never-to-be-forgotten vision of Mrs. Knox, swathed in hundreds of +shawls, in the act of hurling the tongs at some unseen object. +</P> + +<P> +Almost simultaneously there was a scurry of claws on the oak floor +above us, Mrs. Knox's door was slammed, and something whizzed past me. +I am thankful to think that I possess, as a companion vision to that of +Mrs. Knox, the face of Mr. Tebbutts with the candle light on it as he +looked up from the foot of the stairs and saw the Aussolas Martin Cat +in his track. +</P> + +<P> +"Look out, Tebbutts!" yelled Flurry. "It's you he's after!" +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Tebbutts here passed out of the incident into the night, and the +Aussolas Martin Cat was swallowed up by a large hole in the surbase in +the corner of the first landing. +</P> + +<P> +"He'll come out in the wine-cellar," said Flurry, with the calm that +was his in moments of crisis, "the way the cat did." +</P> + +<P> +I pulled myself together. +</P> + +<P> +"What's happened to the other Fanaghy cub?" I enquired with, I hope, +equal calmness. +</P> + +<P> +"He's gone to blazes," replied Flurry; "there isn't a wall in this +house that hasn't a way in it. I knew I'd never have luck with them +after you asking the way from Kitty the Shakes." +</P> + +<P> +As is usual in my dealings with Flurry, the fault was mine. +</P> + +<P> +While I reflected on this, the stillness of the night was studded in a +long and diminishing line by the running pant of the motor-bicycle. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap02"></A> + +<P CLASS="t3b"> +II +</P> + +<P CLASS="t4b"> +THE FINGER OF MRS. KNOX +</P> + +<P> +A being stood in a dark corner under the gallery of the hall at +Aussolas Castle; a being who had arrived noiselessly on bare feet, and +now revealed its presence by hard breathing. +</P> + +<P> +"Come in, Mary," commanded old Mrs. Knox without turning her head; +"make up the fire." +</P> + +<P> +"I will, ma'am," murmured the being, advancing with an apologetic eye +upon me, and an undulating gait suggestive of a succession of incipient +curtsies. +</P> + +<P> +She was carrying an armful of logs, and, having stacked them on the +fire in a heap calculated to set alight any chimney less roomy than the +Severn Tunnel, she retired by way of the open hall door with the same +deferential stealth with which she had entered. +</P> + +<P> +"The hen-woman," explained Mrs. Knox casually, "the only person in this +place who knows a dry log from a wet one." +</P> + +<P> +Like all successful rulers, Mrs. Knox had the power of divining in her +underlings their special gifts, and of wresting them to the sphere in +which they shone, no matter what their normal functions might be. She +herself pervaded all spheres. +</P> + +<P> +"There's no pie but my grandmother has a finger in it," was Flurry +Knox's epitome of these high qualities; a sour tribute from one +freebooter to another. +</P> + +<P> +"If the Mistress want a thing she mus' have it!" was the comment of +John Kane, the gamekeeper, as he threw down the spade with which he was +digging out a ferret, and armed himself with a holly-bush wherewith to +sweep the drawing-room chimney. +</P> + +<P> +As Mrs. Knox and I sat by the hen-woman's noble fire, and gossiped, the +cook panted in with the tea-tray; the butler, it appeared, had gone out +to shoot a rabbit for dinner. All these things pointed to the fact +that Mrs. Knox's granddaughter-in-law, Mrs. Flurry, was not, at the +moment, in residence at Aussolas. The Jungle was creeping in; Sally +Knox, by virtue, I suppose, of her English mother, spasmodically +endeavoured to keep it out, but with her departure the Wild triumphed. +</P> + +<P> +It was an October afternoon, grey and still; the hall door stood open, +as indeed it always did at Aussolas, and on the topmost of the broad +limestone steps Mrs. Knox's white woolly dog sat, and magisterially +regarded lake and wood and lawn. The tawny bracken flowed like a sea +to the palings that bounded the lawn; along its verge squatted the +rabbits, motionless for the most part, sometimes languidly changing +their ground, with hops like the dying efforts of a mechanical toy. +The woolly dog had evidently learned in many fruitless charges the +futility of frontal attack; a close and menacing supervision from the +altitude of the steps was all that was consistent with dignity, but an +occasional strong shudder betrayed his emotion. The open door framed +also a pleasing view of my new car, standing in beautiful repose at the +foot of the steps, splashed with the mud of a twenty-mile run from an +outlying Petty Sessions Court; her presence added, for me, the touch of +romance. +</P> + +<P> +It was twilight in the back of the hall by the fireplace; the flames of +the logs, branching like antlers, made a courteous and not too +searching inquisition into dark corners, and lighted with a very +suitable evasiveness Mrs. Knox's Witch of Endor profile. She wore her +usual velvet bonnet; the rest of her attire recalled to my memory the +summary of it by her kinswoman, Lady Knox, "A rag bag held together by +diamond brooches." Yet, according to her wont, her personality was the +only thing that counted; it reduced all externals to a proper +insignificance. +</P> + +<P> +The object of my visit had ostensibly been to see her grandson, but +Flurry was away for the night. +</P> + +<P> +"He's sleeping at Tory Lodge," said Mrs. Knox. "He's cubbing at +Drumvoortneen, and he has to start early. He tried to torment me into +allowing him to keep the hounds in the yard here this season, but I had +the pleasure of telling him that old as I might be, I still retained +possession of my hearing, my sense of smell, and, to a certain extent, +of my wits." +</P> + +<P> +"I should have thought," I said discreetly, "that Tory Lodge was more +in the middle of his country." +</P> + +<P> +"Undoubtedly," replied Flurry's grandmother; "but it is not in the +middle of my straw, my meal, my buttermilk, my firewood, and anything +else of mine that can be pilfered for the uses of a kennel!" She +concluded with a chuckle that might have been uttered by a scald-crow. +</P> + +<P> +I was pondering a diplomatic reply, when the quiet evening was rent by +a shrill challenge from the woolly dog. +</P> + +<P> +"Thy sentinel am I!" he vociferated, barking himself backwards into the +hall, in proper strategic retreat upon his base. +</P> + +<P> +A slow foot ascended the steps, and the twilight in the hall deepened +as a man's figure appeared in the doorway; a middle-aged man, with his +hat in one hand, and in the other a thick stick, with which he was +making respectfully intimidating demonstrations to the woolly dog. +</P> + +<P> +"Who are you?" called out Mrs. Knox from her big chair. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm Casey, your ladyship," replied the visitor in a deplorable voice, +"from Killoge." +</P> + +<P> +"Cornelius Casey?" queried Mrs. Knox. +</P> + +<P> +"No, but his son, your honour ma'am, Stephen Casey, one of the tenants." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, come in, Stephen," said Mrs. Knox affably, supplementing her +spectacles with a gold-rimmed single eye-glass, and looking at him with +interest. "I knew your father well in old times, when he used to stop +the earths in Killoge Wood for the Colonel. They tell me that's all +cut down now?" +</P> + +<P> +"There's not the boiling of a kettle left in it afther Goggin, my +lady!" said Casey eagerly. Mrs. Knox cut him short. +</P> + +<P> +"Many a good hunt the Colonel had out of Killoge, and I too, for the +matter of that!" she added, turning to me; "my cousin Bessie Hamilton +and I were the only huntresses in the country in those days, and people +thought us shocking tomboys, I believe. Now, what with driving motors +and riding astride, the gentlemen are all ladies, and the ladies are +gentlemen!" With another scald-crow chuckle she turned to Casey. "Did +your father ever tell you of the great hunt out of Killoge into the +Fanaghy cliffs?" +</P> + +<P> +"He did, your ladyship, he did!" responded Casey, with a touch of life +in his lamentable voice. "Often he told me that it knocked fire from +his eyes to see yourself facing in at the Killoge river." +</P> + +<P> +"I was riding Bijou, the grandmother of old Trinket, in that run," said +Mrs. Knox, leaning back in her chair, with a smile that had something +of the light of other days in it. +</P> + +<P> +I remembered the story that Colonel Knox had run away with her after a +hunt, and wondered if that had been the occasion when she had knocked +fire from the eyes of Cornelius Casey. +</P> + +<P> +Her thin old hand drooped in momentary languor over the arm of her +chair; and the woolly dog thrust his nose under it, with a beady eye +fixed upon the hot cakes. +</P> + +<P> +"Here!" said Mrs. Knox, sitting up, and throwing a buttery bun on the +floor. "Be off with you! Well, Casey," she went on, "what is it you +want with me?" +</P> + +<P> +"Great trouble I got, Mrs. Knox, your honour ma'am," replied Casey from +the door-mat, "great trouble entirely." He came a step or two nearer. +He had a long, clean-shaved face, with mournful eyes, like a sick +bloodhound, and the enviable, countryman's thatch of thick, strong +hair, with scarcely a touch of grey in it. +</P> + +<P> +"That Goggin, that has the shop at Killoge Cross, has me processed. +I'm pairsecuted with him; and the few little bastes I has, and me +donkey and all—" his voice thinned to a whimper, "he's to drive them +to-morrow——" +</P> + +<P> +"I suppose that's Goggin, the Gombeen?" said Mrs. Knox; "how were you +fool enough to get into dealings with him?" +</P> + +<P> +The statement of Casey's wrongs occupied quite ten minutes, and was +generous in detail. His land was bad, ever and always. The grass that +was in it was as bare as that you could pick pins in it. He had no +pushing land at all for cattle. Didn't he buy a heifer at Scabawn fair +and the praisings she got was beyant all raves, and he had her one +month, and kinder company he never had, and she giving seven pints at +every meal, and wasn't that the divil's own produce? One month, +indeed, was all he had her till she got a dropsy, and the dropsy +supported her for a while, and when it left her she faded away. And +didn't his wife lose all her hens in one week? "They fell dead on her, +like hailstones!" He ceased, and a tear wandered down the channels in +his long cheek. +</P> + +<P> +"How much do you owe Goggin?" asked Mrs. Knox sharply. +</P> + +<P> +What Casey owed to Goggin had, as might have been expected, but a +remote relation to the sum that Goggin was now endeavouring to extract +from Casey. At the heart of the transaction was a shop account, +complicated by loans of single pounds (and in my mind's eye I could +see, and with my mind's nose I could smell, the dirty crumpled notes). +It was further entangled by per-contra accounts of cribs of turf, +scores of eggs, and a day's work now and again. I had, from the +judgment seat, listened to many such recitals, so, apparently, had Mrs. +Knox, judging by the ease with which she straightened Casey's devious +narrative at critical points, and shepherded him to his facts, like a +cunning old collie steering a sheep to its pen. The conclusion of the +matter was that Goggin was, on the morrow, to take possession of +Casey's remaining stock, consisting of three calves, a donkey, and a +couple of goats, in liquidation of a debt of £15, and that he, Stephen +Casey, knew that Mrs. Knox would never be satisfied to see one of her +own tenants wronged. +</P> + +<P> +"I have no tenants," replied Mrs. Knox tartly; "the Government is your +landlord now, and I wish you joy of each other!" +</P> + +<P> +"Then I wish to God it was yourself we had in it again!" lamented +Stephen Casey; "it was better for us when the gentry was managing their +own business. They'd give patience, and they'd have patience." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, that will do now," said Mrs. Knox; "go round to the servants' +hall and have your tea. I'll see what I can do." +</P> + +<P> +There was silence while Stephen Casey withdrew. As the sound of his +hobnailed tread died away the woolly dog advanced very stiffly to the +hall door, and, with his eyes fixed on the departing visitor, licked +his lips hungrily. +</P> + +<P> +"When those rascals in Parliament took our land from us," said Mrs. +Knox, flinging a sod of turf on to the huge fire with practised aim, +"we thought we should have some peace, now we're both beggared and +bothered!" She turned upon me a countenance like that of an ancient +and spectacled falcon. "Major Yeates! You have often offered me a +drive in your motor-car. Will you take me to Killoge to-morrow +morning?" +</P> + +<P> +It was a brisk and windy morning, with the sharpness of 9 A.M. in it, +when Mullins, Mrs. Knox's tirewoman, met me at the hall door of +Aussolas with her arms full of shawls, and a countenance dark with doom +and wrath. She informed me that it was a shame for me to be enticing +the Mistress out of her bed at this hour of the morning, and that she +would get her death out of it. I was repudiating this soft impeachment +(which had indeed some flavour of the Restoration drama about it), when +the companion of my flight appeared. +</P> + +<P> +"How would anyone know the minute—" continued Mullins, addressing the +universe, "that this what's-this-I'll-call-it wouldn't turn into a +bog-hole?" She put this conundrum while fiercely swaddling her +mistress in cloak upon cloak. I attempted no reply, and Mrs. Knox, +winking both eyes at me over the rim of the topmost shawl, was hoisted +into the back of the car; as we glided away I had, at all events, the +consolation of knowing that, in the event of an accident, Mrs. Knox in +her cloaks would float from the car as softly and bulkily as a bumble +bee. +</P> + +<P> +As we ran out of the gates on to the high road I remembered that my +passenger's age was variously reckoned at from ninety to a hundred, and +thought it well to ask her if fifteen miles an hour would be too fast +for pleasure. +</P> + +<P> +"You can't go too fast to please me," replied Mrs. Knox, through the +meshes of a Shetland shawl. "When I was a girl I rode a fourteen-hand +pony to the fourteenth milestone on the Cork road in a minute under the +hour! I think you should be able to double that!" +</P> + +<P> +I replied to this challenge with twenty miles an hour, which, with a +head wind and a bad road, I considered to be fast enough for any old +lady. As a matter of fact it was too fast for her costume. We had run +some eight or nine miles before, looking back, I noticed that a change +of some sort had occurred. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, the red one blew away long ago!" screamed Mrs. Knox against the +wind; "it doesn't matter, I shall get it back—I'll ask Father Scanlan +to speak about it at Mass next Sunday. There's a veil gone too—how +frantic Mullins will be!" +</P> + +<P> +A skirl of laughter came from the recesses of the remaining shawls. +</P> + +<P> +We were running now on a level road under the lee of a long line of +hills; a strip of plantation, gay with the yellows and greens of +autumn, clung to a steep slope ahead of us, and, at the top of it, some +ragged pines looked like blots against the sky. As we neared it, a +faint and long-drawn call came from the height; presently among the +tree-trunks we saw hounds, like creatures in a tapestry hunting scene, +working up and up through the brown undergrowth. I slackened speed. +</P> + +<P> +"'Pon my honour, we've hit off the Hunt!" exclaimed Mrs. Knox. +</P> + +<P> +As she spoke there was a responsive yelp from a tract of briars in the +lower part of the wood; two or three couples jostled downwards to their +comrade, and a full chorus, led by the soprano squeals of the Hunt +terrier, arose and streamed along the wood above the road. I came to a +full stop, and, just in front of us, a rabbit emerged very quietly from +the fence of the wood, crept along in the ditch, and disappeared in a +hole in the bank. The hounds still uttered the classic pæans of the +Chase; hoofs clattered in a steep lane on the hill-side, and Flurry +Knox charged on to the road a little ahead of us. +</P> + +<P> +"Forrad, forrad, forrad!" he shouted as he came. +</P> + +<P> +"Rabbit, rabbit, rabbit!" cackled his grandmother at him in malevolent +imitation. +</P> + +<P> +I let the car go, and as we flew past him he asked me, sideways out of +a very red face, what the devil I was doing there. It was evident that +Mrs. Knox's observation had been accepted in the spirit in which it was +offered. +</P> + +<P> +"That will do my young gentleman no harm!" said Mrs. Knox complacently, +as we became a speck in the distance. +</P> + +<P> +It was about ten o'clock when we ran down a valley between steep hills +to Killoge cross-roads. The hill-sides were set thick with tree +stumps, like the crowded headstones of a cemetery, with coarse grass +and briars filling the spaces between them. Here and there a slender, +orphaned ash sapling, spared because despised, stood among the havoc, +and showed with its handful of yellow leaves what the autumn colours +might once have been here. A starkly new, cemented public-house, with +"J. Goggin" on the name board, stood at the fork of the roads. +Doubtless into it had flowed the blood-money of the wood; it +represented the alternative offered to the community by Mr. Goggin. I +slowed up and looked about me. +</P> + +<P> +"I suppose this is—or was—Killoge Wood?" I said to my passenger. +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Knox was staring through her spectacles at the devastated +hill-side. +</P> + +<P> +"Ichabod, Ichabod!" she murmured, and leaned back in her place. +</P> + +<P> +A man got up from a heap of stones by the roadside and came slowly +towards the car. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, Stephen," began Mrs. Knox irritably, "what about the cattle? He +looks as if he were walking behind his own coffin!" she continued in a +loud aside to me. +</P> + +<P> +Stephen Casey removed his hat, and with it indicated a group composed +of three calves—and nothing can look as dejected as an ill-fed, +under-bred calf—two goats, and a donkey, attended by a boy with a +stick, and a couple of cur dogs. +</P> + +<P> +"Himself and the sheriff's man is after driving them, my lady," replied +their proprietor, and proceeded to envelop the name of Goggin in a +flowing mantle of curses. +</P> + +<P> +"There, that will do for the present," said Mrs. Knox peremptorily, as +Casey, with tears streaming down his face, paused to catch his wind. +"Where's Goggin?" +</P> + +<P> +"The two of them is inside in the shop," answered the miserable Casey, +still weeping copiously. +</P> + +<P> +I drove over to the public-house, thinking that if Casey could not put +up a better fight than this it would be difficult to do much for him. +The door of the pub was already filled by the large and decent figure +of Mr. Goggin, who advanced to meet us, taking off his hat +reverentially; I remembered at once his pale and pimpled face, his pink +nose, his shabby grey and yellow beard. He had been before me in a +matter of selling drink on Sunday, and had sailed out of court in +stainless triumph, on sworn evidence that he was merely extending +hospitality to some friends that had come to make a match for a niece +of his own, and were tired after walking the land and putting a price +on the cattle. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, Goggin," said Mrs. Knox, waving towards the hill-side a tiny +hand in a mouldy old black kid glove, "you've done a great work here! +You've destroyed in six months what it took the Colonel and the Lord +Almighty eighty years to make. That's something to be proud of!" +</P> + +<P> +Goggin, again, and with even deeper reverence, removed his hat, and +murmured something about being a poor man. +</P> + +<P> +"It was your own grandfather that planted those trees for the Colonel," +continued Mrs. Knox, diving, as it were, into an ancient armoury and +snatching a rusty weapon from the wall. +</P> + +<P> +"That's the case, ma'am," replied Mr. Goggin solemnly. "The Lord have +mercy on his soul!" +</P> + +<P> +"You'll be wanting mercy on your own soul in the next world, if you +meet the Colonel there!" said Mrs. Knox unhesitatingly. +</P> + +<P> +"I mightn't have the honour of meeting the Colonel there, ma'am!" +tittered Goggin sycophantically. +</P> + +<P> +"You might not indeed," responded Mrs. Knox, "but you might find your +grandfather making up a good fire for you with the logs out of Killoge +Wood!" +</P> + +<P> +"Ha, ha! That's good, faith!" said a fat voice from the +porter-flavoured depths of the pub. I recognised among other half-seen +faces the round cheeks and bristling moustache of little M'Sweeny, the +sheriff's officer, at Goggin's elbow. +</P> + +<P> +"And what's this I hear about Stephen Casey?" went on Mrs. Knox, in +shrill and trenchant tones, delivering her real attack now that she had +breached the wall. "You lent him five pounds two years ago, and now +you're driving all his stock off! What do you call that, I'd thank you +to tell me?" +</P> + +<P> +In the discussion that followed I could almost have been sorry for +Goggin, so entirely over-weighted was he by Mrs. Knox's traditional +prestige, by my official position, by knowledge of the unseen audience +in the pub, and by the inherent rottenness of his case. Nevertheless, +the defence put forward by him was a very creditable work of art. The +whole affair had its foundation in a foolish philanthropy, the outcome +of generous instincts exploited to their utmost, only, indeed, kept +within bounds by Mr. Goggin's own financial embarrassments. These he +primarily referred back to the excessive price extorted from him by +Mrs. Knox's agent for the purchase of his land under the Act; and +secondarily to the bad debts with which Stephen Casey and other +customers had loaded him in their dealings with his little shop. There +were moments when I almost had to accept Mr. Goggin's point of view, so +well-ordered and so mildly stated were his facts. But Mrs. Knox's +convictions were beyond and above any possibility of being shaken by +mere evidence; she has often said to me that if all justice magistrates +were deaf there would be more done. She herself was not in the least +deaf, but she knew Mr. Goggin, which did as well. +</P> + +<P> +"Fifteen pounds worth of stock to pay a debt that was never more than +£7! What do you call that, Major Yeates?" +</P> + +<P> +She darted the question at me. +</P> + +<P> +I had, some little time before, felt my last moment of sympathy with +Goggin expire, and I replied with considerable heat that, if Mrs. Knox +would forgive my saying so, I called it damned usury. +</P> + +<P> +From this point the Affaire Casey went out swiftly on an ebb tide. It +was insinuated by someone, M'Sweeny, I think, that an instalment of +five pounds might be accepted, and the eyes of Goggin turned, +tentatively, to Mrs. Knox. It has always been said of that venerable +warrior that if there were a job to be done for a friend she would work +her fingers to the bone, but she would never put them in her pocket. I +observed that the eye of Goggin, having failed in its quest of hers, +was concentrating itself upon me. The two walls of a corner seemed to +rise mysteriously on either side of me; I suddenly, and without +premeditation, found myself promising to be responsible for the five +pounds. +</P> + +<P> +Before the glow of this impulse had time to be succeeded by its too +familiar reaction, the broken, yet persistent cry of hounds came to my +ear. It advanced swiftly, coming, seemingly, from higher levels, into +the desolated spaces that had once been Killoge Wood. From the inner +depths of Mrs. Knox's wrappings the face of the woolly dog amazingly +presented itself; from the companion depths of the public-house an +equally unexpected party of <I>convives</I> burst forth and stood at gaze. +Mrs. Knox tried to stand up, was borne down by the sheer weight of rugs +and the woolly dog, glared at me for a tense moment, and hissed, +"They're coming this way! Try to get a view!" +</P> + +<P> +Before the words had passed her lips someone in the group at the door +vociferated, "Look at him above! Look at him!" +</P> + +<P> +I looked "above," but could see nothing. Not so the rest of the group. +</P> + +<P> +"Now! look at him going west the rock! Now! He's passing the little +holly-tree—he's over the fence——" +</P> + +<P> +I bore, as I have so often borne, the exasperation of, as it were, +hearing instead of seeing a cinematograph, but I saw no reason why I +should submit to the presence of Mr. M'Sweeny, who had sociably sprung +into the motor beside me in order to obtain a better view. +</P> + +<P> +"Look at him over the wall!" howled the cinematograph. "Look at the +size he is! Isn't he the divil of a sheep!" +</P> + +<P> +It was at this moment that I first caught sight of the fox, about fifty +yards on the farther side of Casey's assortment of live stock and their +guardian cur dogs, gliding over the wall like a cat, and slipping away +up the road. At this point Mr. M'Sweeny, finding the disadvantage of +his want of stature, bounded on to the seat beside me and uttered a +long yell. +</P> + +<P> +"Hi! At him! Tiger, good dog! Hi! Rosy!" +</P> + +<P> +I cannot now say whether I smote M'Sweeny in the legs before he jumped, +or if I merely accelerated the act; he appeared to be running before he +touched the ground, and he probably took it as a send-off, administered +in irrepressible fellow-feeling. +</P> + +<P> +Tiger and Rosy were already laying themselves out down the road, and +their yelps streamed back from them like the sparks from an engine. +The party at the door was suddenly in full flight after them with a +swiftness and unanimity that again recalled the cinematograph. They +caught away with them Stephen Casey and his animals; and I had an +enlivening glimpse of the donkey at the top of the hunt, braying as it +went; of Goggin trying in vain to stem the companion flight of the +calves. The bend of the road hid them all from us; the thumping of +heavy feet, the sobbing bray of the donkey, passed rapidly into +remoteness, and Mrs. Knox and I were left with nothing remaining to us +of the situation save the well-defined footmarks of M'Sweeny on the +seat beside me (indelible, as I afterwards discovered). +</P> + +<P> +"Get on, Major Yeates!" screamed Mrs. Knox, above the barking of the +woolly dog. "We must see it out!" +</P> + +<P> +I started the car, and just before we in our turn rounded the corner I +looked back, and saw the leading hounds coming down the hill-side. I +slackened and saw them drop into the road and there remain, mystified, +no doubt, by the astonishing variety of scents, from goat to gombeen +man, that presented themselves. Of Flurry and his followers there was +no sign. +</P> + +<P> +"Get on, get on," reiterated Mrs. Knox, divining, no doubt, my +feelings; "we shall do no more harm than the rest!" +</P> + +<P> +I gave the car her head, knowing that whatever I did Flurry would have +my blood. In less than two minutes we were all but into Stephen +Casey's goats, who, being yoked together in body but not in spirit, +required the full width of the road for their argument. We passed +Stephen Casey and the gombeen man cornering the disputed calves in the +sympathetic accord that such an operation demands. As we neared +M'Sweeny, who brought up the rear, the body of the hunt, still headed +by the donkey, swept into a field on the left of the road. The fox, as +might have been expected, had passed from the ken of the cur dogs, and +these, intoxicated by the incitements of their owners, now flung +themselves, with the adaptability of their kind, into the pursuit of +the donkey. +</P> + +<P> +I stopped and looked back. The leading hounds were galloping behind +the car; I recognised at their heads Rattler and Roman, the puppies I +had walked, and for a moment was touched by this mark of affection. +The gratification was brief. They passed me without a glance, and with +anticipatory cries of joy flung themselves into the field and joined in +the chase of the donkey. +</P> + +<P> +"They'll kill him!" exclaimed Mrs. Knox, restraining with difficulty +the woolly dog; "what good is Flurry that he can't keep with his +hounds!" +</P> + +<P> +Galloping hoofs on the road behind us clattered a reply, accompanied by +what I can only describe as imprecations on the horn, and Flurry +hurtled by and swung his horse into the field over a low bank with all +the dramatic fury of the hero rushing to the rescue of the leading +lady. It recalled the incidents that in the palmy days of the +Hippodrome gloriously ended in a plunge into deep water, amid a salvo +of firearms. +</P> + +<P> +In Flurry's wake came the rest of the pack, and with them Dr. Jerome +Hickey. "A great morning's cubbing!" he called out, snatching off his +old velvet cap. "Thirty minutes with an old fox, and now a nice burst +with a jackass!" +</P> + +<P> +For the next three or four minutes shrieks, like nothing so much as +forked lightning, lacerated the air, as the guilty hounds began to +receive that which was their due. It seemed possible that my turn +would come next; I looked about to see what the chances were of turning +the car and withdrawing as soon as might be, and decided to move on +down the road in search of facilities. We had proceeded perhaps a +hundred yards without improving the situation, when my eye was caught +by something moving swiftly through the furze-bushes that clothed a +little hill on the right of the road. It was brownish red, it slid +into the deep furze that crested the hill, and was gone. +</P> + +<P> +Here was a heaven-sent peace-offering! +</P> + +<P> +"Tally-ho!" I bellowed, rising in my place and waving my cap high in +air. "Tally-ho, over!" +</P> + +<P> +The forked lightning ceased. +</P> + +<P> +"What way is he?" came an answering bellow from Flurry. +</P> + +<P> +"This way, over the hill!" +</P> + +<P> +The hounds were already coming to the holloa. I achieved some very +creditable falsetto screeches; I leaped from the car, and cheered and +capped them over the fence; I shouted precise directions to the Master +and Whip, who were now, with the clamours proper to their calling, +steeplechasing into the road and out of it again, followed by two or +three of the Field, including the new District Inspector of the Royal +Irish Constabulary (recently come from Meath with a high reputation as +a goer). They scrambled and struggled up the hill-side, through rocks +and furze (in connection with which I heard the new D.I. making some +strenuous comments to his Meath hunter), the hounds streamed and +screamed over the ridge of the hill, the riders shoved their puffing +horses after them, topped it, and dropped behind it. The furzy skyline +and the pleasant blue and white sky above it remained serene and silent. +</P> + +<P> +I returned to the car, and my passenger, who, as I now realised, had +remained very still during these excitements. +</P> + +<P> +"That was a bit of luck!" I said happily, inflated by the sense of +personal merit that is the portion of one who has viewed a fox away. +As I spoke I became aware of something fixed in Mrs. Knox's expression, +something rigid, as though she were repressing emotion; a fear flashed +through my mind that she was overtired, and that the cry of the hounds +had brought back to her the days when she too had known what a first +burst away with a fox out of Killoge Wood had felt like. +</P> + +<P> +"Major Yeates," she said sepulchrally, and yet with some inward thrill +in her voice, "I think the sooner we start for home the better." +</P> + +<P> +I could not turn the car, but, rather than lose time, I ran it +backwards towards the cross-roads; it was a branch of the art in which +I had not become proficient, and as, with my head over my shoulder, I +dodged the ditches, I found myself continually encountering Mrs. Knox's +eye, and was startled by something in it that was both jubilant and +compassionate. I also surprised her in the act of wiping her eyes. I +wondered if she were becoming hysterical, and yearned for Mullins as +the policeman (no doubt) yearns for the mother of the lost child. +</P> + +<P> +On the road near the public-house we came upon M'Sweeny, Goggin, and +Casey, obviously awaiting us. I stopped the car, not without +reluctance. +</P> + +<P> +"That will be all right, Goggin," said Mrs. Knox airily; "we're in a +hurry to get home now." +</P> + +<P> +The three protagonists looked at one another dubiously, and +simultaneously cleared their throats. +</P> + +<P> +"I beg your pardon, Mrs. Knox, ma'am," began Mr. Goggin very +delicately. "Mr. M'Sweeny would be thankful to speak a word to you +before you go." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, let him speak and be quick about it," returned Mrs. Knox, who +seemed to have recovered remarkably from her moment of emotion. +</P> + +<P> +"You must excuse me, Major Yeates," said Mr. M'Sweeny, chivalrously +selecting me as the person to whom to present the business end of the +transaction, "but I'm afraid I must trouble you about that little +matter of the five pounds that we arranged a while ago—I couldn't go +back without it was settled——" +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Goggin coughed, and looked at his boots; Stephen Casey sighed +heavily. +</P> + +<P> +At the same moment I thought I heard the horn. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm afraid I haven't got it with me," I said, pulling out a handful of +silver and a half-sovereign. "I suppose eighteen and sixpence wouldn't +be any use to you?" +</P> + +<P> +Mr. M'Sweeny smiled deprecatingly, as at a passing jest, and again I +heard the horn, several harsh and prolonged notes. +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Knox leaned forward and poked me in the back with some violence. +</P> + +<P> +"Goggin will lend it to you," she said, with the splendid simplicity of +a great mind. +</P> + +<P> +It must be recorded of Goggin that he accepted this singular inversion +of the position like a gentleman. We moved on to his house and he went +in with an excellent show of alacrity to fetch the money wherewith I +was to stop his own mouth. It was while we were waiting that a small +wet collie, reddish-brown in colour, came flying across the road, and +darted in at the open door of the house. Its tongue was hanging out, +it was panting heavily. +</P> + +<P> +"I seen her going over the hill, and the hounds after her; I thought +she wouldn't go three sthretches before they'd have her cot," said +M'Sweeny pleasantly. "But I declare she gave them a nice chase. When +she seen the Doctor beating the hounds, that's the time she ran." +</P> + +<P> +I turned feebly in my place and looked at Mrs. Knox. +</P> + +<P> +"It was a very natural mistake," she said, again wiping her eyes; "I +myself was taken in for a moment—but only for a moment!" she added, +with abominable glee. +</P> + +<P> +I gave her but one glance, laden with reproach, and turned to M'Sweeny. +</P> + +<P> +"You'll get the five pounds from Goggin," I said, starting the car. +</P> + +<P> +As we ran out of Killoge, at something near thirty miles an hour, I +heard scald-crow laughter behind me in the shawls. +</P> + +<A NAME="img-049"></A> +<CENTER> +<IMG CLASS="imgcenter" SRC="images/img-049.jpg" ALT=""I heard scald-crow laughter behind me in the shawls."" BORDER="2"> +<H4 CLASS="h4center"> +"I heard scald-crow laughter behind me in the shawls." +</H4> +</CENTER> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap03"></A> + +<P CLASS="t3b"> +III +</P> + +<P CLASS="t4b"> +THE FRIEND OF HER YOUTH +</P> + +<P> +It has come to this with me, I am not the country-house visitor that I +once was. It is a sign of age, I suppose, and of growing unamiability; +so, at any rate, my wife tells me. For my part, I think it indicates a +power of discriminating between the things that are good enough, and +the infinitely more numerous things that are the reverse. +</P> + +<P> +"Do you mean to say this isn't good enough?" said Philippa, putting +down the novel that, at 11 A.M., she was shamelessly reading, and +indicating our surroundings with a swing of her open parasol. +</P> + +<P> +It was a perfect morning in August. She and I were seated in +incredible leisure, in comfortable basket chairs, on a space of sward +that sank in pleasant curves to the verge of the summer sea. We looked +across three miles of burnished water to the Castle Manus hills, that +showed mistily through grey veils of heat; in the middle distance a +40-ton cutter yacht drowsed at anchor; at the end of the sward a +strand, theatrical in the perfection of its pale sand and dark rocks, +laid itself out to attract the bather. +</P> + +<P> +"I think it is very good," I replied, "but it won't last. At any +minute old Derryclare will come and compel me to go out trawling, or +mending nets, or cutting up bait, or mucking out the dinghey——" +</P> + +<P> +"You may be thankful if he lets you off with that!" said Philippa, +flitting from her first position and taking up one in advance of mine. +</P> + +<P> +Following the direction of her eyes, I perceived, as it were at the +back of the stage, two mysterious, shrouded figures pursuing a swift +course towards the house through a shrubbery of immense hydrangea +bushes. Their heads resembled monster black door-handles, round their +shoulders hung flounces of black muslin; in gauntleted hands they bore +trays loaded with "sections" of honey; even at a distance of fifty +yards we could see their attendant <I>cortège</I> of indignant bees. +</P> + +<P> +"Taken thirty pounds this morning!" shouted the leading door-handle, +speeding towards the house. "Splendid heather honey!" +</P> + +<P> +"You ought to show some interest," said my wife malignly. "Go in and +look at it. He's your host!" +</P> + +<P> +"Not if he were all the hosts of Midian!" I said, but I felt shaken. +</P> + +<P> +I rose from my chair. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm going to the motor-house," I said firmly. +</P> + +<P> +"Very well, I shall bathe," replied Philippa. +</P> + +<P> +"I suppose you are aware that your old friend, Mr. Chichester, is at +present in possession of the bathing cove," I returned, "and it might +be as well to ascertain the opinion of your hostess on the subject of +mixed bathing." +</P> + +<P> +"Did you observe that Lord Derryclare was wearing your new +motor-gloves?" said Philippa as I moved away. +</P> + +<P> +I magnanimously left the last word with her. +</P> + +<P> +The Derryclares were in the habit of hurling themselves, at intervals, +out of civilisation, and into the wilderness, with much the same zest +with which those who live in the wilderness hurl themselves into +civilisation. In the wilderness, twenty miles from a railway station, +they had built them a nest, and there led that variety of the simple +life that is founded on good servants, old clothes, and a total +indifference to weather. Wandering friends on motor tours swooped +occasionally out of space; married daughters, with intervals between +visits to be filled in, arrived without warning, towing reluctant +husbands (who had been there before). Lost men, implicated with Royal +Commissions and Congested Districts, were washed in at intervals; Lady +Derryclare said she never asked anyone; people came. +</P> + +<P> +It is true that she had asked us, but the invitation had been given on +our wedding-day, and had been put away with our duplicate wedding +presents; we had now disinterred it, because I had bought a motor, and +was still in the stage of enthusiasm when the amateur driver will beat +up visits for his wife to pay. I do not know how Chichester got there; +he, like Lady Derryclare, dated from the benighted period before +Philippa knew me, and I may admit that, in common with most husbands, I +am not attracted by the male friends of my wife's youth. If Chichester +had been the type she fancied, was I merely a Super-Chichester? +</P> + +<P> +Chichester was an elderly young man, worn smooth by much visiting in +country houses, and thoroughly competent in the avocations proper to +his career. He knew the best "stands" at half the shoots in Ireland, +and could tell to half a crown the value set upon each by the keeper; +if you gave him a map he could put a pudgy finger upon the good cooks +as promptly as an archbishop upon his cathedral towns; he played a +useful and remunerative game of bridge; to see his eye, critical, yet +alight with healthful voracity, travelling down the array of dishes on +the side-table at breakfast, and arranging unhesitatingly the order in +which they were to be attacked, was a lesson to the heedless who blunt +the fine edge of appetite with porridge. +</P> + +<P> +He faced me at lunch, plump and pink and shining after his bathe; he +was clean-shaved (the only reliable remedy for a greying moustache, as +I did not fail to point out to Philippa); it increased his resemblance +to a well-fed and <I>passé</I> schoolboy. Old Derryclare, whose foible it +was to believe that he never had any luncheon, was standing at the +sideboard, devouring informally a slice of bread and honey. One of his +eyes was bunged up by bee-stings, and the end of his large nose shone +red from the same cause. +</P> + +<P> +"Bill," he said, addressing his eldest son, "don't you forget to take +those sections on board this afternoon." +</P> + +<P> +"No fear!" responded Bill, helping himself to a beaker of barley-water +with hands that bore indelible traces of tar and motor grease. +</P> + +<P> +Bill was a vigorous youth, of the type that I have heard my friend +Slipper describe as "a hardy young splinter"; he was supposed to be +preparing for a diplomatic career, and in the meantime was apparently +qualifying for the engine-room of a tramp steamer (of which, it may be +added, his father would have made a most admirable skipper). +</P> + +<P> +"Great stuff, honey, with a rice-pudding," went on Bill. "Mrs. Yeates, +do you know I can make a topping rice-pudding?" +</P> + +<P> +I noticed that Chichester, who was seated next to Philippa, suddenly +ceased to chew. +</P> + +<P> +"I can do you a very high-class omelette, too," continued Bill, bashing +a brutal spoon into the fragile elegance of something that looked as if +it were made of snow and spun glass. "I'm not so certain about my +mutton-chops and beefsteak, but I've had the knives sharpened, anyhow!" +</P> + +<P> +Chichester turned his head away, as from a jest too clownish to be +worthy of attention. His cheek was large, and had a tender, beefy +flush in it. +</P> + +<P> +"In my house," he said to Philippa, "I never allow the knives to be +sharpened. If meat requires a sharp knife it is not fit to eat." +</P> + +<P> +"No, of course not!" replied Philippa, with nauseating hypocrisy. +</P> + +<P> +"The principle on which my wife buys meat," I said to the table at +large, "is to say to the butcher, 'I want the best meat in your shop; +but don't show it to me!'" +</P> + +<P> +"Mrs. Yeates is quite right," said Chichester seriously; "you should be +able to trust your butcher." +</P> + +<P> +The door flew open, and Lady Derryclare strode in, wrestling as she +came with the strings of a painting apron, whose office had been no +sinecure. She was tall and grey-haired, and was just sufficiently +engrossed in her own pursuits to be an attractive hostess. +</P> + +<P> +"It was perfectly lovely out there on the <I>Sheila</I>," she said, handing +the apron to the butler, who removed it from the room with respectful +disapproval. "If only she hadn't swung with the tide! I found my +sketch had more and more in it every moment—turning into a panorama, +in fact! Yachts would be perfect if they had long solid legs and stood +on concrete." +</P> + +<P> +I said that I thought a small island would do as well. +</P> + +<P> +Lady Derryclare disputed this, and argued that an island would involve +a garden, whereas the charm of a yacht was that one hideous bunch of +flowers on the cabin table was all that was expected of it, and that +kind people ashore always gave it vegetables. +</P> + +<P> +I said that these things did not concern me, as I usually neither +opened my eyes or touched food while yachting. I said this very +firmly, being not without fear that I might yet find myself hustled +into becoming one of the party that was to go aboard the <I>Sheila</I> that +very night. They were to start on the top of the tide, that is to say, +at 4 A.M. the following morning, to sail round the coast to a bay some +thirty miles away, renowned for its pollack-fishing, and there to fish. +Pollack-fishing, as a sport, does not appeal to me; according to my +experience, it consists in hauling up coarse fish out of deep water by +means of a hook baited with red flannel. It might appear +poor-spirited, even effeminate, but nothing short of a press-gang +should get me on board the <I>Sheila</I> that night. +</P> + +<P> +"Every expedition requires its martyr," said Lady Derryclare, helping +herself to some of the best cold salmon it has been my lot to +encounter, "it makes it so much pleasanter for the others; some one +they can despise and say funny things about." +</P> + +<P> +"The situation may produce its martyr," I said. +</P> + +<P> +Lady Derryclare glanced quickly at me, and then at Chichester, who was +now expounding to Philippa the method, peculiar to himself, by which he +secured mountain mutton of the essential age. +</P> + +<P> +At nine-thirty that night I sat with my hostess and my wife, engaged in +a domestic game of Poker-patience. Shaded lights and a softly burning +turf fire shed a mellow radiance; an exquisite completeness was added +by a silken rustle of misty rain against the south window. +</P> + +<P> +"Do you think they'll start in this weather?" said Philippa +sympathetically. +</P> + +<P> +"Seventy-five, and one full house, ten, that's eighty-five," said Lady +Derryclare abstractedly. "Start? you may be quite sure they'll start! +Then we three shall have an empty house. That ought to count at least +twenty!" +</P> + +<P> +Lady Derryclare was far too good a hostess not to appreciate the charms +of solitude; that Philippa and I should be looked upon as solitude was +soothing to the heart of the guest, the heart that, however good the +hostess, inevitably conceals some measure of apprehension. +</P> + +<P> +"Has Mr. Chichester been on board the <I>Sheila</I>?" I enquired, with +elaborate unconcern. +</P> + +<P> +"<I>Never!</I>" said Lady Derryclare melodramatically. +</P> + +<P> +"I believe he has done some yachting?" I continued. +</P> + +<P> +"A five-hundred-ton steam yacht to the West Indies!" replied Lady +Derryclare. "Bathrooms and a <I>chef</I>——" +</P> + +<P> +There was a thumping of heavy feet outside the door, and the yacht +party entered, headed by Lord Derryclare with a lighted lantern. They +were clad in oilskins and sou'-westers; Bill had a string of onions in +one hand and a sponge-bag in the other; Chichester carried a large +gold-mounted umbrella. +</P> + +<P> +"You look as if you were acting a charade," said Lady Derryclare, +shuffling the cards for the next game, the game that would take place +when the pleasure-seekers had gone forth into the rain. "The word is +Fare-well, I understand?" +</P> + +<P> +It occurred to me that to fare well was the last thing that Chichester +was likely to do; and, furthermore, that the same thing had occurred to +him. +</P> + +<P> +"'Fare thee well, my own Mary Anne!'" sang Lord Derryclare, in a voice +like a bassoon, and much out of tune. "It's a dirty night, but the +glass is rising, and" (here he relapsed again into song) "'We are bound +for the sea, Mary Anne! We are bound for the sea!'" +</P> + +<P> +"Then we're to meet you on Friday?" said Philippa, addressing herself +to Chichester in palpable and egregious consolation. +</P> + +<P> +"Dear lady," replied Chichester tartly, "in the South of Ireland it is +quite absurd to make plans. One is the plaything of the climate!" +</P> + +<P> +"All aboard," said Lord Derryclare, with a swing of his lantern. +</P> + +<P> +As they left the room the eye of Bill met mine, not without +understanding. +</P> + +<P> +"Now D's perfectly happy," remarked Lady Derryclare, sorting her suits; +"but I'm not quite so sure about the Super-Cargo." +</P> + +<P> +The game progressed pleasantly, and we heard the rain enwrap the house +softly, as with a mantle. +</P> + +<P> +The next three days were spent in inglorious peace, not to say sloth. +On one of them, which was wet, I cleared off outstanding letters and +browsed among new books and innumerable magazines: on the others, which +were fine, I ran the ladies in the car back into the hills, and +pottered after grouse with a venerable red setter, while Lady +Derryclare painted, and Philippa made tea. When not otherwise +employed, I thanked heaven that I was not on board the <I>Sheila</I>. +</P> + +<P> +On Thursday night came a telegram from the yacht: +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +"Ronnie's flotilla in; luncheon party to-morrow; come early.—BILL." +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +At nine o'clock the next morning we were on the road; there was a light +northerly breeze, enough to dry the roads and to clear the sky of all +save a few silver feathers of cloud; the heather was in bloom on the +hills, the bogs were bronze and green, the mountains behind them were +as blue as grapes; best of all, the car was running like a saint, +floating up the minor hills, pounding unfalteringly up the big ones. +She and I were still in the honeymoon stage, and her most normal +virtues were to me miraculous; even my two ladies, though, like their +sex, grossly utilitarian, and incapable, as I did not fail to assure +them, of appreciating the poesy of mechanism, were complimentary. +</P> + +<P> +In that part of Ireland in which my lot is cast signposts do not exist. +The residents, very reasonably, consider them to be superfluous, even +ridiculous, in view of the fact that every one knows the way, and as +for strangers, "haven't they tongues in their heads as well as +another?" It all tends to conversation and an increased knowledge of +human nature. Therefore it was that when we had descended from the +hills, and found ourselves near the head of Dunerris Bay, at a junction +of three roads, any one of which might have been ours, our only course +was to pause there and await enlightenment. +</P> + +<P> +It came, plentifully, borne by an outside car, and bestowed by no less +than four beautifully dressed young ladies. I alighted and approached +the outside car, and was instructed by the driver as to the route, an +intricate one, to Eyries Harbour. The young ladies offered +supplementary suggestions; they were mysteriously acquainted with the +fact that the <I>Sheila</I> was our destination, and were also authorities +on the movements of that section of the British Navy that was known to +the family of Sub-Lieutenant the Hon. Ronald Cunningham as "Ronnie's +Flotilla." +</P> + +<P> +"We met the yacht gentlemen at tea on Mr. Cunningham's torpedo-boat +yesterday afternoon," volunteered the prettiest of the young ladies, +with a droop of her eyelashes. +</P> + +<P> +The party then laughed, and looked at each other, as those do who have +together heard the chimes at midnight. +</P> + +<P> +"Why, we're going to lunch with them to-day at the hotel at Ecclestown! +And with you, too!" broke in another, with a sudden squeal of laughter. +</P> + +<P> +I said that the prospect left nothing to be desired. +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. Chichester invited us yesterday!" put in a third from the other +side of the car. +</P> + +<P> +"I don't think it's pollack he'll order for luncheon," said the fourth +of the party from under the driver's elbow, a flapper, with a slow, +hoarse voice, and a heavy cold in her head. +</P> + +<P> +"Shut up, Katty, you brat!" said the eldest, with lightning utterance. +</P> + +<P> +The quartette again dissolved into laughter. I said "Au revoir," and +withdrew to report progress to my deeply interested passengers. +</P> + +<P> +As the outside car disappeared from view at a corner, the Flapper waved +a large pocket-handkerchief to me. +</P> + +<P> +"You seem to have done wonderfully well in the time," said Lady +Derryclare kindly. +</P> + +<P> +For half an hour or more we ran west along the southern shore of the +great bay; Ecclestown, where Chichester's luncheon-party was to take +place, was faintly visible on the further side. So sparkling was the +sea, so benign the breeze, that even I looked forward without anxiety, +almost with enjoyment, to the sail across the bay. +</P> + +<P> +There is a bland and peaceful suggestion about the word village that is +wholly inapplicable to the village of Eyries, a collection of dismal, +slated cabins, grouped round a public-house, like a company of shabby +little hens round a shabby and bedraggled cock. The road that had +conveyed us to this place of entertainment committed suicide on a weedy +beach below, its last moments much embittered by chaotic heaps of +timber, stones, and gravel. A paternal Board was building a pier, and +"mountains of gold was flying into it, but the divil a much would ever +come out of it." +</P> + +<P> +This I was told by the publican as I bestowed the car in an outhouse in +his yard, wherein, he assured me, "neither chick nor child would find +it." +</P> + +<P> +The <I>Sheila</I> was anchored near the mouth of the harbour; there was a +cheerful air of expectancy about her, and her big mainsail was hoisted; +her punt, propelled by Bill, was already tripping towards us over the +little waves; the air was salt, and clean, and appetising. Bill +appeared to be in robust health; he had taken on a good many extra +tones of sunburn, and it was difficult, on a cursory inspection, to +decide where his neck ended and his brown flannel shirt began. +</P> + +<P> +"——Oh, a topping time!" he said, as we moved out over the green, +clear water, through which glimmered to us the broken pots and pans of +Eyries that lay below. "Any amount of fish going. We've had to give +away no end." +</P> + +<P> +"I should like to hear what you've been giving Mr. Chichester to eat?" +said Lady Derryclare suavely. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, there was the leg of mutton that we took with us; he ate that +pretty well; and a sort of a hash next day, fair to middling." +</P> + +<P> +"And after that?" said his mother, with polite interest. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, after that," said Bill, leaning his elbows on his sculls and +ticking off the items on his fingers, "we had boiled pollack, and fried +pollack, and pollack <I>réchauffé aux fines herbes</I>—onions, you know——" +</P> + +<P> +Bill broke off artistically, and I recalled to myself a saying of an +American sage, "Those that go down to the sea in ships see the works of +the Lord, but those that go down to the sea in cutters see hell." +</P> + +<P> +"He went ashore yesterday," said Bill, resuming his narrative and the +sculls, "and came aboard with a pig's face and a pot of jam that he got +at the pub, and I say!—that pig's face!—Phew! My aunt!" +</P> + +<P> +"'Look in my face; my name is Might-have-been,'" quoted Lady Derryclare. +</P> + +<P> +Philippa shuddered aloud. +</P> + +<P> +"But he's going to come level to-day," went on Bill; "he's standing us +all lunch at the Ecclestown Hotel, Ronnie's skipper and all. He spent +a good half-hour writing out a menu, and Ronnie took it over last +night. We had tea on board Ronnie's ship, you know." +</P> + +<P> +We said we knew all about the tea-party and the guests. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, you do, do you?" said Bill; "then you know a good deal! +Chichester can tell you a bit more about the dark one if you like to +ask him!" +</P> + +<P> +"He seems to have outgrown his fancy for fair people," I said. +</P> + +<P> +Philippa put her nose in the air. +</P> + +<P> +"He's gorgeously dressed for the occasion," continued Bill. +</P> + +<P> +"More than you are!" said his mother. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, my one don't care. No more does Ronnie's. What they enjoyed was +the engine-room." +</P> + +<P> +"It seems to me," said Lady Derryclare to Philippa, "that we are rather +superfluous to this entertainment." +</P> + +<P> +Chichester stood at the gangway and helped the ladies on to the narrow, +hog-backed deck of the <I>Sheila</I>. He was indeed beautifully dressed, +but to the critical eye it seemed that the spotless grey flannel suit +hung a shade easier, and that the line of his cheek was less freshly +rounded. His nose had warmed to a healthful scarlet, but his eye was +cold, and distinctly bleak. He was silent, not, it was obvious to me, +because he had nothing to say, but because he might have more to say +than would be convenient. In all senses save the literal one he +suggested the simple phrase, "Fed up." I felt for him. As I saw the +grim deck-bosses on which we might have to sit, and the dark mouth of +the cabin in which we might have to eat, and tripped over a rope, and +grasped at the boom, which yielded instead of supporting me, I thought +with a lover's ardour of the superiority—whether as means of +progression or as toy—of the little car, tucked away in the Eyries +publican's back-yard, where neither chick nor child would find her. +</P> + +<P> +"You ought to have come with us, Yeates," said Derryclare, emerging +from the companion-hatch with a fishing-line in his hand. "Great +sport! we got a hundred and fifty yesterday—beats trout-fishing! +Doesn't it, Chichester?" +</P> + +<P> +Chichester smiled sarcastically and looked at his watch. +</P> + +<P> +"Quite right," said his lordship, twisting his huge hairy paw, and +consulting the nickel time-keeper on his wrist. "Time to be +off—mustn't keep our young ladies waiting. We'll slip across in no +time with this nice breeze. Regular ladies' day. Now then, Bill! get +that fores'l on her—we'll up anchor and be off!" +</P> + +<P> +There are few places in creation where the onlooker can find himself +more painfully and perpetually <I>de trop</I> than on the deck of a small +yacht. I followed the ladies to the saloon. Chichester remained on +deck. As I carefully descended the companion-ladder I saw him looking +again at his watch, and from it across the bay to the hazy white +specks, some four miles away, in one of which assiduous waiters were +even now, it might be, setting forth the repast that was to indemnify +him for three days of pollack. +</P> + +<P> +"P'ff; I wonder if they ever open the windows," said Lady Derryclare, +fitting herself skilfully into the revolving chair at the end of the +cabin table. "Do sit down—these starting operations are always +lengthy." +</P> + +<P> +I took my seat, that is to say, I began to sit down in the air, well +outside the flap of the table, and gradually inserted myself underneath +it. The bunch of flowers, foretold by Lady Derryclare, confronted us, +packed suffocatingly into its vase, and even the least astute of the +party (I allude to myself) was able unhesitatingly to place it as an +attention from the fair ones of the outside car. Behind my shoulders, +a species of trough filled the interval between the back of the seat +and the sloping side of the yacht; in it lay old tweed caps, old +sixpenny magazines, field-glasses, cans of tobacco, and a well-worn box +of "Patience" cards. Above and behind it a rack made of netting was +darkly charged with signal-flags, fishing-rods, and minor offal. +</P> + +<P> +"Think of them all, smoking here on a wet night," said Lady Derryclare +with abhorrence; "with the windows shut and no shade on the lamp! Let +nothing tempt any of you to open the pantry door; we might see the +pig's face. Unfortunate George Chichester!" +</P> + +<P> +"I shouldn't pity him too much," said I. "I expect he wouldn't take +five pounds for his appetite this moment!" +</P> + +<P> +The rhythmic creak of the windlass told that the anchor was coming up. +It continued for some moments, and then stopped abruptly. +</P> + +<P> +"Now then, all together!" said Lord Derryclare's voice. +</P> + +<P> +A pause, punctuated by heavy grunts of effort—then Bill's voice. +</P> + +<P> +"What the blazes is holding it? Come on, Chichester, and put your back +into it!" +</P> + +<P> +Chichester's back, ample as it would seem, had no appreciable effect on +the situation. +</P> + +<P> +"You ought to go and help them, Sinclair," said my wife, with that +readiness to offer a vicarious sacrifice that is so characteristic of +wives. +</P> + +<P> +I said I would wait till I was asked. I had not to wait long. +</P> + +<P> +I took my turn at the warm handle-bar of the windlass, and grunted and +strove as strenuously as my predecessors. The sun poured down in +undesired geniality, the mainsail lurched and flapped; the boom tugged +at its tether; the water jabbered and gurgled past the bows. +</P> + +<P> +"I think we're in the <I>consommé</I>!" remarked Bill, putting his hands in +his pockets. +</P> + +<P> +"Here," said Lord Derryclare, with a very red face; "confound her! +we'll sail her off it!" +</P> + +<P> +Chichester sat down in a deck-chair as remote as possible from his +kind, and once again consulted his watch. Bill took the tiller; ropes +were hauled, slacked, made fast; the boom awoke to devastating life; +the <I>Sheila</I> swung, tilted over to the breeze, and made a rush for +freedom. The rush ended in a jerk, the anchor remained immovable, and +the process was repeated in the opposite direction, with a vigour that +restored Chichester abruptly to the bosom of society—in point of fact, +my bosom. He said nothing, or at least nothing to signify, as I +assisted him to rise, but I felt as if I were handling a live shell. +</P> + +<P> +During the succeeding quarter of an hour the <I>Sheila</I>, so it seemed to +my untutored mind, continued to sail in tangents towards all the points +of the compass, and at the end of each tangent was brought up with an +uncompromising negative from the anchor. By that time my invariable +yacht-headache was established, and all the other men in the ship were +advancing, at a varying rate of progress, into a frame of mind that +precluded human intercourse, and was entirely removed from perceiving +any humour in the situation. +</P> + +<P> +Through all these affairs the sound of conversation ascended steadily +through the main-hatch. Lady Derryclare and my wife were playing +Patience in the cabin, and were at the same time discussing intricate +matters in connection with District Nurses, with that strange power of +doing one thing and talking about another that I have often noticed in +women. It was at about this period that the small, rat-like head of +Bill's kitchen-maid, Jimmy, appeared at the fore-hatch (accompanied by +a reek of such potency that I immediately assigned it to the pig's +face), and made the suggestion about the Congested Diver. That the +Diver, however congested, was a public official, engaged at the moment +in laying the foundations of the Eyries Pier, did not, this being +Ireland, complicate the situation. The punt, with Bill, hot and +taciturn, in the stern, sprang forth on her errand, smashing and +bouncing through the sharpened edges of the little waves. As I faced +that dainty and appetising breeze, I felt the first pang of the same +hunger that was, I knew, already gnawing Chichester like a wolf. +</P> + +<P> +"We must have fouled some old moorings," said Derryclare, coming up +from the cabin, with a large slice of bread and honey in his hand, and +an equanimity somewhat restored by a working solution of the problem. +"Damn nuisance, but it can't be helped. Better get something to eat, +Chichester; you won't get to Ecclestown before three o'clock at the +best." +</P> + +<P> +"No, thank you," said Chichester, without raising his eyes from the +four-day-old paper that he was affecting to read. +</P> + +<P> +I strolled discreetly away, and again looked down through the skylight +into the cabin. The ladies were no longer there, and, in defiance of +all nautical regulations, a spirit-lamp with a kettle upon it was +burning on the table, a sufficient indication to a person of my +experience that Philippa and Lady Derryclare had abandoned hope of the +Ecclestown lunch and were making tea. The prospect of something to +eat, of any description, was not unpleasing; in the meantime I took the +field-glasses, and went forward to follow, pessimistically, the +progress of the punt in its search for the Diver. +</P> + +<P> +There was no one on the pier. Bill landed, went up the beach, and was +lost to sight in the yard of the public-house. +</P> + +<P> +"It must be he's at his dinner," said Jimmy at my elbow, descrying +these movements with a vision that appeared to be equal to mine plus +the field-glasses. There was an interval, during which I transferred +my attention to Ecclestown; its white hotel basked in sunshine, settled +and balmy, as of the land of Beulah. Its comfortable aspect suggested +roast chicken, tingling glasses of beer, even of champagne. A +torpedo-boat, with a thread of smoke coming quietly from its foremost +funnel, lay in front of the hotel. It seemed as though it were +enjoying an after-luncheon cigarette. +</P> + +<P> +"They're coming out now!" said Jimmy, with excitement; "it must be they +were within in the house looking at the motor." +</P> + +<P> +I turned the field-glasses on Eyries; a fair proportion of its +population was emerging from the yard of the public-house, and the +length to which their scientific interest had carried them formed a +pleasing subject for meditation. +</P> + +<P> +"There's the ha'past-one mail-car coming in," said Jimmy; "it's likely +he'll wait for the letters now." +</P> + +<P> +The mirage of the Ecclestown lunch here melted away, as far as I was +concerned, and with a resignation perfected in many Petty Sessions +courts, I turned my appetite to humbler issues. To those who have +breakfasted at eight, and have motored over thirty miles of moorland, +tea and sardines at two o'clock are a mere affair of outposts, that +leave the heart of the position untouched. Yet a temporary glow of +achievement may be attained by their means, and the news brought back +by Bill, coupled with a fresh loaf, that the Diver was coming at once, +flattered the hope that the game was still alive. Bill had also +brought a telegram for Chichester. +</P> + +<P> +"Who has the nerve to tell Mr. Chichester that there's something to eat +here?" said Lady Derryclare, minutely examining the butter. +</P> + +<P> +"Philippa is obviously indicated," I said malignly. "She is the Friend +of his Youth!" +</P> + +<P> +"You're all odious," said Philippa, sliding from beneath the flap of +the table with the light of the lion-tamer in her eye. +</P> + +<P> +What transpired between her and the lion we shall never know. She +returned almost immediately, with a heightened colour, and the +irrelevant information that the Diver had come on board. The news had +the lifting power of a high explosive. We burst from the cabin and +went on deck as one man, with the exception of my wife, who, with a +forethought that did her credit, turned back to improvise a cosy for +the teapot. +</P> + +<P> +The Diver was a large person, of few words, with a lowering brow and a +heavy moustache. He did not minimise the greatness of his +condescension in coming aboard the yacht; he listened gloomily to the +explanations of Lord Derryclare. At the conclusion of the narrative he +moved in silence to the bows and surveyed the situation. His boat, +containing the apparatus of his trade, was alongside; a stalwart +underling, clad in a brown jersey, sat in the bows; in the stern was +enthroned the helmet, goggling upon us like a decapitated motorist. It +imparted a thrill that I had not experienced since I read Jules Verne +at school. +</P> + +<P> +"Here, Jeremiah," said the Diver. +</P> + +<P> +The satellite came on deck with the single sinuous movement of a salmon. +</P> + +<P> +The Diver motioned him to the windlass. "We'll take a turn at this +first," he said. +</P> + +<P> +They took each a handle, they bent to their task, and the anchor rose +at their summons like a hot knife out of butter. +</P> + +<P> +Every man present, with the exception of the Diver and the satellite, +made the simple declaration that he was damned, and it was in the +period of paralysis following on this that a fresh ingredient was added +to the situation. +</P> + +<P> +A giant voice filled the air, and in a windy bellow came the words: +</P> + +<P> +"Nice lot you are!" +</P> + +<P> +We faced about and saw "Ronnie's torpedo-boat" executing a sweeping +curve in the mouth of Eyries Harbour. +</P> + +<P> +"Couldn't wait any longer!" proceeded the voice of the Megaphone. +"We've got to pick up the others outside. Thanks awfully for luncheon! +Top-hole!" +</P> + +<P> +T.B. No. 1000 completed the curve and headed for the open sea with a +white mane of water rising above her bows. There was something else +white fluttering at the stern. I put up the field-glasses, and with +their aid perceived upon the deck a party of four ladies, one of whom +was waving a large pocket handkerchief. The glasses were here taken +out of my hand by Chichester, but not before I had identified the +Flapper. +</P> + +<P> +What Chichester said of Ronnie was heard only by me, and possibly by +Jimmy, who did not count. I think it may have saved his life, being +akin to opening a vein. That I was the sole recipient of these +confidences was perhaps due to the fact that the <I>Sheila</I>, so swiftly +and amazingly untethered, here began to fall away to leeward, with all +the wilful helplessness of her kind, and instant and general confusion +was the result. There were a few moments during which ropes, spars, +and human beings pursued me wherever I went. Then I heard Lord +Derryclare's voice—"Let go that anchor again!" +</P> + +<P> +The sliding rattle of the chain followed, the anchor plunged; the +<I>status quo</I> was re-established. +</P> + +<P> +Chichester went ashore with the Diver to catch the outgoing mail-car. +The telegram that had arrived with Bill was brought into action +flagrantly, and was as flagrantly accepted. (It was found, +subsequently, on his cabin floor, and was to the effect that the +cartridges had been forwarded as directed.) The farewells were made, +the parting regrets very creditably accomplished, and we stood on the +deck and saw him go, with his suit-case, his rods, his gun-case, heaped +imposingly in the bow, his rug, and his coats, the greater and the +less, piled beside him in the stern. +</P> + +<P> +The wind had freshened; the Diver and Jeremiah drove the boat into it +with a will, and the heavy oars struck spray off the crests of the +waves. We saw Chichester draw forth the greater coat, and stand up and +put it on. The boat lurched, and he sat down abruptly, only to start +to his feet again as if he had been stung by a wasp. He thrust his +hand into the pocket, and Philippa clutched my arm. +</P> + +<P> +"Could it have been into the pocket of his coat that I put the +teapot——?" she breathed. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap04"></A> + +<P CLASS="t3b"> +IV +</P> + +<P CLASS="t4b"> +HARRINGTON'S +</P> + +<P> +Breakfast was over; Philippa was feeding the dogs. Philippa's cousin, +Captain Andrew Larpent, R.E., was looking out of the window with that +air of unemployment that touches the conscience of a host like a spur. +Andrew did not smoke, a serious matter in a male guest, which means +that there are, for him, no moments of lethargy, and that, when he +idles, his idleness stands stark in the foreground against a clear sky, +a reproach and a menace to his entertainers. +</P> + +<P> +It was a cold day about the middle of September, and there was an +unrest among the trees that commemorated a night of storm; the gravel +was wet, the lawn-tennis ground was strewn with sycamore leaves. +</P> + +<P> +"I suppose you'll say I'm drunk," said Andrew, "but the fact remains +that I see two Natives coming up the drive." +</P> + +<P> +In the green tunnel that was the avenue at Shreelane were two dark +figures; both were dressed in frock-coats, of which the tails fluttered +meagrely in the wind; their faces were black; with the half-hearted +blackness of a leg in a black silk stocking; one of them wore a tall +hat. +</P> + +<P> +"This is what comes of leaving Calcutta without paying your bills," I +suggested; "or perhaps it's a Missionary Deputation——" +</P> + +<P> +The Natives advanced into the middle distance. +</P> + +<P> +"It's the Sweep!" exclaimed Philippa. "It's my beloved Cantillon!" +</P> + +<P> +She flung open the window. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, Cantillon!" she cried, invoking the gentleman in the top-hat as if +he were an idol, "I've been longing to see you!" +</P> + +<P> +The leading Native halted beneath the window and curtseyed. +</P> + +<P> +"I partly guessed it, my Lady!" he replied modestly, and curtseyed +again. +</P> + +<P> +"Then why didn't you come before?" screamed Philippa, suppressing with +difficulty the indignation of the dogs. +</P> + +<P> +"I had the toothache, my Lady, and a howlt in my poll," returned the +sweep, in dignified narrative. "I may say my hands was crackin' with +the stren'th of pain, and these four days back there was the rumour of +passpiration all over me, with respex to ye——" +</P> + +<P> +"I'll see you in the kitchen," said Philippa, shutting the window +abruptly. "My poor friends," she continued, "this means a cold +luncheon for you, and a still colder reception for me from Mrs. +Cadogan, but if I let Cantillon escape me now, I may never see him +again—which is unthinkable!" +</P> + +<P> +I presume that white is the complimentary colour of a sweep. In half +an hour after the arrival of Mr. Cantillon the sitting-rooms were +snowed over with sheets, covering alike floor and furniture, while he +and his disciple moved from room to room on tiptoe, with ostentatious +humility, leaving a round black spoor upon the snow. My writing-table +was inaccessible, so also was the piano, which could usually be trusted +to keep Andrew quiet for an hour of the morning. Perhaps it would be +more accurate to say it kept him occupied. Captain Larpent had not +been many years in the service of his country, yet it was already told +of him that "From Birr to Bareilly," undeterred by hardships, his +intrepid piano had accompanied him, and that house-rents fell to zero +within a half-mile radius of his vicinity. Daily the walls of +Shreelane shook to the thunder of his practising; nightly his duets +with my wife roared like a torrent over my sleeping head. Sometimes, +also, he sang, chiefly in German (a language I do not understand), and +with what seemed to me superfluous energy. But this, I am told, means +"temperament." +</P> + +<P> +Haunting as a waltz refrain the flavour of soot stole through the menu +at dinner; it was whispered in the soup, it was muttered in the +savoury, and in the coffee it abandoned subterfuge and shouted down all +opposition. Next morning, at breakfast, Philippa asked if the car +wanted exercise, because it seemed to her a day marked out by +Providence for calling on the Chicken Farmers. We might start early, +take sandwiches, show Andrew something of the country—the programme +was impulsively sketched in, but none the less I divined that an +indignant household had demanded a day of atonement in which to +obliterate the memory of the sweep. +</P> + +<P> +It was, as well as I remember, in the preceding spring that the Chicken +Farmers had come before the swallow dared, and had taken—in addition +to the winds of March—a small farm about midway in the wilderness +between us and the Derryclares. They were two young women who had +recently been commended to our special attention by Lady Derryclare; +they were, she said, Pioneers, and were going to make their fortunes, +and would incidentally set an example to the district. Philippa had +met them on the Derryclares' yacht. +</P> + +<P> +"One of them is very pretty," she explained to Andrew, "and the other +is a doctor." +</P> + +<P> +"I wonder which of them does most damage?" said Andrew. "I think I'll +stay at home." +</P> + +<P> +None the less he came. +</P> + +<P> +It was not until the car was at the door that I found we were to be +favoured with the society of my eldest son, Anthony, in consequence of +the facts that (1) the day before had been his ninth birthday, (2) that +he had not cried when he met the sweep in the passage, and (3) that for +lack of the kitchen fire he had had no birthday cake. Minx, also, was +one of us, but as she came as a stowaway, this did not transpire till +later, when explanations were superfluous. +</P> + +<P> +It was at the moment of departure that I perceived a donkey-cart, +modestly screening itself behind the evergreens on the way to the yard, +and one of Flurry Knox's men approached me with Mr. Knox's compliments, +and would I lend him the loan of the long ladder? Some two years ago, +in a moment of weakness, I had provided myself with a ladder wherewith +to attain to the eaveshoots of Shreelane, since when I had found myself +in the undesired position of public benefactor. How life without a +long ladder had hitherto been possible for my neighbours I was at a +loss to imagine, and as I was also at a loss for any valid excuse for +refusing to lend it, the ladder enjoyed a butterfly existence of +country-house visiting. Its visits to Mr. Knox had been especially +lengthy and debilitating. It is, as Mrs. Cadogan is wont to say, the +last straw that puts the hump on the camel. The blood suddenly mounted +to my brain, and with it came inspiration. +</P> + +<P> +"You can tell Mr. Knox that the eaveshoots of this house are leaking +like sieves, and I want the ladder myself." +</P> + +<P> +In the glow of satisfaction kindled by the delivery of this message I +started the caravan. The western breeze fanned my brow agreeably, the +car purred her satisfaction with our new and only stretch of +steam-rolled road, and Anthony was still in the condition of Being Good +(a condition, nevertheless, by no means to be relied on, and quite +distinct from Goodness). +</P> + +<P> +We ran west, we ran north; we skirted grey and sounding bays of the +Atlantic; we climbed high among heathery, stone-besprinkled moors; we +lunched by the roadside in the lee of a rick of turf, and Anthony, by +this time emerging from the condition of Being Good, broke the Thermos, +and flashed his birthday electric torch in Minx's face until she very +properly bit him, and Philippa slurred over the incident with impartial +chocolate, and said it was time to start. +</P> + +<P> +The region in which the Chicken Farmers had established themselves +suggested the nurture of snipe and sea-gulls rather than chickens. It +was an indeterminate patchwork of stony knobs of hill and pockets of +bog, among which the road humped and sagged, accepting pessimistically +the facts of nature. Hardy, noisy hill-streams scurried beside it, or +over it, as seemed good to them; finally a sharp turn, a high horizon +of sea, and a steep down-hill grade, ending on the shore of a small, +round lake. There was a little pink box of a house on its farther +side, with a few bunches of trees round it, and among them a pigmy +village of prim wooden huts. +</P> + +<P> +"That's the place," said Philippa, who had been there with Lady +Derryclare. "And those are the last cry in hen-houses. Now remember, +both of you, one of them is a doctor, Scotch, and a theosophist, or +something mysterious of that sort; and the pretty one was engaged to a +gunner and it was broken off—why, I don't know—drink, I fancy, or +mad—so you had better be careful——" +</P> + +<P> +"I shall be guarded in my condolences," I said, turning in at the +little gate, with the sensation of being forcibly fed. +</P> + +<P> +"As far as one can gather," said Andrew, "there remains no topic in +heaven or earth that——" +</P> + +<P> +"Music and poultry," said Philippa in a breath, as I drew up at the +hall door. +</P> + +<P> +Andrew rang the bell, and a flock of white ducks hurried up from among +the trees and gathered round him with loud cries of welcome. There was +no other reply to his summons, and at the second essay the bell-wire +came out by the roots with generous completeness. +</P> + +<P> +"The ladies is gone to th' oxtion!" cried a voice from among the +hen-coops, and the ducks lifted up their voices in ardent reply. +</P> + +<P> +"Where is the auction?" Philippa called, when a comparative silence had +fallen. +</P> + +<P> +"In Harrington's, beyond at the Mines!" replied the oracle, on a +well-sustained high G. +</P> + +<P> +"Put the cards on the hall table," said Philippa, "we might go back +that way." +</P> + +<P> +Several things combine in the spell that an auction casts upon my wife, +as upon many others of her sex; the gamble, the competition, the lure +of the second-hand, the thrill of possible treasure-trove. We +proceeded along the coast road towards the mines, and I could hear +Philippa expounding to her first-born the nature and functions of +auctions, even as the maternal carnivore instructs her young in the art +of slaughter. The road with which we were now dealing ran, or, it +would be more accurate to say, walked, across the stony laps of the +hills. The cliffs were on our right; the sea was still flustered after +the storm, like a dog that has fought and is ready to fight again. We +toiled over the shoulder of a headland, and there caught sight of +"Harrington's." +</P> + +<P> +On a green plateau, high above the sea, were a couple of iron sheds and +a small squat tower; landward of them was a square and hideous house, +of the type that springs up, as if inevitably, in the neighbourhood of +mines, which are, in themselves, among the most hideous works of man. +One of the sheds had but half a roof; a truck lay on its side in a pool +of water; defeat was written starkly over all. +</P> + +<P> +"Copper, and precious little of it," I explained to Andrew; "and they +got some gold too—just enough to go to their heads, and ruin them." +</P> + +<P> +"Did they put it in their mouths—where you have it, Father?" enquired +Anthony, who was hanging on my words and on the back of my seat. +</P> + +<P> +"Suppose you shut yours," I replied, with the brutality that is the +only effective defence against the frontal attacks of the young. +</P> + +<P> +We found the yard at Harrington's thronged with a shabby company of +carts, cars, and traps of many varieties; donkey-carts had made their +own of the road outside, even the small circle of gravel in front of +the hall door was bordered by bicycles; apparently an auction was a +fashionable function in the region of the Lug-na-Coppal copper-mines. +Dingy backs bulged from the open door of the hall, and over their heads +as we arrived floated the voice of the auctioneer, demanding in tragic +incredulity if people thought his conscience would permit him to let an +aneroid barometer go for half-a-crown. Without a word Philippa +inserted herself between the backs, followed by her son, and was lost +to view. +</P> + +<P> +"Thank you, madam!" said the voice, with a new note of cheer in it. +"Five shillings I am bid! Any advance on five shillings?" +</P> + +<P> +"That's a good weather-glass!" hissed a farmer's daughter with a plumed +hat, to a friend with a black shawl over her head. "An' I coming into +the house to-day I gave it a puck, and it knocked a lep out o' the +needle. It's in grand working order." +</P> + +<P> +"I'm told it was the last thing in the house poor Mr. Harrington left a +hand on, the day he made away with himself, the Lord save us!" remarked +a large matron, casually, to Andrew and me. +</P> + +<P> +"I thought the Coroner's Jury found that he fell down the shaft?" I +returned, accepting the conversational opening in the spirit in which +it was offered. +</P> + +<P> +The matron winked at me with a mixture of compassion and confederacy. +</P> + +<P> +"Ah, the poor fellow was insured, and the jury were decent men, they +wouldn't wish to have anything said that 'd put the wife out of the +money." +</P> + +<P> +"The right men in the right place, evidently," said Andrew, who rather +fancies his dry humour. "But apart from the climate and the +architecture, was there any reason for suicide?" +</P> + +<P> +"I'm told he was a little annoyed," said an enormous old farmer, +delicately. +</P> + +<P> +"It was the weather preyed on him," said the matron. "There was a +vessel was coming round to him with coal and all sorts, weather-bound +she was, in Kinsale, and in the latther end she met a rock, and she +went down in a lump, and his own brother that was in her was drownded." +</P> + +<P> +"There were grounds for annoyance, I admit," said Andrew. +</P> + +<P> +The big farmer, who had, perhaps, been one of the jury, remarked +non-committally that he wouldn't say much for the weather we were +getting now, and there was one of them planets was after the moon +always. +</P> + +<P> +We moved on to the yard, in which prospective buyers were prowling +among wheelbarrows, coils of rope, ladders, and the various rubbish +proper to such scenes, and Andrew discoursed of the accessories that +would be needed for the repair of my eaveshoots, with the +large-mindedness of the Government official who has his own spurs and +another man's horse. He was in the act of assuring me that I should +save half a man's wages by having a second long ladder, when some one +in the house began to play on a piano, with knowledge and vigour. The +effect on Captain Larpent was as when a hound, outside a covert, hears +the voice of a comrade within. The room from which the music came was +on the ground floor, the back door was open, and Andrew walked in. +</P> + +<P> +"That is one of those young ladies who have come here to make their +fortunes with poultry," observed a melancholy-looking clergyman at my +elbow, "Miss Longmuir, I expect; she is the musician. Her friend, Dr. +Catherine Fraser, is here also. Wonderful young ladies—no wish for +society. I begged them to come and live near my church—I offered them +a spare corner of the churchyard for their hen-coops—all of no avail." +</P> + +<P> +I said that they seemed hard to please. +</P> + +<P> +"Very, very," assented the clergyman; "yet I assure you there is +nothing cynical about them. They are merely recloozes." +</P> + +<P> +He sighed, on what seemed to be general grounds, and moved away. +</P> + +<P> +I followed Andrew into the house and found myself in the kitchen. The +unspeakable dreariness of an auction was upon it. Pagodas of various +crockeries stood high on the tables, and on benches round the walls +sat, rook-like, an assembly of hooded countrywomen. A man with a dingy +pale face was standing in front of the cold fireplace, addressing the +company. On my arrival he removed his hat with stately grace, and with +an effort I recognised Cantillon the sweep, in mufti—that is to say, +minus some of his usual top-dressing of soot. +</P> + +<P> +"It's what I was saying, Major Yeates," he resumed. "I'm sweeping +those chimneys thirty years, and five managers I seen in this house, +and there wasn't one o' them that got the price of their ticket to Cork +out o' that mine. This poor man was as well-liked as anyone in the +world, but there was a covey of blagyards in it that'd rob St. Pether, +let alone poor Mr. Harrington!" +</P> + +<P> +The company assented with a groan of general application, and the +ensuing pause was filled by the piano in the next room, large and heavy +chords, suggestive of the hand of Andrew. +</P> + +<P> +"God! Mrs. Harrington was a fine woman!" croaked one of the rooks on +the bench. +</P> + +<P> +"She was, and very stylish," answered another. "Oh, surely she was a +crown!" +</P> + +<P> +"And very plain," put in a third, taking up the encomium like a part in +a fugue, "as plain as the grass on the hills!" +</P> + +<P> +I moved on, and met my wife in a crowd at the door of the dining-room, +and in an atmosphere which I prefer not to characterise. +</P> + +<P> +"I've got the barometer!" she said breathlessly. "No one bid for it, +and I got it for five shillings! A lovely old one. It's been in the +house for at least fifty years, handed on from one manager to another." +</P> + +<P> +"It doesn't seem to have brought them luck," I said. "What have you +done with Anthony? Lost him, I hope!" +</P> + +<P> +"There have been moments when I could have spared him," Philippa +admitted, "especially when it came to his bidding against me, from the +heart of the crowd, for a brass tea-kettle, and running the price up to +the skies before I discovered him. Then I found him upstairs, +auctioning a nauseous old tail of false hair, amidst the yells of +country girls; and finally he tried to drop out of the staircase +window—ten feet at least—with a stolen basket of tools round his +neck. I just saw his hands on the edge of the window-sill." +</P> + +<P> +"I think it's time to go home," I said grimly. +</P> + +<P> +"Darling, <I>not</I> till I've bought the copper coal-scuttle. Come and +look at it!" +</P> + +<P> +I followed her, uttering the impotent growls of a husband. As we +approached the drawing-room the music broke forth again, this time in +power. Three broad countrywomen, in black hooded cloaks and brown kid +gloves, were seated on a sofa; two deeply-engrossed backs at the piano +accounted for the music. There is no denying the fact that a piano +duet has some inescapable association with the schoolroom, no matter +how dashing the execution, how superior the performers. +</P> + +<P> +"Poor old 'Semiramide'!" whispered Philippa; "I played that overture +when I was twelve!" Over her shoulder I had a view of Andrew's sleek +black poll and brown neck, and an impression of fluffy hair, and a +slight and shapely back in a Norfolk jacket. +</P> + +<P> +"He seems to have done very well in the time," I said. "That's the +pretty one, isn't it?" +</P> + +<P> +I here became aware that the hall was filling with people, and that Mr. +Armstrong, the auctioneer, with his attendant swarm of buyers, was at +my elbow. +</P> + +<P> +"That's a sweet instrument," he said dispassionately, "and, I may say, +magnificently played. Come, ladies and gentlemen, we'll not interrupt +the concert. It might be as good for me to take the yard next, before +the rain comes." +</P> + +<P> +He led away his swarm, like a queen bee; "Semiramide" stormed on; some +people strayed into the room and began to examine the furniture. The +afternoon had grown overcast and threatening, and I noticed that a tall +man in dark clothes and a yachting cap had stationed himself near the +treble's right hand. He was standing between her and the light, rather +rudely, it seemed to me, but the players did not appear to notice. +</P> + +<P> +"That was rather a free and easy fellow," I said to Philippa, as we +were borne along to the back door by the tide of auction. +</P> + +<P> +"Who? Do you mean Mr. Armstrong?" said Philippa. "I'm rather fond of +him——" +</P> + +<P> +"No, the tall chap in the yachting cap." +</P> + +<P> +"I didn't notice him—" began Philippa, but at this moment we were shot +into the yard by pressure from behind. Mr. Armstrong took his stand on +a packing-case, the people hived in round him, and I saw my wife no +more. +</P> + +<P> +Coils of fencing wire and sheets of corrugated iron were proffered, and +left the audience cold; a faint interest was roused when the +auctioneer's clerk held up one of a party of zinc pails for inspection. +</P> + +<P> +"You'd count the stars through that one!" said a woman beside me. +</P> + +<P> +"You can buy it for a telescope, ma'am!" said Mr. Armstrong swiftly. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, well, hasn't he a very fine delivery!" said my neighbour, +regarding Mr. Armstrong as if he were a landscape. +</P> + +<P> +"Hannah," said the woman on my other hand, in a deep and reproachful +contralto, speaking as if I did not exist, "did ye let the kitchen +chairs go from you?" +</P> + +<P> +"There wasn't one o' them but had a leg astray," apologised +Hannah—"they got great hardship. When Harrington 'd have a drop taken +he'd throw them here and there." +</P> + +<P> +"Ladies! Ladies!" reproved Mr. Armstrong. "Is this an oxtion or is it +a conversassiony? John! show that ladder." +</P> + +<P> +"A big lot of use a forty-foot ladder'd be to the people round this +place!" said a superior young farmer in a new suit of clothes; "there +isn't a house here, unless it's my father's, would have any occasion +for it." +</P> + +<P> +Hannah dug me hard in the ribs with her elbow and put out her tongue. +</P> + +<P> +"Five shillings I am bid for a forty-foot ladder!" said Mr. Armstrong +to the Heavens; "I'd get a better price at a jumble sale!" +</P> + +<P> +"Look at the poker they have in it by the way of a rung!" continued the +young farmer. "I wouldn't be bothered buying things at oxtions; if it +was only gettin' marr'ed you were you'd like a new woman!" +</P> + +<P> +"Seven and six!" +</P> + +<P> +To my own astonishment I heard my voice saying this. +</P> + +<P> +"Seven and six I am bid," said the auctioneer, seizing me with his eye. +"Ten shillings may I say? Thank you, sir——" +</P> + +<P> +The clergyman had entered the lists against me. +</P> + +<P> +I advanced against him by half-crowns; the audience looked on as at a +battle of giants. At twenty-five shillings I knew that he was +weakening; at thirty shillings the ladder was mine. +</P> + +<P> +I backed out of the crowd with the victor's laurels on my brow, and, as +I did so, a speck of rain hit me in the eye. The sea was looking cold +and angry, and the horizon to windward was as thick as a hedge. It was +obviously time to go, and I proceeded in the direction of the car. +</P> + +<P> +As I left the yard a remarkable little animal, which for a single wild +instant I took for a fox or a badger, came running up the road. It was +reddish brown, with white cheeks and a white throat; it advanced +hesitatingly and circled round me with agitated and apologetic whimpers. +</P> + +<P> +"Minx!" I said incredulously. +</P> + +<P> +The fox or badger flung itself on its side and waved a forepaw at me. +</P> + +<P> +"It's hunting rabbits below on the cliffs she was," said a boy in a +white flannel jacket, who was sitting on the wall. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, there you are," said Philippa's voice behind me; "I wanted to +remind you to remember the aneroid. It's on the dining-room table. +I'm feeling rather unhappy about that child," she went on, "I can't +find him anywhere." +</P> + +<P> +"<I>I'll</I> go in and find him," I said, with a father's ferocity. +</P> + +<P> +"I hope he's there," said Philippa uncomfortably. "Good gracious! Is +that Minx?" +</P> + +<P> +I left the boy to explain, and made for the house, getting through the +crowd in the doorway by the use of tongue and elbows, and making my way +upstairs, strode hastily through the dark and repellent bedrooms of +"Harrington's." Anthony was not there. +</P> + +<P> +In the dining-room I heard Andrew's voice. I went in and found him +sitting at the dinner-table with two ladies, one of whom was holding +his hand and examining it attentively. +</P> + +<P> +She had pale eyelashes, and pale golden hair, very firmly and +repressively arranged; she was big and fresh and countrified looking, +and her eyes were water-green. She looked like an Icelander or a Finn, +but I recognised her as the second Chicken Farmer, Dr. Fraser. +</P> + +<P> +"I was looking for Anthony," I said, withholding with difficulty an +apology for intrusion. "We've got to get away, Andrew——" +</P> + +<P> +"I was having my fortune told," said Andrew, looking foolish. +</P> + +<P> +"I saw your little boy going across the field there, about half an hour +ago," said Dr. Fraser, looking up at me with eyes of immediate +understanding. "The white terrier was with him." +</P> + +<P> +"Towards the cliffs?" I said, feeling glad that Philippa was not there. +</P> + +<P> +"No, to the right—towards the tower." She went to the window. "There +was some one with him," she added quickly. "There he is now—that man +in a yachting cap, by the tower——" +</P> + +<P> +"I don't see anyone," I said, refixing my eye-glass. +</P> + +<P> +Miss Fraser continued to stare out of the window. "You're +short-sighted," she said, without looking at me. "Perhaps if the +window were open——" +</P> + +<P> +Before I could help her she had opened it, and the west wind rushed in, +with big drops in it. +</P> + +<P> +"I must be blind," I said, "I can see no one." +</P> + +<P> +"Nor can I—now," she said, drawing back from the window. +</P> + +<P> +She sat down at the table as if her knees had given way, and her strong +white hand fell slackly on Philippa's purchase, the old aneroid +barometer, and rested there. The other girl looked at her anxiously. +</P> + +<P> +"Hold up, Cathie!" she said, as one speaks to a horse when it stumbles. +</P> + +<P> +Her friend's eyes were fixed, and empty of expression, and the fresh +pervading pink of her face had paled. +</P> + +<P> +"Perhaps we had better go and look for that kid," said Andrew, getting +up, and I knew that he too was aware of something uncomfortable in the +atmosphere. Before we could get out of the room, Dr. "Cathie" spoke. +</P> + +<P> +"I see tram-lines," she said gropingly, "and water—I wonder if he's +asleep——" +</P> + +<P> +She sighed. Andrew and I, standing aghast, saw her colour begin to +return. +</P> + +<P> +Her friend's eye indicated to us the door. We closed it behind us, and +shoved our way through the hall. +</P> + +<P> +"I say!" said Andrew, as we got outside, "I thought she was going to +chuck a fit, or have hysterics, or something. Didn't you?" +</P> + +<P> +I did not answer. Cantillon, the sweep, was hurrying towards me with +tidings in his face. +</P> + +<P> +"Mrs. Yeates is after going to the cliff looking for the young +gentleman—but sure what I was saying——" +</P> + +<P> +I did not wait to hear what Cantillon's observations had been, because +I had caught sight of Philippa, away in a field near the edge of the +cliffs. She was running, and the boy with the white flannel jacket was +in front of her. It seemed ridiculous to hurry, when I knew that +Anthony had been accompanied by a large man in a yachting cap (in +itself a guarantee of competency). +</P> + +<P> +None the less, I ran, with the wind and the heavy raindrops in my face, +across country, not round by the road, and ran the faster for seeing my +wife and her companion sinking out of sight over the edge of the cliff, +as by an oblique path. My way took me past the tower; there was a +little plateau there, with a drooping wire fence round it, and I had a +glimpse of the square black mouth of the disused shaft. +</P> + +<P> +"Near the tower," the girl had said; but she had also said there was a +man with him. +</P> + +<P> +I ran on, but fear had sprung out of the shaft and came with me. +</P> + +<P> +A hard-trodden path led from the tower to the cliff; it fell steeper +and steeper, till, at a hairpin turn, it became rocky steps, slanting +in sharp-cut zigzags down the face of the cliff. On the right hand the +rocks leaned out above my head, yellow and grey and dripping, and +tufted with sea pinks; on the left there was nothing except the wind. +A couple of hundred feet below the sea growled and bellowed, plunging +among broken rocks. I did not give room to the thought of Anthony's +light body, tossed about there. +</P> + +<P> +At a corner far below I had a glimpse of Philippa and the boy in the +white jacket; he was leading her down—holding her hand—my poor +Philippa, whose nightmare is height, who has <I>vertige</I> on a +step-ladder. She must have had a sure word that Anthony had gone down +this dizzy path before her. A mass of rock rose up between us, and +they were gone, and in that gusty and treacherous wind it was +impossible to make better speed. +</P> + +<P> +The damnable iteration of the steps continued till my knees shook and +my brain was half numb. They ceased at last at the mouth of a tunnel, +half-way down the vertical face of the cliff; there was a platform +outside it, over the edge of which two rusty rails projected into space +above a narrow cove, where yellow foam, far below, churned and blew +upwards in heavy flakes. Philippa and her guide had vanished. I felt +for my match-box, and plunged into the dark and dripping tunnel. +</P> + +<P> +I pushed ahead, at such speed as is possible for a six-foot man in a +five-foot passage, splashing in the stream that gurgled between the +tram-rails, and stumbling over the sleepers. Soon the last touches of +daylight glinted in the water, they died, and it was pitch dark. I +struck a match, sheltering it with my cap from the drips of the roof, +and shouted, and stood still, listening. There was no sound, except +the muffled roar of the sea outside; the match kindled broad sparkles +of copper ore in the rock, but other response there was none. +</P> + +<P> +Match by match I got ahead, shouting at intervals, stooping, groping, +clutching at the greasy baulks of timber that supported the roof and +sides, till a cold draught blew out my match. My next revealed a +cross-gallery, with a broken truck blocking one entrance. There +remained two ways to choose between. It was certain that the +tram-rails must lead to the shaft, but which way had Philippa gone? +And Anthony—I stood in maddening blackness; some darkness is a +negative thing, this seemed an active, malevolent pressure. I counted +my matches, and shouted, and still my voice came back to me, baffled, +and without a hope in it. There were not half a dozen matches left. +</P> + +<P> +A faint, paddling sound became audible above the drippings from the +roof; I struck another of my matches, and something low and brown came +panting into the circle of light. It was Minx, coming to me along the +gallery of the tram-rails. She paused just short of the cross-ways, +staring as though I were a stranger, and again a circling wind blew out +my match. A fresh light showed her, still motionless; her back was up, +not in the ordinary ridge, but in patches here and there; she was +looking at something behind me; she made her mouth as round as a +shilling, held up her white throat, and howled, thinly and carefully, +as if she were keening. I cannot deny that I stiffened as I stood, and +that second being that inhabits us, the being that is awake when we are +asleep (and is always afraid), took charge for a moment; the other +partner, who is, I try to think, my real self, pulled himself together +with a certain amount of bad language, thrust Minx aside, and went +ahead along the gallery of the tram-lines. +</P> + +<P> +It needed only a dozen steps, and what Minx had or had not seen became +a negligible matter. A white light, that turned the flame of my match +to orange, began to irradiate the tunnel like moonrise, defining +theatrically the profiles of rock, and the sagging props and beams. It +came from an electric lamp, Anthony's electric lamp, standing on a heap +of shale. The boy in the flannel jacket was holding a lighted +candle-end in his fingers, and bending low over Philippa, who was +kneeling between the tram-lines in the muddy water, holding Anthony in +her arms. He was motionless and limp, and I felt that sickening drop +of the heart that comes when the thing that seems too bad to think of +becomes in an instant the thing that is. +</P> + +<P> +"Tram-lines and water—" said a level voice in my brain. "I wonder if +he is asleep——" +</P> + +<P> +I wondered too. +</P> + +<P> +Philippa looked up, with eyes that accepted me without comment. +</P> + +<P> +"Only stunned, I think," she said hoarsely. "He opened his eyes an +instant ago." +</P> + +<P> +"The timber fell on him," said the country boy. "Look where he have +the old prop knocked. 'Twas little but he was dead." +</P> + +<P> +Anthony stirred uneasily. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, mother, you're holding me too tight!" he said fractiously. +</P> + +<P> +From somewhere ahead vague noises came, rumblings, scrapings, hangings +like falling stones— +</P> + +<P> +"It must be they're putting a ladder down in the shaft," said the boy. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +Anthony had broken his collar-bone. So Dr. Fraser said; she tied him +up with her knitted scarf by the light of the electric torch; I carried +him up the ladder, and have an ineffaceable memory of the lavender +glare of daylight that met us, and of the welcome that was in the +everyday rain and the wet grass. In the relief of the upper air I even +bore with serenity the didactics of Andrew, who assured me that he had +seen from the first that the shaft was the centre of the position, +though he had never been in the slightest degree uneasy, because Dr. +Fraser had seen some one with Anthony. +</P> + +<P> +Dr. Fraser said nothing; no more did I. +</P> + +<P> +"See now," said Cantillon the sweep, who, in common with the rest of +the auction, was standing round the car to view our departure, "it +pinched me like death when they told me the Major had that laddher +bought!" +</P> + +<P> +Being at the time sufficiently occupied in preparing to get away, I did +not enquire why Cantillon should have taken the matter so much to heart. +</P> + +<P> +"But after all," he proceeded, having secured the attention of his +audience by an effective opening, "wasn't it the mercy of God them +chaps Mr. Knox has at the kennels had it lent to the Mahonys, and them +that's here took it from the Mahonys in a hurry the time Mr. Harrington +died! And through all it was the Major's ladder." +</P> + +<P> +Andrew had the ill-breeding to laugh. +</P> + +<P> +"Sure it'd be no blame for a gentleman not to know the like of it," +said Cantillon with severity. "Faith, I mightn't know it meself only +for the old poker I stuck in it one time at Mr. Knox's when a rung +broke under me——" +</P> + +<P> +It is a valuable property of the motor-car that it can, at a moment's +notice, fill an inconvenient interval with loud noises. I set the +engine going and jumped into the car. +</P> + +<P> +Something, covered by a rug, cracked and squashed under my foot. It +was the aneroid. +</P> + +<P> +When we reached a point in the road where it skirts the cliff I stopped +the car, and flung the aneroid, like a quoit, over the edge, through +the wind and the rain, into oblivion. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap05"></A> + +<P CLASS="t3b"> +V +</P> + +<P CLASS="t4b"> +THE MAROAN PONY +</P> + +<P> +It had taken ten minutes to work the car over the bridge at Poundlick, +so intricate was the crowd of people and carts, so blind and deaf to +any concerns save their own; a crowd that offered sometimes the +resistance of the feather bed, sometimes that of the dead wall, an +intractable mass, competent to reduce the traffic of Piccadilly to +chaos, and the august Piccadilly police to the point of rushing to the +nearest lunatic asylum, and saying, "Let us in! We are mad!" +</P> + +<P> +The town of Poundlick is built at so accommodating a tilt that it is +possible to stand on the bridge at its foot, and observe the life of +its single street displayed like a poster on the hillside; even to +compare the degrees of custom enjoyed by its public-houses, and to +estimate the number of cur dogs to the square yard of pavement. I +speak of an ordinary day. But this hot twentieth of September was far +from being ordinary. +</P> + +<P> +The Poundlick Races are, I believe, an ancient and annual function, +but, being fifteen miles from anywhere, I had hitherto been content to +gauge their attractions by their aftermath of cases in the Petty +Sessions Court next following the fixture. There is, however, no +creature more the sport of circumstances than a married man with a +recent motor; my attendance, and that of the car, at the Poundlick +Races had been arranged to the last sandwich before I had time to +collect objections (and this method, after all, saves some wear and +tear). +</P> + +<P> +The races are held on the banks of the Arrigadheel River, within hail +of the town, and are reached—as everything in Ireland is reached—by a +short cut. We—that is to say, my wife, her cousin, Captain Andrew +Larpent, R.E., and I—were gathered into the jovial crowd that +straggled, and hustled, and discoursed over the marshy meadows of the +river, and ploughed through the brown mud in the gaps without a check +in pace or conversation. The Committee had indeed "knocked" walls, and +breached banks, but had not further interfered with the course of +nature, and we filed at length on to the course across a tributary of +the river, paying a penny each for the facilities offered by a narrow +and bounding plank and the muddy elbow of a young man who stood in +mid-stream; an amenity accepted with suitable yells by the ladies (of +whom at least ninety per cent. remarked "O God!" in transit). +</P> + +<P> +The fact that there are but four sound and level fields within a +ten-mile radius of Poundlick had simplified the labours of the +Committee in the selection of a course. Rocky hills rose steeply on +two sides of the favoured spot, the Arrigadheel laid down the law as to +its boundaries, and within these limitations an oval course had been +laid out by the simple expedient of breaking gaps in the banks. The +single jump-race on the programme was arranged for by filling the gaps +with bundles of furze, and there was also a water-jump, more or less +forced upon the Committee by the intervention of a ditch pertaining to +one of the fences. A section of the ditch had been widened and dammed, +and the shallow trough of pea-soup that resulted had been raised from +the rank of a puddle by a thin decoration of cut furze-bushes. +</P> + +<P> +The races had not begun, but many horses were galloping about and over +the course, whether engaged in unofficial competitions or in adding a +final bloom to their training, I am unable to say. We wandered +deviously among groups of country people, anchored in conversation, or +moving, still in conversation, as irresistibly as a bog-slide. Whether +we barged into them, or they into us, was a matter of as complete +indifference to them as it would have been to a drove of their own bony +cattle. +</P> + +<P> +"These are the sort of people I love," said Philippa, her eyes ranging +over the tented field and its throngs, and its little red and green +flags flapping in the sunshine. "Real Primitives, like a chorus in +<I>Acis and Galatea</I>!" +</P> + +<P> +She straightened her hat with a gasp, as a couple of weighty female +primitives went through us and passed on. (In all circumstances and +fashions, my wife wears a large hat, and thereby adds enormously to the +difficulties of life.) Among the stalls of apples and biscuits, and +adjacent to the drink tent, a roulette table occurred, at which the +public were invited to stake on various items of the arms of the United +Kingdom. The public had accepted the invitation in considerable +numbers, and I did not fail to point out to Philippa the sophisticated +ease with which Acis flung his penny upon "Harp," while Galatea, +planking twopence upon the Prince of Wales' plumes, declared that the +last races she was at she got the price of her ticket on "Feather." +</P> + +<P> +We passed on, awaking elusive hopes in the bosoms of two neglected +bookmakers, who had at intervals bellowed listlessly to the elements, +and now eagerly offered me Rambling Katty at two to one. +</P> + +<P> +"Boys, hurry! There's a man dead, north!" shrieked a boy, leaping from +the top of a bank. "Come north till we see him!" +</P> + +<P> +A rush of boys went over us; the roulette table was deserted in a +flash, and its proprietor and the bookmakers exchanged glances +expressive of the despicable frivolity of the rustics of Poundlick. +</P> + +<P> +"We ought to try to find Dr. Fraser," said Philippa, hurrying in the +wake of the stampede. +</P> + +<P> +"I did not know that the Chicken Farmers were to be among the +attractions," I said to Andrew, realising, not for the first time, that +I am but an infant crying in the night where matters of the higher +diplomacy are toward. +</P> + +<P> +Andrew made no reply, as is the simple method of some men when they do +not propose to give themselves away, and we proceeded in the direction +of the catastrophe. +</P> + +<P> +The dead man was even less dead than I had expected. He was leaning +against a fence, explaining to Dr. Catherine Fraser that he felt all +the noise of all the wars of all the worlds within in his head. +</P> + +<P> +Dr. Fraser, who was holding his wrist, while her friend, Miss Longmuir, +kept the small boys at bay, replied that she would like a more precise +description. The sufferer, whose colour was returning, varied the +metaphor, and said that the sound was for all the world like the +quacking of ducks. +</P> + +<P> +"You'd better go home and keep quiet," said Dr. Fraser, accepting the +symptom with professional gravity. +</P> + +<P> +I asked my next door neighbour how the accident had occurred. +</P> + +<P> +"Danny Lyons here was practising this young mare of Herlihy's for Lyney +Garrett, that's to ride her in the first race," said my neighbour, a +serious man with bushy black whiskers, like an old-fashioned French +waiter, "and sure she's as loose as a hare, and when she saw the flag +before her on the fence, she went into the sky, and Danny dhruv in the +spur to keep the balance, and with that then the sterrup broke." +</P> + +<P> +"It's little blagyarding she'd have if it was Lyney was riding her!" +said some one else. +</P> + +<P> +"Ah, Lyney's a tough dog," said my neighbour; "in the Ring of Ireland +there isn't a nicer rider." +</P> + +<A NAME="img-111"></A> +<CENTER> +<IMG CLASS="imgcenter" SRC="images/img-111.jpg" ALT=""Lyney's a tough dog!"" BORDER="2"> +<H4 CLASS="h4center"> +"Lyney's a tough dog!" +</H4> +</CENTER> + +<P> +"There might be men as good as him in Poundlick!" said an ugly little +black-muzzled fellow, suddenly and offensively, "and horses too! As +good as any <I>he'll</I> throw his leg over!" +</P> + +<P> +Dr. Fraser's patient stood up abruptly. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, oh, oh!" said the man with the bushy whiskers, placing himself in +front of the invalid. "Let you be said by the lady, Danny, and go +home! Have behaviour now, Peter Lynch!" +</P> + +<P> +The matter hung for a moment; a bell began to ring in the middle of the +course, and the onlookers flung the situation from them like a squeezed +lemon, and swept <I>en masse</I> towards the summons, bearing with them the +invalid. +</P> + +<P> +"Off the stage I have never seen people clear out so fast," remarked +Andrew. "Now that we've seen Dr. Fraser's Lightning Cure, I suppose we +may as well go too." +</P> + +<P> +His eyes, by a singular coincidence, met those of Miss Longmuir, which +were very pretty eyes, dark and soft. +</P> + +<P> +"I must go and hunt up our pony," she said, with a very businesslike +air; "we've entered her for the third race, you know." +</P> + +<P> +She put back her hair as it blew across her forehead, and the gold in +it glinted in the sun. +</P> + +<P> +"How sporting of you!" we heard Andrew say, as they walked away +together. +</P> + +<P> +My wife and Dr. Fraser and I turned as one man, and went in the +opposite direction. +</P> + +<P> +We steered for an island of furze and grey boulders that had been flung +into the valley like a vedette from the fortified hill-side, and was +placed, considerately, at the apex of the oval course. Half a dozen +men were already grouped upon the boulders, like cormorants. We +clambered to a higher <I>étage</I>, and there spread forth ourselves and our +belongings upon the warm slabs. The sun was hot, yet not too hot, the +smell of trodden turf was pleasant in the air, the river sparkled and +gurgled beside us; the chimneys of Poundlick sent up languid spires of +blue smoke; its yellow and pink and white houses became poetic in the +September haze. The first delicate pangs of hunger were stealing upon +us, and I felt reasonably certain that nothing necessary to our welfare +had been forgotten. I lit a cigarette and pulled my cap over my eyes, +and listened to a lark, spiring, like the smoke, into the blue, while +my wife clattered in the luncheon basket. It was a moment of entire +well-being, overshadowed only by the prospect of having to take an +interest in the racing. +</P> + +<P> +I said as much to Dr. Fraser, who was dismembering a cold chicken with +almost awful surgical dexterity. +</P> + +<P> +"You must wake up for our race," she said. "I'll call you in time." +</P> + +<P> +"Must I? I hope you're going to ride." +</P> + +<P> +"Heaven forfend!" replied Dr. Fraser. "Nothing more spirited than a +weight-carrying bicycle! I'm not in the least horsey. Meg was dying +to ride, but as we bought the pony from the great Lyney, and he had won +any number of races on her, he was distinctly indicated." +</P> + +<P> +"Quite right too," I said, with dowager-like propriety. "And I should +wish it to be clearly understood that if, at the last moment, your +friend Mr. Lyney should be too drunk to ride, I will not take his +place." +</P> + +<P> +"He doesn't drink," said Dr. Fraser, who has an unsympathetic way of +keeping to the point. "He's been a great friend of mine ever since I +mended a broken finger for him." +</P> + +<P> +There was a stir among the cormorants on the lower tier of boulders, a +shot was fired at the far end of the course, every one began to shout, +and an irregularly shaped mass was detached from the crowd, and +resolved itself into a group of seven horses, pounding towards us at a +lumbering canter. One of the riders had a green jacket, the others +were in shirt sleeves, with coloured scarves over their shoulders; all +were bareheaded. As they neared the first jump, I found myself on my +feet on my boulder, with two unknown men hanging on to me to steady +themselves. +</P> + +<P> +"That's no throuble to them!" shouted one of my <I>attachés</I>, as each +horse in turn galloped over or through the barrier of furze in the gap. +</P> + +<P> +"Which is Lyney Garrett?" I asked. +</P> + +<P> +"That's him on the chestnut mare—the jock that have the dhress on +him." He pointed to the wearer of the green jacket. +</P> + +<P> +"Ah ha! Lyney's the boy! Look at him now, how he'll stoop and leave +the horse to go for herself! He'll easy the horse, and he'll easy +himself!" +</P> + +<P> +"That Rambling Katty he's riding's a nice loose mare—she has a good +fly in her," said another. +</P> + +<P> +"Lyney's built for it. If there's any sort of a spring in a horse at +all, he'll make him do it." +</P> + +<P> +"He'd make a donkey plough!" flung in another enthusiast. +</P> + +<P> +As they neared the flags at the turn of the oval—and an uncommonly +sharp turn it was—the pace improved, each man trying to get the inside +station; I could already see, written on the countenance of a large +young grey horse, his determination to pursue an undeviating course of +his own. +</P> + +<P> +"Now, Lyney! Spare him in the angle!" shouted my neighbour, hanging on +to my sleeve and rocking perilously. +</P> + +<P> +Lyney, a square-shouldered young man, pale and long-jawed, bored +determinedly on to the first flag, hit it with his right knee, wrenched +Rambling Katty round the second flag, and got away for the water-jump +three lengths ahead of anyone else. +</P> + +<P> +"Look at that for ye—how he goes round the corner on one leg!" roared +his supporter. "He'd not stop for the Lord Leftenant!" +</P> + +<P> +The remaining riders fought their way round the flags, with strange +tangents and interlacing curves; all, that is to say, save the grey +horse, who held on unswervingly and made straight for the river. The +spectators, seated on the low bank at its edge, left their seats with +singular unanimity. The majority fled, a little boy turned a +somersault backwards into the water, but three or four hardier spirits +tore off their coats, swung them like flails in front of the grey, and +threw their caps in his face, with a wealth of objurgation that I have +rarely heard equalled. +</P> + +<P> +"The speed was in him and he couldn't turn," explained one of my +neighbours, at the top of his voice, as the grey, yielding to public +opinion, returned to the course and resumed the race. +</P> + +<P> +"That horse is no good," said a dapper young priest, who had joined our +crowd on the rock. "Look at his great flat feet! You'd bake a cake on +each of them!" +</P> + +<P> +"Well, that's the case indeed, Father," replied a grizzled old farmer, +"but he's a fine cool horse, and a great farming horse for ever. Be +gance! He'd plough the rocks!" +</P> + +<P> +"Well, he'll get a nice view of the race, anyway," said the young +priest, "he has it all before him." +</P> + +<P> +"They don't seem to be getting any delay with the water-jump," said +some one else regretfully. +</P> + +<P> +"Ah, what's in it but the full of a few tin cans!" said my adherent. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, for all, it knocked a good lep out o' Rambling Katty: she went +mountains over it!" +</P> + +<P> +"Look south! Look south! They're coming on again, and only five o' +them in it——" +</P> + +<P> +The cheering was hotter this time, and it was entirely characteristic +that it was the riders who were shouted for and not the horses. +</P> + +<P> +"They'll win now this turn—there's three o' them very thick, that's a +nice tidy race," said the old farmer. +</P> + +<P> +"Good boy, Kenny! Go on, Kenny!" bellowed some one on a lower ledge. +</P> + +<P> +"Who's second, coming up to the flag now?" panted Philippa, who was +hanging on to the collar of my coat and trying to see over my shoulder. +</P> + +<P> +"That's Jimmy Kenny," responded the man below, turning a black-muzzled +face up towards us, his light eyes gleaming between their black lashes +in the sunshine, like aquamarines. I recognised Peter Lynch, whom we +had met earlier in the day. +</P> + +<P> +"It's young Kenny out of the shop," explained the old farmer to me; "he +rides very nate." +</P> + +<P> +No one was found to endorse his opinion. The horses came on, sweating +and blowing, the riders, by this time very red in the face, already +taking to their whips. By some intricate process of jostling, young +Kenny got the inside place at the first flag. +</P> + +<P> +"Now is he nate! What was I saying!" exulted the old farmer. +</P> + +<P> +"Lyney! Lyney!" roared the faithful gallery, as the leaders hustled +round the second flag and went away up the course. +</P> + +<P> +"Up, Kenny!" replied the raucous tenor of Peter Lynch in solitary +defiance. +</P> + +<P> +Last of all, the grey horse, who would plough the rocks, came on +indomitably, and made, as before, a bee-line for the river. Here, +however, he was confronted by a demonstration hurriedly arranged by his +friends, who advanced upon him waving tall furze-bushes, with which +they beat him in the face. The grey horse changed his mind with such +celerity that he burst his girths; some one caught him by the head, +while his rider hung precariously upon his neck; some one else dragged +off the saddle, replanted his jockey upon his broad bare back, and +speeded him on his way by bringing the saddle down upon his +hind-quarters with an all-embracing thump. +</P> + +<P> +"It's only the age he wants," said a partisan. "If they'd keep him up +to the practice, he'd be a sweeper yet!" +</P> + +<P> +Tumult at the end of the course, and a pistol-shot, here announced that +the race was over. +</P> + +<P> +"Lyney have it!" shouted some men, standing on the fence by the +water-jump. +</P> + +<P> +"What happened Kenny?" bawled Peter Lynch. +</P> + +<P> +"He was passing the flag and he got clung in the pole, and the next man +knocked him down out of the pole!" shouted back the Field Telegraph. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh pity!" said the old farmer. +</P> + +<P> +"He didn't get fair play!" vociferated Peter Lynch, glowering up at the +adherents of Lyney with a very green light in his eye. +</P> + +<P> +The young priest made a slight and repressive gesture with his hand. +"That'll do now, Peter," he said, and turned to the old farmer. "Well, +Rambling Katty's a hardy bit of stuff," he went on, brushing the +rock-lichen from his black coat. +</P> + +<P> +"She is that, Father," responded my late adherent, who, to my +considerable relief, had now ceased to adhere. "And nothing in her but +a fistful of bran!" +</P> + +<P> +"She's the dryest horse that came in," said the young priest, +descending actively from the rock. +</P> + +<P> +With the knowledge that the Committee would allow an hour at least for +the effects of a race to pass off before launching another, we climbed +to the summit of the island, and began upon the luncheon basket; and, +as vultures drop from the blue empyrean, so did Andrew and Miss +Longmuir arrive from nowhere and settle upon the sandwiches. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, I can't eat our own game, can I?" said the latter, with a slight +shudder, as I placed the chicken before her. "No—really—not even for +your sake!" She regarded me very pleasingly, but I notice that it is +only since my hair began to turn grey over my ears that these things +are openly said to me. "I had to feed four dozen of the brutes before +we started this morning, and I shall have to do it all over again when +we get home!" +</P> + +<P> +"I don't know how you stand it, I should let 'em starve," said Andrew, +his eyes travelling from her white forehead to her brown hands. "<I>I</I> +don't consider it is work for ladies." +</P> + +<P> +"You can come and help the ladies if you like," said Miss Longmuir, +glancing at him as she drove her white teeth into a sandwich. +</P> + +<P> +"Do you mean that?" said Andrew in a low voice. +</P> + +<P> +"She's blown him to pieces before he's left the covert," I said to +myself, and immediately withdrew into blameless conversation with my +wife and Dr. Fraser. +</P> + +<P> +We had gone pretty well down through the luncheon basket, and had +arrived at a second and even more balmy—being well-fed—period of +peace, before it occurred to Miss Longmuir to look at her watch, and to +spoil the best cigarette of the day with agitations concerning the +non-appearance of her pony. I suggested that she and Captain Larpent +should go in search of it, and for a brief interval the disturbing +element was eliminated. It returned, with added agitation, in a +quarter of an hour. +</P> + +<P> +"Cathie! I can't find Nancy anywhere! We've been all round the +course," cried Miss Longmuir from below. "And John Sullivan is nowhere +to be found either, and I can't get near Lyney, he's riding in the +Trotting Race." +</P> + +<P> +"You'll find the pony is somewhere about all right," I said, with the +optimism of combined indolence and indifference. +</P> + +<P> +"That seems probable," said Andrew, "but the point is, she's somewhere +where we're not." +</P> + +<P> +"The point is, she ought to be here," said Miss Longmuir, with a very +bright colour in her cheeks as she looked up at us. +</P> + +<P> +"Heavens! They're very angry!" I murmured to Dr. Fraser. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, what do you want us to do?" enquired Dr. Fraser lethargically. +</P> + +<P> +"You might take some faint shadow of interest in the fact that Nancy is +lost," replied Miss Longmuir. +</P> + +<P> +"I think we'd better organise a search-party," said Philippa (who does +not smoke). +</P> + +<P> +We rose stiffly, descended from our sun-warmed boulders, and took up +the White Man's Burden. +</P> + +<P> +A sweeping movement was inaugurated, whose objects were to find the +pony or her attendant, John Sullivan, or Lyney. +</P> + +<P> +"Should you know the pony if you saw her?" I said confidentially to Dr. +Fraser, as she and I set forth together. +</P> + +<P> +"We've not had it very long," she replied dubiously. "Luckily it's an +easy colour. John Sullivan calls it maroan—a sort of mixture of roan +and maroon." +</P> + +<P> +We advanced from field to field, driving like twin darning-needles +through the groups of people, but neither John Sullivan nor the maroan +pony transpired. +</P> + +<P> +"Come on, come on! The Stepping Match is starting!" shouted some one. +</P> + +<P> +Dr. Fraser and I were caught in the tightening mesh of the crowd, as in +the intricacies of a trammel net; an irregular thumping of hoofs, and a +row of bare and bobbing heads, passing above the heads of the crowd, +indicated that the Stepping Match was under way. Lyney's dour face and +green jacket were in the lead, and, as before, had he been Diana of the +Ephesians, he could not have been more passionately called upon. As it +was obviously useless for us to do so at this juncture, we climbed on +to a bank near the winning post, and watched the race. Lyney was +riding a long-backed yellow animal with a face as cross as his own, and +a step as fast as the tick of a watch. +</P> + +<P> +"Anny other man than Lyney wouldn't carry that old pony round," said +one man. +</P> + +<P> +"She has a score o' years surely, but she's as wicked as a bee," said +another. +</P> + +<P> +"Lyney's very knacky; he couldn't be bate," said the first man. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, well, look at Jimmy Kenny and his father, and the two o' them +riding!" went on the commentator. "Faith, I'd give the father the +sway. Jimmy's riding uneven. When the nag is rising, he's falling." +</P> + +<P> +"Sure he has his two elbows into his ears! Go on, Lyney boy!" +</P> + +<P> +The horses pounded past, splashing through the shallow flood of the +water-jump, and trampling over such furze-bushes as had withstood the +vicissitudes of the steeplechase. They passed from our view, and Dr. +Fraser and I agreed that we should be justified in staying where we +were till the finish. Three times they passed us, enveloped in a +travelling roar of encouragements, and with each passing the supporters +of Lyney and Kenny bayed and howled more emulously. The competitors, +now, to all practical intent, reduced to the Kennys, <I>père et fils</I>, +and Lyney, again disappeared on their last round, and the volleys of +incitement became a dropping fire of criticism. +</P> + +<P> +"Kenny's mare is the one, the others is too crippled." +</P> + +<P> +"She'll not bate Lyney! Divil blast the bate she have in her! she's +too dropped and too narra!" +</P> + +<P> +"What horse is first?" +</P> + +<P> +"I d'know; only one, I think." +</P> + +<P> +"Look at young Kenny coming up on the father now!" +</P> + +<P> +"Ah, there's more in the owld fella, never fear him!" +</P> + +<P> +"Come on, Lyney! Come on, Kenny! Lyney! Lyney!" +</P> + +<P> +Lyney won. The bee-like wickedness of the yellow mare apparently +served her as well as youth, and despite the fact that she was but +little over fourteen hands and was carrying twelve stone, she finished +a dozen lengths in front. The interest of the race was at once +transferred to the struggle for second place between the Kennys. +</P> + +<P> +"Come on, Tom! Come on, Jimmy! Begor' the father have it!" yelled the +crowd, as Kenny <I>père</I>, flourishing his whip over his grey head, +finished half a length in front of his son. +</P> + +<P> +"Them two tight wheels at the corner, 'twas there he squeezed the +advantage on the son." +</P> + +<P> +"No, but the father had a drop taken, 'twas that that gave him the +heart." +</P> + +<P> +Dr. Fraser and I got off our fence and steered for Lyney. +</P> + +<P> +He was in the act of throwing the reins on the pony's neck and himself +off her back as we arrived. +</P> + +<P> +"Here!" he said to the owner, "take your old skin!"—he tossed his whip +on to the ground—"and your old whip too!" +</P> + +<P> +The owner took the "old skin" by her drooping and dripping head, and +picked up the whip, in reverential submission, and the ring of admirers +evidently accepted this mood of the hero as entirely befitting his +dignity. +</P> + +<P> +Dr. Fraser advanced through them with the effortless impressiveness of +a big woman, and made her enquiries about the pony. Lyney dropped the +hero manner. +</P> + +<P> +"I don't at all doubt but John Sullivan's gone up to Lynch's for her, +Doctor; you needn't be uneasy at all," he said, with a respect that +must have greatly enhanced our position in the eyes of the crowd. "I +told him he shouldn't bring her too soon for fear she'd sour on us. We +have an hour yet." +</P> + +<P> +Soothed by this assurance we moved on, and even, in this moment of +unexpected leisure, dallied with the roulette table. I had, in fact, +lost ninepence, when the remainder of the search-party bore down upon +us at speed. +</P> + +<P> +"The pony is <I>not</I> here!" said Miss Longmuir, regarding our outspread +coppers with an eye of burning indignation, "and Sullivan's brother +doesn't know where he is—says he went up to the town two hours ago. +I'm going up to look for him, but of course if you'd rather stay and +play roulette—" Her voice shook. I need hardly say that we went. +</P> + +<P> +On our arrival at the town of Poundlick we found it to be exclusively +inhabited by grandmothers. Lynch's public-house was garrisoned by a +very competent member of the force, who emerged from the kitchen with +an infant in her arms, and another attached to her clothing. She knew +nothing of the pony, she knew nothing of John Sullivan. There was +certainly a young lad that came in, and he having drink taken, and +wherever he got it, it wasn't in this house, and what did he do but to +commence jumping the counter, you'd think he'd jump the house. She +paused, and I murmured to Dr. Fraser that she was like a Holbein, and +Dr. Fraser replied that she did not believe one word she said, which +was rather my own idea, only more so. It appeared that her son Peter +had, an hour ago, expelled the young lad from the house (lest its fair +fame should be sullied), and as for Peter, the dear knew where he was, +she didn't see him since. +</P> + +<P> +Miss Longmuir and Andrew here left the shop, very purposefully; we +pursued, and saw them open the gate of Lynch's yard and stride in. The +yard was a small one, littered with cases of bottles, and congested by +the outside cars and carts of race-goers; such level spaces as it +possessed had been dug out of the side of the hill, and slatternly +stables and outhouses were perched on the different levels. Through a +low-browed doorway might be seen the horses of race-goers, standing +"ready dight," like the steeds of Branksome Hall, with heads hanging, +in resigned depression, before empty ranks and mangers. But of the +maroan pony there was no sign. +</P> + +<P> +Fierce as terriers on a rat-hunt, Miss Longmuir and Andrew dashed in +and out of the dark sheds and outhouses, till there remained unexplored +but one hovel, whose open door revealed only semi-darkness, edged with +fern-litter. None the less, the leading terrier determined to make +good the ground. A sharp yelp told of a find, and Miss Longmuir +emerged, holding aloft a new check horse-sheet, with the initials +"M.L." large upon it. +</P> + +<P> +"They must have taken her down to the race-course, after all—" I began. +</P> + +<P> +"Thoughtless of them to take her without her saddle or bridle," said +Andrew bitingly. "Here they are behind the door!" +</P> + +<P> +The silence that followed this discovery was broken by Philippa. +</P> + +<P> +"I hear some one snoring!" she said in a conspirator's whisper. "Do +come away. I'm sure it's a drunken man." +</P> + +<P> +"Quite so," said Andrew, who had been pursuing his researches. "Allow +me to introduce Mr. John Sullivan." +</P> + +<P> +In the dark corner behind the door lay a stout youth, comfortably +extended, with his flushed face half hidden in the dry and tawny +bracken, and his open mouth framing long and quiet snores. He was +obviously at peace with all the world. +</P> + +<P> +Some heartless assaults on the part of Captain Larpent had no +appreciable result, so inveterate was the peace, so potent the means by +which it had been invoked. The ladies had retired during the +interview, and, as we rejoined them in the yard, we all became aware of +muffled and thunderous sounds near at hand; they were suggestive of a +ponderous and chaotic clog-dance, and proceeded from an outhouse, built +against the bank that formed the upper side of the yard, with its gable +askew to the other buildings. +</P> + +<P> +"'Lots of things is coor'us,' as Anthony said when I told him about +Jonah and the Whale," remarked Philippa, who, throughout, had not taken +the affair as seriously as it deserved. "I suppose the party that John +Sullivan was at is going on up there." +</P> + +<P> +Miss Longmuir darted round the gable of the house, a wild and summoning +cry followed, the call of the terrier who has run his rat to ground. +</P> + +<P> +We found her at the foot of a low flight of irregular stone steps (in +telling the story I have formed the habit of saying that there were ten +of them) that led to a doorway in a loft. In the doorway, with a +cabbage leaf in her mouth, was the maroan pony, looking down at us with +an expression of mild surprise. +</P> + +<P> +We all said unanimously, and with equal futility, "How—on—earth——?" +</P> + +<P> +After which Andrew, who dislikes miracles, arranged that she had, of +course, got into the loft from the back, where the ground was high. +Unfortunately the theory did not work, an inspection of the loft +revealing nothing but four walls, a large store of dried bracken, and a +donkey-panier filled with cabbages. +</P> + +<P> +"These mountainy ponies climb like monkeys," said Philippa, with her +inevitable effort to shelter the discomfited, as Andrew returned with +the ruins of his theory, "she must have walked up the steps!" +</P> + +<P> +Miss Longmuir, snatching out her watch, said she didn't care how the +pony got there, the point was to get her down as quickly as possible. +"If people would only do something and not talk!" she added, under her +breath. +</P> + +<P> +"If she walked up she can walk down," said Andrew firmly. +</P> + +<P> +He mounted the steps and took the pony by the halter. The pony +immediately backed thunderously out of sight, taking Andrew with her. +Miss Longmuir flew up the steps to his assistance, and unseen sarabands +pummelled the floor of the loft. +</P> + +<P> +"Go up and help them, you great lazy thing!" said Philippa to me. +</P> + +<P> +"There's no room for any one else," I protested. +</P> + +<P> +Here the combatants reappeared in the doorway, gradually, with +endearments on one side, and suspicious snortings on the other. The +steps were broad and not too intimidating; the pony advanced almost to +the sill, repented in haste, and in her retreat flung Andrew against +the panier of cabbages. A donkey's panier is made to resist shocks; in +this case it apparently gave more than it took; Andrew said nothing, +but he dragged the basket over the sill and hurled it down the steps +with considerable emotion. I joined the party in the loft, and +Philippa collected the cabbages, and laid them in rows upon the steps +as if it were a harvest festival, in the hope of luring the pony to the +descent. The lure was rejected with indignation, and I proceeded to +offer a few plain truths. That the floor would come down before the +mare did. That it would take six men, and planks, and cartloads of +straw, to get her out. Finally, that her race was due to start in +twenty minutes. +</P> + +<P> +"We're done," said Miss Longmuir tragically, addressing Philippa and +Dr. Fraser from the top of the steps, as if they were a stage mob. +"These brutes have beaten us! Don't you remember that Lyney's father +said, 'Let ye keep out from them lads in Poundlick'? And after all our +trouble, and the training, and everything—" She turned abruptly away +from the door. +</P> + +<P> +Dr. Fraser stood still, with her hand to her forehead, as though she +were trying to remember something. Then she too came up into the loft. +The pony had now backed into the pile of bracken; Andrew, whose back +teeth were evidently set tight, was tugging at her halter, and she was +responding by throwing her nose in the air and showing the whites of +her eyes. +</P> + +<P> +"Meg," said Dr. Fraser, at the doorway, "I've remembered something that +I was once told—" She peered into the darkness of the loft. "May I +try?" she said, advancing quietly to the pony's head. +</P> + +<P> +"By all means," said Andrew, as chillingly as was possible for a man +who was very red in the face and was draped with cobwebs. +</P> + +<P> +Looking back now to the affair, I cannot remember that Dr. Fraser did +anything in the least remarkable. She took hold of the halter with one +hand and with the other patted the pony's neck, high up, near the ears. +She also spoke to it, the sort of things anyone might say. For the +life of me I could not see that she did more than anyone else had done, +but Nancy lowered her head and put her ears forward. +</P> + +<P> +Dr. Fraser gave the halter a gentle pull, and said, "Come on, old +girl!" and the pony started forward with a little run. +</P> + +<P> +At the doorway she stopped. We held our breaths. Dr. Fraser patted +her again and placidly descended the first step; the maroan pony placed +a trembling foot upon the threshold, steadied herself, poked her nose +forward, and dropped her forefeet on to the second step. +</P> + +<P> +"She'll come down on top of her!" said Andrew, starting forward. +</P> + +<P> +"Don't touch her!" exclaimed Miss Longmuir, grasping his arm. +</P> + +<P> +With the tense caution of an old dog, the pony let herself down from +step to step, planting her little hoofs cunningly on the rough-set +stones, bracing herself with the skill learned on the rocky staircases +of her native hills. Dr. Fraser kept a step in advance of her. Thus, +with slow clattering, and in deep gravity, they joined Philippa in the +yard. +</P> + +<P> +Five people cannot advantageously collaborate in putting a saddle and +bridle on a pony, but we tried, and in the grim hustle that resulted no +one asked questions or made comments. Amongst us the thing was done, +and there were still seven minutes in hand when Andrew shot out of the +yard on her back. Hard on her heels followed Philippa and Miss +Longmuir, with scarcely inferior velocity. I returned to the remaining +member of the party and found that she had seated herself on the steps. +</P> + +<P> +She said she was tired, and she looked it. +</P> + +<P> +"I daresay getting that beast down the steps was rather a strain?" I +said, spreading the pony's rug for her to sit on. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, that was nothing. Please don't wait for me." +</P> + +<P> +I said in my best ironic manner that doctors were of course impervious +to fatigue, and indeed superior to all human ills. +</P> + +<P> +She laughed. "I admit that I was rather nervous that the thing +wouldn't work, or would break down half-way." +</P> + +<P> +"What thing?" I demanded. "The pony?" +</P> + +<P> +"No. The secret. It <I>is</I> a secret, you know. My grandfather gave +Rarey thirty pounds for it. I've never had much to say to horses, but +I have started a jibbing hansom horse in Oxford Street with it." She +laughed again, apologetically. +</P> + +<P> +"You needn't believe it unless you like. I must say I was afraid it +mightn't include a flight of steps!" She paused and put back her +abundant fair hair. "How hot it was up in that loft! I wonder if you +could get me a glass of water?" +</P> + +<P> +I told her that I was old enough to believe anything, but added that +after what she had told me I would get a second glass of water, with +sal volatile in it, for myself. +</P> + +<P> +The Holbein grandmother was standing at the back door of the house, +with the baby still on her arm. She and the baby fetched the glass of +water. She said wasn't the pony a Fright for ever after the way he +came down them steps, but why wouldn't the lady take him out through +the other door into the field above? +</P> + +<P> +I made no reply, but while Dr. Fraser was drinking the water, I went up +into the loft, and cleared away the bracken that had been piled in +front of the "door into the field above." I opened the door, and +walked out into the field, and viewed the small hoof-prints that led to +the door of the loft. +</P> + +<P> +I returned to Dr. Fraser, and very gently broke the news to her. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent" ALIGN="center"> +<SPAN STYLE="letter-spacing: 4em">*****</SPAN><BR> +</P> + +<P> +Of course Lyney and the maroan pony won the race. Had this not been a +foregone conclusion it is possible that John Sullivan might have scored +less heavily in the matter of free drinks. +</P> + +<P> +As I was conducting my exhausted but triumphant party off the course, +the Poundlick Sergeant of Police met me and asked me if I would sign a +few summonses for him, as he was after taking some parties into custody +for fighting. +</P> + +<P> +"Drunk, I suppose?" +</P> + +<P> +The Sergeant admitted it, and said the dispute had arisen between the +Kennys and the Lynches on the one side, and the partisans of Lyney +Garrett on the other, out of "circumstances connected with the last +race." The Sergeant's eye rested for an instant, with what may be +described as a respectful twinkle, upon Miss Longmuir. +</P> + +<P> +"It was mostly heavy offers and small blows, Major," he concluded. +</P> + +<P> +"Look here, Sergeant," I said oracularly, "take them all to the +water-jump. Build up the furze in front of it. Make them jump it. +Anyone that gets over it may be considered sober. Anyone that falls in +will be sober enough when he gets out." +</P> + +<P> +I have not, in my judicial career, delivered a judgment that gave more +satisfaction to the public. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap06"></A> + +<P CLASS="t3b"> +VI +</P> + +<P CLASS="t4b"> +MAJOR APOLLO RIGGS +</P> + +<P CLASS="t4b"> +PART I +</P> + +<P> +The leave of Captain Andrew Larpent, R.E., was expiring, dying hard, +"in rings of strenuous flight," (and my motor) on the road between +Shreelane and Licknavar, which is the home of the Chicken Farmers. +Philippa, who regards a flirtation with an enthusiasm that is as +disinterested as it is inexplicable, assured me that the state of +affairs was perfectly unmistakable. She further said that the male +determination to deny and ignore these things was partly sympathetic +secretiveness, partly the affectation of despising gossip, and mainly +stupidity. She took a long breath after all this, and, seeing Andrew +approaching along the garden path in apparently romantic meditation, +enjoined me to be nice to the poor thing, and departed. +</P> + +<P> +The sun was bright, with the shallow brightness of early October, and +the Virginian creeper made a conflagration on the weather-slated end of +the house. The poor thing deposited himself beside me on the garden +seat. I noticed that his eye rested upon a white chicken with a +brilliant scarlet comb; it was one of several, purchased from the +Chicken Farmers. I would not for worlds have admitted it to Philippa, +but there was undoubtedly sentiment in the glance. +</P> + +<P> +"I hear they're having beastly weather at the Curragh," he said, +leaning back and looking gloomily up into the melting blue sky. +"Stunning that red stuff looks on the house!" He surveyed it, and +sighed; then, suddenly, sentiment faded from his glance. "D'you know, +old boy, that chimney up there is well out of the perpendicular. It'll +be down about your ears some day." +</P> + +<P> +I replied that it had maintained that angle for the seven years of my +tenancy. +</P> + +<P> +"It won't do it much longer," returned my guest. "Look at that crack +in the plaster!" +</P> + +<P> +"Which crack?" I said coldly. (Mr. Flurry Knox is my landlord, and it +is my misfortune to have a repairing lease.) +</P> + +<P> +"Take your choice," said Andrew, scanning the chimneys with the alert +and pitiful eye of the Royal Engineer. "My money's on the northern +one, under the jackdaw." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, confound you and the jackdaws!" I said pettishly. "The chimney +draws all right." +</P> + +<P> +But the matter did not end there. Before luncheon, Andrew and I had +made a tour of the roof, and he had demonstrated unanswerably, and with +appalling examples from barracks that he had repaired in Central India, +and built in Wei-hai-Wei, that nothing but habit and family feeling +induced any one of the chimney stacks to stand up. +</P> + +<P> +At luncheon he told Philippa that he hoped she would insure the +children before the next westerly gale. Philippa replied by asking if +he, or anyone else, had ever heard of a chimney falling, unless it had +been struck by lightning, in which case it wouldn't matter if it were +straight or crooked; and though this was manifestly worthless as an +argument, neither Andrew nor I could remember an instance in support of +our case. That the case had now become mine as well as Andrew's was +the logical result of illogical opposition, and at Philippa's door I +deposit the responsibility for a winter of as varied discomforts as it +has been our lot to endure. +</P> + +<P> +The matter matured rapidly. In the mellow moment that comes with +coffee and cigarettes, I began, almost pleasurably, to lay out the +campaign. +</P> + +<P> +"I can't see any point in wasting money on a contractor," said Andrew +airily. "Any of your local masons could do it if I explained the job +to him. A fortnight ought to see it through." +</P> + +<P> +It was at this point that I should have sat heavily upon Andrew. I was +not without experience of the local mason and his fortnights; what +could Andrew know of such? I had a brief and warning vision of Captain +Larpent, seated at an office table adorned with sheets of perfect +ground-plans and elevations, issuing instructions to a tensely +intelligent Sapper Sergeant. I saw the Sergeant, supreme in scientific +skill (and invariably sober), passing on the orders to a scarcely less +skilled company of prompt subordinates—but my "worser angel" +obliterated it. And that very afternoon, on our way to Aussolas, we +chanced to meet upon the road the local mason himself, William +Shanahan, better known to fame as "Walkin' Aisy." He was progressing +at a rate of speed that accorded with his sub-title, and, as I +approached him, a line of half-forgotten verse came back: +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +"Entreat her not, her eyes are full of dreams."<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +Nevertheless, I stopped the car. +</P> + +<A NAME="img-139"></A> +<CENTER> +<IMG CLASS="imgcenter" SRC="images/img-139.jpg" ALT=""Walkin' Aisy."" BORDER="2"> +<H4 CLASS="h4center"> +"Walkin' Aisy." +</H4> +</CENTER> + +<P> +In answer to enquiries, he mused, with his apostolic countenance bent +upon the ground; after a period of profound meditation, he asked me why +wouldn't I get one of the big fellas out from the town? I have never +known Walkin' Aisy to accept a job without suggesting that some one +else could do it better than he (in which he was probably quite right). +This may have been humility, due to the fact that his father had been +that despised thing, "a dry-wall builder"; it may have been from +coquetry, but I am inclined to think it was due to a mixture of +other-worldliness and sloth. +</P> + +<P> +On pressure he said that he had still a small pieceen of work to +finish, but he might be able to come down to-morrow to travel the roof +and see what would be wanting to us, and on Monday week, with the help +of God, he would come in it. His blue eyes wavered towards the +horizon. The interview closed. +</P> + +<P> +"'Fair and young were they when in hope they began that long journey,'" +cooed Philippa, as we moved away. The quotation did not, as I well +knew, refer to our visit to the Knoxes. +</P> + +<P> +At Aussolas I aired my project to my landlord. Flurry is not a person +to whom it is agreeable to air a project. +</P> + +<P> +"Rebuild the chimneys, is it? Oh, with all my heart. Is there +anything the matter with them?" +</P> + +<P> +Andrew explained the imminence of our peril, and Flurry listened to him +with his inscrutable eye on me. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, it'll be some fun for you during the winter, Major, but be +careful when you're cutting the ivy!" +</P> + +<P> +I was betrayed into asking why. +</P> + +<P> +"Because there's only it and the weather-slating keeping the walls +standing." +</P> + +<P> +"If I may presume to contradict one so much younger than myself," said +old Mrs. Knox, "Shreelane is as well built a house as there is in the +county." Her voice was, as ever, reminiscent of a bygone century and +society; it was also keen-edged, as became a weapon of many wars, +ancient and modern. She turned to me. "In the storm of '39 I remember +that my father said that if Shreelane fell not a house in Ireland would +stand. Every one in the house spent that night in the kitchen." +</P> + +<P> +"May be that was nothing new to them," suggested Flurry. +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Knox regarded her grandson steadfastly and continued her story. +It has already been noted that when he and she were of the same company +they considered no other antagonist worthy of their steel. +</P> + +<P> +"It was my great-grandfather who built Shreelane in honour of his +marriage," she went on. "He married a Riggs of Castle Riggs, a cousin +of the celebrated Major Apollo—and thereby hangs a tale!" She blinked +her eyes like an old rat, and looked round at each of us in turn. I +felt as if I were being regarded through a telescope, from the +standpoint of a distant century. +</P> + +<P> +"They knew how to build in those days," she began again. "The basement +story of Shreelane is all vaulted." +</P> + +<P> +"I daresay the kitchen would make a nice vault," said Flurry. +</P> + +<P> +His grandmother looked hard at him, and was silent, which seemed to me +a rather remarkable occurrence. +</P> + +<P> +On the following day, Andrew and Walkin' Aisy "travelled the roof," and +I accompanied them—that is to say, I sat on the warm lead, with my +back against the sunny side of a chimney, and smoked torpidly, while +Andrew preached, firmly and distinctly, from the top of a ladder. +Walkin' Aisy stood at the foot of the ladder, submissive, with folded +hands, and upturned bearded face, looking like an elderly saint in the +lower corner of a stained-glass window. At the conclusion of the +lecture he said that surely the chimneys might fall any minute, but, +for all, they might stand a hundred years; a criticism almost +stupefying in its width of outlook. +</P> + +<P> +The following day Captain Larpent departed to the Curragh, and, as is +often the way of human beings with regard to their guests, we partly +breathed more freely, and partly regretted him. On the whole it was +restful. +</P> + +<P> +A fortnight passed, and I had almost forgotten about the chimneys; I +was in the act of making an early start for an absence of a couple of +days at the farther side of my district, when I encountered Walkin' +Aisy at the hall door. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm here since six o'clock this morning, but I had no one to tend me," +he began. +</P> + +<P> +I was familiar with this plaint, and proffered him the yard boy. +</P> + +<P> +"The young fella's too wake," replied Walkin' Aisy, in his slow and +dreamy voice, "and they takes him from me." His mild eyes rested upon +me in saddened reverie. "And there should be morthar mixed," he +resumed slowly, "and there's not a pick of gravel in the yard." +</P> + +<P> +I said, as I pulled on my gloves, that he could have Johnny Brien from +the garden to minister to him, and that there was no hurry about the +mortar. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, it's what I was saying to the gardener," returned Walkin' Aisy +very slowly, "I have no business coming here at all till those chimneys +is taken down. The sahmint that's on them is very strong. It's what +the gardener said, that quarry-men would be wanting." +</P> + +<P> +"Why the devil didn't you say this at first?" I demanded, not without +heat. "You and Captain Larpent told me that the old cement had no more +hold than the sugar on a cake." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, the Captain knows best," replied Walkin' Aisy gently, "we should +do what he says." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, get the chimneys down; I don't care who does it." +</P> + +<P> +I drove away, and from the turn of the drive saw Walkin' Aisy, in +motionless trance, looking after the car as if it were a chariot of +fire. +</P> + +<P> +The well-known routine followed; the long and airless day in the +Court-house, the roar of battle of the rival solicitors, the wearisome +iteration of drunks and trespasses, the intricacies of family feuds; +the stodgy and solitary dinner at the hotel, followed by the evening in +the arid smoking-room, the stale politics of its habitués, the stagnant +pessimism of the proprietor, the same thing over again next day and the +day after. +</P> + +<P> +It was not until the afternoon of the third day that I found myself +serenely gliding homeward, with the wind behind me, and before me the +prospect of that idleness that, like the only thirst worth having, has +been earned. I was in the straight for the hall door, when I saw my +wife dart from the house, gesticulating, and waving her handkerchief as +if to check my approach. She was followed, at no great interval, by an +avalanche of rubble and bricks from the roof, that fell like a portent +from heaven, and joined itself to a considerable heap by the steps. +</P> + +<P> +"You never know when it's coming!" she cried breathlessly. "I've been +watching for you. It's impossible to make them hear from below, and I +can't find any of the men—they're all on the roof." +</P> + +<P> +The restoration had begun, but that fact might not have occurred to a +stranger. Next day, and for many days—six weeks, to be exact—the +house shook as from the blows of a battering-ram, in response to the +efforts of the quarrymen to remove from the chimneys the cement that +had no more hold on them than the sugar on a cake, and at frequent and +uncertain intervals various debris rumbled down the roof and fell +heavily below. There were days when it fell in front of the house, +there were days when it fell in the flower garden; where it fell, there +it lay, because there was no one to take it away; all were absorbed in +tending Walkin' Aisy, and the murmurs of their inexhaustible +conversation came to us down the chimneys like the hoarse cooing of +wood pigeons. There were also days when by reason of storms and rain +nothing was done, and black and evil floods descended into the rooms +down the ruins of the chimneys, and through the slates, broken by the +feet of the quarrymen. At Christmas the kitchen chimney alone remained +in action, and we ate our Christmas dinner in fur coats and a fireless +dining-room. Philippa refrained from any allusion to the quotation +from Longfellow that she had made after that first interview with +Walkin' Aisy. She even denied herself the gratification of adding its +context: +</P> + +<P> +"Faded and old were they when in disappointment it ended," but I knew +that she was thinking it. +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<P CLASS="t4b"> +PART II +</P> + +<P> +It was somewhere towards the end of March that one chimney stack +re-entered the list of combatants, trim in new cement, and crowned with +tall and hideous chimney-pots. They all smoked, a thing that had never +occurred before, but Walkin' Aisy said that the chimneys were cold, and +that they wouldn't do it when they'd come to themselves; and (this was +a little later on) that any chimney would smoke in an east wind. It +was true that a period of east wind and drought had set in. The pump +in the yard went dry; carts had to be sent half a mile for water, and +it was reported to me that the masons had as much water put astray, +mixing mortar and all sorts, as would drown a herring. +</P> + +<P> +Other unpleasant things occurred. The housemaid gave half-an-hour's +warning, and married one of the quarry men, and Mrs. Cadogan then +revealed that it wasn't once nor twice during the winter that she had +given that particular quarryman the full of the poker, to put him out +from under her feet when she'd be dishing up the dinner. Shreelane was +twice drawn blank by Flurry Knox's hounds, and their master said that +as long as I had every idle blackguard in the country tending Walkin' +Aisy, and making short cuts through the covert, how would I have foxes +there? I ignored the conundrum, and hoped that the quarryman's yellow +dog would remain where I had last seen him, in the ashpit, till Flurry +had left the premises. +</P> + +<P> +It was some little time after this that Captain Larpent advanced upon +us on a week's leave from the Curragh; he wrote to say that I evidently +wanted a Clerk of the Works, and that he would see if he couldn't get a +move on Shanahan. I was away when he arrived, and on my return +Philippa met me in the hall. +</P> + +<P> +"Meg Longmuir is here!" she said, not without a touch of defiance. +"Doctor Catherine had to go to Scotland, so I asked Meg here for a few +days. She'll play duets with Andrew. She's up on the roof with him +now." +</P> + +<P> +"Better have a string band up there at once," I said, "and open it as a +public recreation ground." +</P> + +<P> +"And the Flurry Knoxes and Bernard Shute are coming to dinner," +continued my wife, ignoring this <I>jeu d'esprit</I>; "the smoking-room +chimney is all right, and we can have the oil stove and some music in +the drawing-room." +</P> + +<P> +With this agreeable prospect in store, we sat down to dinner. We were +too many for general conversation, and the table was round, which is +unfavourable for <I>tête-à-têtes</I>. Yet it was not round enough to +frustrate Miss Meg Longmuir's peculiar gift for duets, and I was +presently aware that she was unwarrantably devoting herself to Bernard +Shute, leaving Captain Larpent derelict, and that the latter was, after +the manner of derelicts, becoming a danger to navigation, and was +laying down laws and arguing about them acridly with Mr. Knox. I +realised too late that there should have been champagne. Whisky and +soda is all very well, but it will not warm wet blankets. +</P> + +<P> +Meg Longmuir, however, was doing remarkably well without either; she +wore something intricate that was either green or blue or both, and +glittered. I recognised it as the panoply of war, and knew that the +tomahawk was concealed in its folds. So also was Andrew's scalp; I +don't know why I felt some pleasure in remembering that it had a bald +patch on it. +</P> + +<P> +After the ladies had gone, Bernard, to whose head Miss Longmuir had +mounted as effectively as if she had been the missing champagne, +rejoined the lesser world of men by asking Flurry why he had shut up +the season so early, and suggested a by-day, if only for the sake of +giving the horses something to do. +</P> + +<P> +Flurry put the end of his cigarette into his finger-glass, and lit +another at the flaming tongue of my tame Chinese dragon. +</P> + +<P> +"I didn't know you had one that would carry a lady?" he said. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh rot!" said Bernard helplessly. +</P> + +<P> +"I haven't one that will carry myself," went on Flurry. "There's five +lame legs among three of them this minute. Anyway the hounds are in +sulphur." +</P> + +<P> +The discussion progressed with the prolixity proper to such themes; I +think it was Andrew who suggested the paper-chase. He had, he said, +ridden in paper-chases in Egypt, and he gave us details of the stark +mud walls and fathomless water-courses that were common-places of these +events. We were left with the impression that none of us had ever seen +obstacles so intimidating, and, more than that, if we had seen them we +should have gone home in tears. +</P> + +<P> +"I think we'd better make a hare of <I>you</I>," said Flurry, fixing +expressionless eyes upon Captain Larpent. "It mightn't be hard." +</P> + +<P> +The double edge of this suggestion was lost upon Andrew, who accepted +it as a tribute, but said he was afraid he didn't know the country well +enough. +</P> + +<P> +"That's your Egyptian darkness," said Flurry with unexpected erudition. +</P> + +<P> +Andrew glanced sideways and suspiciously at him over the bridge of his +sunburnt nose, and said rather defiantly that if he could get hold of a +decent horse he wouldn't mind having a try. +</P> + +<P> +"I suppose you ride about 11.6?" asked Flurry, after a moment or two of +silence. His manner had softened; I thought I knew what was coming. +"I've a little horse that I was thinking of parting..." he began. +</P> + +<P> +A yell, sharp and sudden as a flash of lightning, was uttered outside +the door, followed by a sliding crash of crockery, and more yells. We +plunged into the hall, and saw Julia, the elderly parlourmaid, +struggling on the floor amid ruins of coffee cups and their adjuncts. +</P> + +<P> +"The rat! He went in under me foot!" she shrieked. "He's in under me +this minute!" +</P> + +<P> +Here the rat emerged from the ruins. Simultaneously the drawing-room +door burst open, and the streaming shrieks of Minx and her son and +daughter were added to those of the still prostrate Julia. +</P> + +<P> +The chase swept down the passage to the kitchen stairs, the pack +augmented by Bob, the red setter, and closely followed by the dinner +party. A rat is a poor performer on a staircase, and, at the door +leading into the turf-house, the dogs seemed to be on top of him. The +bolt-hole under the door, that his own teeth had prepared, gave him an +instant of advantage; Flurry had the door open in a second, someone +snatched the passage lamp from the wall, but it was obviously six to +four on the rat. +</P> + +<P> +The turf-house was a large space at the very root of the house, vaulted +and mysterious, bearing Shreelane on its back like the tortoise that +supports the world. Barrels draped with cobwebs stood along one wall, +but the rat was not behind them, and Minx and her family drove like +hawks into a corner, in which, beneath a chaotic heap of broken +furniture and household debris, the rat had gone to ground. We +followed, treading softly in the turf-mould of unnumbered winters. We +tore out the furniture, which yielded itself in fragments; the delirium +of the terriers mounting with each crash, and being, if possible, +enhanced by the well-meant but intolerable efforts of the red setter to +assist them. Finally we worked down to an old door, lying on its face +on something that raised it a few inches from the ground. +</P> + +<P> +"Now! Mind yourselves!" said Flurry, heaving up the door and flinging +it back against the wall. +</P> + +<P> +The rat bolted gallantly, and darted into an old box, of singular +shape, that lay, half open, among the debris, and there, in a storm of +tattered paper, met his fate. Minx jumped out of the box very +deliberately, with the rat across her jaws, and a scarlet bite in her +white muzzle. With frozen calm, and a menacing eye directed at the red +setter, she laid it on the turf mould, and stiffly withdrew. Her son +and daughter advanced in turn, smelt it respectfully and retired. +There was no swagger; all complied with the ritual of fox-terrier form +laid down for such occasions. +</P> + +<P> +I was then for the first time aware that the ladies, in all the glitter +and glory of their evening dresses, had each mounted herself upon a +barrel; in the theatrical gloom of the vaulted turf-house, they +suggested the resurrection of Ali Baba's Forty Thieves. +</P> + +<P> +"Look where he had his nest in among the old letters!" said Flurry to +Philippa, as she descended from her barrel to felicitate Minx and to +condole with the rat. "That box came out of the rumble of an old +coach, the Lord knows when!" +</P> + +<P> +"There's some sort of a ring in the floor here," said Andrew, who was +rooting with a rusty crowbar in the turf-mould where the door had lain. +"Bring the light, someone——" +</P> + +<P> +The lamp revealed a large iron ring which was fixed in a flat stone; we +scraped away the turf-mould and found that the stone was fastened down +with an iron bar, passing through a staple at either end, and padlocked. +</P> + +<P> +"As long as I'm in this place," said Flurry, "I never saw this outfit +before." +</P> + +<P> +"There's a seal over the keyhole," said Andrew, turning over the +padlock. +</P> + +<P> +"That means it was not intended it should be opened," said Meg Longmuir +quickly. +</P> + +<P> +I looked round, and, bad as the light was, I thought her face looked +pale. +</P> + +<P> +Andrew did not answer her. He poised the crowbar scientifically, and +drove it at the padlock. It broke at the second blow, releasing the +bar. +</P> + +<P> +"No trouble about that!" he said, addressing himself to the gallery, +and not looking at Miss Longmuir. "Now, then, shall we have the flag +up?" +</P> + +<P> +There were only two dissentients; one was Flurry, who put his hands in +his pockets, and said he wasn't going to destroy his best evening +pants; the other was Miss Longmuir, who said that to break an old seal +like that was to break luck. She also looked at Andrew in a way that +should have gone far to redress the injuries inflicted during dinner. +Apparently it did not suffice. Captain Larpent firmly inserted the end +of the bar under the edge of the flag. Bernard Shute took hold of the +ring. +</P> + +<P> +"All together!" said Andrew. +</P> + +<P> +There was a moment of effort, the flag came up abruptly, and, as +abruptly, Bernard sat down in the turf-mould with the flag between his +legs. The crowbar slipped forward, and vanished with a hollow-sounding +splash down a black chasm; Andrew, thrown off his balance, also slipped +forward, and would have followed it, head first, had not Flurry and I +caught him. +</P> + +<P> +The chasm was a well, nearly full; the water twinkled at us, +impenetrably black; it made me think of the ink in the hollowed palm of +a native who had told my fortune, up at Peshawur. +</P> + +<P> +"That was about as near as makes no difference!" said Bernard. "You've +cut your cheek, Larpent." +</P> + +<P> +"Have I?" said Andrew vaguely, putting up a rather shaky hand to his +face. "I think my head took the edge of the well." +</P> + +<P> +We covered the hole with the old door, and Andrew was taken away to +have his wound attended to. It was not a severe wound, but the process +was lengthy, and involved the collaboration of all the ladies. It +seemed to the three neglected males, waiting for a fourth to play +bridge, that this mobilisation of ministering angels was somewhat +overdone. +</P> + +<P> +Andrew came down to breakfast next morning with a headache, and said he +had slept badly. Had he discovered the source of the Nile in the +turf-house the night before, my wife and Miss Longmuir could not have +been more adulatory and sympathetic, nor could the projects, based upon +the discovery, have been more ambitious. I went forth to my work and +to my labour without so much as a dog to wave me farewell; all were in +the turf-house, surrounded by visionary force-pumps, bath-rooms, and +even by miraged fountains in the garden. +</P> + +<P> +When I drove the car into the yard on my return that afternoon, I was +confronted by a long chestnut face with a white blaze, looking at me +out of the spare loose-box—the face, in fact, of "the little horse" of +whom Flurry had spoken to Andrew. There was also, added to the more +familiar heaps of mortar, gravel, and stones, a considerable deposit of +black and evil-smelling sludge. It seemed, as was not uncommonly the +case, that a good many things had been happening during my absence. +The stone floor of the hall was stencilled with an intricate pattern of +black paw-marks, and was further decorated with scraps of torn paper; a +cold stench pervaded the smoking-room (which was situated above the +turf-house); far away, a sound as of a gramophone in the next world +indicated that Captain Andrew's <I>affaire de coeur</I> was finding an +outlet in song. +</P> + +<P> +I followed the sounds to the drawing-room, and found Andrew and Miss +Longmuir at the piano, in a harmony obviously world-forgetting, though +not likely to be by the world forgot. Philippa was sitting by the oil +stove, and was, I hope, deriving some satisfaction from inhaling its +fumes, its effect upon the temperature being negligible. +</P> + +<P> +Andrew's song was a Hungarian ditty, truculent and amorous, and very +loud; under cover of it my wife told me that he, assisted by Walkin' +Aisy and the quarrymen, and attended by Miss Longmuir, had baled out +the newly discovered well, and that the quarrymen had exacted whisky to +sustain them during the later stages of the process, and that the +sludge would be ideal for the roses. They believed the well was +filling again beautifully, but they had to leave it because Flurry came +over with the horse for Andrew for the paper-chase, and Andrew and Meg +went out schooling. +</P> + +<P> +"What paper-chase?" I interpolated coldly. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, they've got one up for Monday," said Philippa airily. "The +children have been tearing up paper all day. I found—rather with +horror—that Flurry had given them those old letters out of the +turf-house to tear up—I said you and I would ride, of course"—she +looked at me with apprehension veiled by defiance, and I said it was +thoughtful of her.—"But I want to tell you about old Mrs. Knox," she +said, hurrying on. "She told Flurry that the well had never been used +since the time of the Famine, when they got up a soup-kitchen here, and +the day after they opened the well she said the servants flew in a body +out of the house, like wild geese!" +</P> + +<P> +"I don't wonder, if it smelt as it does now," I said. "Was that why +they flew?" +</P> + +<P> +"Flurry said he didn't know what lifted them. But Flurry never says he +doesn't know unless he <I>does</I> know and doesn't want to tell!" +</P> + +<P> +The following day was Saturday, and for the first time for many weeks a +Sabbath stillness prevailed on the roof. Walkin' Aisy was absent; no +explanation was forthcoming, and I diagnosed a funeral in the +neighbourhood. It was on Sunday afternoon that I was roused from my +usual meditation—consequent upon Sunday roast beef—by the +intelligence that Mrs. William Shanahan wanted to speak to me. Mrs. +Shanahan was a fair freckled woman, with a loud voice and a red face +and the reputation of ruling Walkin' Aisy with a rod of iron. It +appeared that Walkin' Aisy was confined to his bed; that he had had a +reel in his head after getting home on Friday, and that whatever work +it was that young gentleman gave him to do, he wasn't the better of it. +</P> + +<P> +"And he was as wake in himself and as troubled in his mind as that he +couldn't walk to Mass. I told him he should mind the chickens while +I'd be out, and when I came in the dog had three of me chickens dead on +the floor, and where was himself, only back in the room, and he +kneeling there with the two hands up, sayin' his prayers! 'What ails +ye?' says I, 'ye old gommoch, that ye'd let the dog kill me chickens?' +'Sure, I was sayin' me prayers,' says he; 'That the Lord mightn't hear +your prayers!' says I. God forgive me, I had to say it!" +</P> + +<P> +I recalled her to the question of the chimneys, pointing out that the +gable chimney was half down, and could not be left as it was. +</P> + +<P> +To this Mrs. Walkin' Aisy replied at great length that William's father +had given him an advice not to go in it, and that the father was dark +these scores of years, and it was what he blamed for it was the work he +done in Shreelane House in the time of the Famine. It was after that +the sight went bandy with him. +</P> + +<P> +She declined to offer any opinion as to when Walkin' Aisy would return +to work, and withdrew, leaving me to consider my position under the +Employers' Liability Act in the event of her husband's demise, and to +wish, not for the first time, that Andrew (now strolling at his ease +with Miss Longmuir, reviewing a course for the paper-chase), had been +at Jericho, or any other resort of the superfluous, before he +interfered with the tranquil progress of the chimneys towards +dissolution. +</P> + +<P> +There were strange lapses at dinner,—delays, omissions, disasters, and +Julia the parlourmaid had a trembling hand and a general suggestion of +nerve-storm. After dinner it was reported to Philippa that Anthony was +not well, and after a prolonged absence she returned with the +information that he had had a nightmare, and that there was a rumour in +the house that all the servants were going to give warning the +following morning. Their reason for this was obscure, but was somehow +connected with Mrs. Walkin' Aisy's visit, and the fact that the +swing-door leading to the turf-house had opened and shut twice, of its +own volition. We did not mention these matters to our guests, and +retired to rest in perturbation. I admit that at some time during the +night, which was a still one, I heard the turf-house door groan on its +hinges, and slam. I went downstairs and found nothing; it was +certainly unusual, however, that Bob, the red setter, had abandoned his +lair in the smoking-room, and was spending the night on the mat outside +my dressing-room door. +</P> + +<P> +Next morning Philippa, considering that a thrust was better than a +parry, held a court of enquiry in the lower regions, and, according to +her own report, spoke seriously on the grave responsibility incurred by +those who frightened other people about nonsense. Julia's version of +the proceedings, I heard at a later date. She said that "the Misthress +spoke to us lovely, and the Priest couldn't speak better than her. She +told us that the divils in hell wasn't worse than us." +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<P CLASS="t4b"> +PART III +</P> + +<P> +It has been said of Ireland that the inevitable never happens, and that +the impossible invariably occurs. When on Monday morning I learned +that Flurry was to be one of the hares, and beheld him mounted on his +best horse, as covered with bags as a postman on Christmas Day, I +recalled the epigram. Another confirmation of the law of the +unexpected was the fact that Meg Longmuir, on the "maroan" pony, was +his fellow hare, very smart, much elated, and quite unaware that she +had been substituted for Sally Knox at the last moment, in order that +she might be as a millstone hung round the neck of Flurry. That this +arrangement was not what Captain Larpent had desired was sufficiently +apparent to the naked eye: why Flurry submitted to it was less obvious. +</P> + +<P> +About a dozen riders had been whipped up to take part in this +preposterous affair, and were standing about on the grass in front of +Shreelane, cutting up the turf as much as the hardness of the ground +would permit, and making as much noise as a pack of hounds at feeding +time. The April sun glared hot, the better part of a north-easterly +gale was blowing, the horses had over-eaten themselves with the bread +of idleness, and were fat and frisky. +</P> + +<P> +"Is he any good?" said Flurry to me in a low voice, with his eye on +Andrew, who was sitting, shrouded in gloom and remoteness, on the +chestnut horse. +</P> + +<P> +"Ask Miss Longmuir," I said. "She was schooling with him on Saturday." +</P> + +<P> +"I'll have plenty to do minding her, without asking her questions that +she couldn't answer," returned Flurry. He resumed his survey of +Andrew. "I wonder will he be able to hold that horse in a snaffle? He +catches hold an odd time." +</P> + +<P> +"Stand by!" said Doctor Hickey, his watch in his hand. "Fifteen +seconds more before the hares start!" +</P> + +<P> +"Well, if Larpent goes as big as he talks, he'll do," said Flurry, +gathering up his reins. +</P> + +<P> +The ten minutes of grace ebbed slowly away, and preposterous though I +still held the affair to be, I do not deny that I was aware of an +inward simmering of impatience. +</P> + +<P> +"I'll have the face worn off my watch looking at it if you don't let us +start soon!" said Miss Larkie McRory to Hickey. +</P> + +<P> +She was mounted on a long-legged animal that had been summarised by +Flurry as "the latter end of a car-horse," and was certainly in need of +all the time it could get. +</P> + +<P> +"Don't excite yourself now, or I'll be having to order you a cooling +draught!" returned the Doctor, but I perceived that he, in common with +everyone else, was edging his horse towards the point of departure. +</P> + +<P> +"Go!" +</P> + +<P> +In the riot of the break-away, I was able to think of nothing but of +keeping Daniel from bucking me over his head, but during the hustle at +the avenue gates I observed Andrew riding off Bernard, and getting to +the front with pale and ferocious determination. The "scent" took us +along the road; we followed it over a stony bank and across two fields, +at steeplechase pace, and then it ceased. By this time any lingering +sense of absurdity had ceased also. We cast ourselves feverishly, like +hounds; we galloped great circles; someone found the paper again, and +yelled like a maniac. We all yelled in response, a variety of yells, +from "Tally Ho" to "Cooee," as, like Bedlam let loose, we rushed to the +discoverer. We were up on high land now, and the wind was whirling in +our ears, snatching our voices away to infinity, and blowing up the +temperatures of horses and riders like a bellows. It had caught away +the torn paper and flung it to leeward, into furze brakes, against the +sides of the banks, and checks were many, and the horses, convinced +that the hounds were somewhere ahead, pulled double. In the bare +fields, with their scanty April grass, everything showed up; we were +deceived by white stones, by daisies, by dandelion puff-balls, by +goose-feathers; most of all we were deceived by country-people, whom, I +have no doubt, Flurry had instructed to mislead us. +</P> + +<P> +We had had a long check, consequent on a false trail, when, three +fields away, Andrew held up his hat. +</P> + +<P> +"Look at him now, running mute!" giggled Sally Knox in my ear, as we +battered down a road. "He's too cross to shout. He's frantic because +he's not the hare, and Meg Longmuir was sent with Flurry! And poor +Flurry, who's going such a nice safe line!" +</P> + +<P> +"I suppose we may thank Miss Longmuir for the safe line?" I responded +with some difficulty, because Daniel was enjoying himself on the road, +according to the idiotic manner of horses. +</P> + +<P> +"No! You may thank the chestnut horse!" ejaculated Flurry Knox's wife, +as she hoisted out of the road over a loose wall. +</P> + +<P> +Remembering that Andrew was intended to buy the chestnut horse, the +deduction was a simple one. It was also quite clear that, +disappointing as it might be, and contrary to the most cherished +convention, Andrew was going as big as he talked, and even bigger. +</P> + +<P> +"'Them that's in love is like no one'!" I quoted to Mrs. Flurry, as +Captain Larpent, taking the shortest way to a drift of paper on a +hillside, charged a tall, furze-tufted fence, and got over with a +scramble. We followed, less heroically, by a gap, and ascended the +hill, with the torn paper scurrying in front of us in the gusty wind. +We had now been going for thirty-five minutes, and were all, horses and +riders, something blown; Miss Larkie's car-horse could have been heard +down-wind for half a mile, and I would have backed Daniel to out-roar +any lion in the den. +</P> + +<P> +Nothing but the checks held us together. Doctor Hickey, and Irving, +the District Inspector, were taking the matter seriously, and were +riding hard to catch Andrew, for the honour of the country. Bernard +Shute and two or three other heavy-weights were afoot, dragging their +dripping horses over a bank with an up-hill take off; Miss McRory and +the car-horse were making an extremely gradual progress in the rear, +and Philippa had pulled back to give her leads, with an unselfishness +that was not only futile, but was also a reproach to me and my +fellow-men. +</P> + +<P> +We had been going in a big ring, and from the top of the hill we could +again see Shreelane, below us among its trees. It was there also that +we caught the first sight of the hares, now heading for home and +safety. The wind had strengthened to half a gale, and the wild and +composite yell with which the hounds viewed their quarry was blown back +into their throats. The maroan pony had fulfilled her mission as a +handicap; twice we saw Flurry dismount and pull down a gap; once, at a +bank, he got behind her and whipped her over like a peg-top. Another +field took them to the high road. A puff of white paper fluttered out, +and Miss Longmuir looked back and flourished a defiant whip; they +turned, and galloped in a cloud of dust along the road for Shreelane. +</P> + +<P> +It was not a nice hill to get down in a hurry, and I should think the +chestnut horse dreams of it now, somewhere in the level English +Midlands, after he has over-eaten himself on fat English oats. For my +part, I remembered a humble but useful path, that links a little group +of cottages with the rest of the world. +</P> + +<P> +The paper lay thick on the road in the shelter of the fences; everyone +began to ride for a finish, and after a quarter of a mile of pounding +in the dust at the heel of the hunt, I considered that Daniel and I had +satisfied the demands of honour, and ignobly turned in at the back way +to the stable yard, permitting the chase to sweep on to the front gates +without me. +</P> + +<P> +In the stable yard I found several objects of interest. The hares were +there, dismounted, very hot, and uncaptured; Mrs. Knox was there, +seated in her phaeton; there was a cluster of servants at the back +door; there were McRorys, leaning on bicycles; there was Cecilia Shute, +in her motor, with unknown rank and fashion billowing in motor veils +beside her. +</P> + +<P> +All were gazing at a mass of sooty bricks and shattered chimney-pots +that lay, scattered wide, in and about the black dredgings of the +turf-house well. +</P> + +<P> +"That's the gable chimney," said Flurry coolly; "it got tired of +waiting for Walkin' Aisy. We heard the roar of it as we came in the +front gate!" He turned his mail-bag upside down so that its ultimate +dregs were blown far and wide. "How did the chestnut horse go +with——?" +</P> + +<P> +As if in reply, hoofs clattered outside the yard, and the white nose of +the chestnut shot into the opening of the yard gate. He plunged past +me, with Andrew lying back and tugging at the snaffle. The Shreelane +yard was fairly spacious, but I began to think that the thing wasn't as +funny as it looked. The horse swerved at Mrs. Knox's phaeton, swerved +again as Flurry turned him from his stable door with a flourish of the +mail-bag. Andrew wrenched his head straight for the open back gate, +and might have got him out without disaster, had not the widespread +ruin of the chimney intervened. The chestnut once more tried to +swerve, his legs went from under him, and he fell, striking fire from +the cobble stones of the yard. Andrew stuck to him to the last +instant, but was shot clear, and was flung, head first, into the heap +of stones and black mud. +</P> + +<P> +It seemed long, long hours between this catastrophe, and a sufficient +subsidence of things in general, for me to be able, without inhumanity, +to envisage a whisky and soda. Old Mrs. Knox watched me with approval. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm tired of looking at young men drinking tea," she commented. (It +was Mrs. Knox's pleasing idiosyncrasy to look upon me as a young man.) +"They were like a pack of curates at a school-feast! Not that I was +ever at a school-feast, thank God!" she added, with an abandoned +chuckle. +</P> + +<P> +We were sitting in a corner of the dining-room, surrounded by empty +cups and crumby plates; tides of tea and of talkers had ebbed and +flowed, but Mrs. Knox had sat on—to hear my personal report of Andrew, +she said. +</P> + +<P> +"Upon my honour, he escaped very well! A dislocated shoulder is +nothing, and the young lady is there to 'tend the wounded Deloraine!'" +</P> + +<P> +She paused, and put her head on one side, as if waiting for the +prompter. "How does it go? 'She thought some spirit of the sky had +done the bold mosstrooper wrong!'" +</P> + +<P> +She paused again, and looked at me; the evening light shone on her +spectacles, and made them impenetrable. +</P> + +<P> +"Now I'm going to give you a piece of advice; "'And I'll not take it!' +says Major Yeates, R.M.!" +</P> + +<P> +I protested that I had said nothing of the kind. She prodded me in the +knee with a goblin finger. +</P> + +<P> +"<I>Close that well</I>! Put on the flagstone, and seal it down again!" +She fumbled in her shawls, and pulled out a thin old gold chain. +"Here's the seal, the same one that my father sealed it with at the +time of the Famine!" +</P> + +<P> +I said that I was ready to do anything that she told me, but it would +be interesting to know why. +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Knox detached the seal from her chain, to which it was knotted by +something that I darkly suspected to be a bit of bootlace. It was a +cornelian seal, made in the grand manner; massively wrought, the gold +smooth from age. +</P> + +<P> +"I daresay you never heard of Major Apollo Riggs? He drove up to this +house one fine day in a coach-and-four. Next day the coach-and-four +drove away, but Major Apollo Riggs was not in it!" +</P> + +<P> +"He found himself a success at Shreelane?" I suggested. +</P> + +<P> +"Not so much with his host as his hostess!" returned Mrs. Knox +portentously. +</P> + +<P> +"A duel?" I asked. +</P> + +<P> +"He was never seen again, my dear!" replied Mrs. Knox. (There are +moments, in Ireland, when this term of affection is used not so much +affectionately as confidentially.) +</P> + +<P> +At this point the door opened. Mrs. Knox put the goblin finger on her +lips, as Philippa, still in her habit, slid into the room. +</P> + +<P> +"The patient and Meg are extremely self-sufficing," she said, dropping +into a chair. "His face is turning all colours of the rainbow, and one +eye has disappeared, but the other is full of expression and is fixed +on Meg!" +</P> + +<P> +"There's not much colour about <I>you</I>," I said. "You ought to have a +whisky and soda." +</P> + +<P> +"Nonsense!" said Philippa, waving me away; "we've got most of the black +stuff out of his hair; even his waistcoat pocket was full of it! And +bits of the torn paper had stuck to it, like confetti." +</P> + +<P> +"That suggests a wedding," I observed. +</P> + +<P> +"Quite," said Philippa. "But the absurd thing was that one of the +confetti—obviously a bit of those old letters that the children tore +up—had the word 'Apollo' on it! It was stuck on to him like a label." +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Knox clasped her hands, and lay back in her chair. +</P> + +<P> +"I said it was, of course, a tribute to his beauty, but Meg was not at +all amused. She thought it was 'lèse majesté.'" +</P> + +<P> +"She'll get over that in time," I said, putting the seal in my pocket. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap07"></A> + +<P CLASS="t3b"> +VII +</P> + +<P CLASS="t4b"> +WHEN I FIRST MET DR. HICKEY +</P> + +<P> +There was a wonderful chandelier in the hotel dining-room. Fine bronze +it was made of, with mermaids, and Tritons, and dolphins flourishing +their tails up towards the dingy ceiling-paper, and beaked galleys, on +whose prows sat six small lamps, with white china receptacles for +paraffin, and smoky brown chimneys. Gone were the brave days when each +prow had borne a galaxy of tall wax candles; the chandelier might +consider itself lucky in that it had even the paraffin lamps to justify +its existence, and that it still hung from a ceiling, instead of +sharing the last resting-place of its twin brother, in the bed of the +tidal river under the hotel windows. +</P> + +<P> +James, the hotel waiter, knew the family history of the chandelier, as +he knew that of most people and things in the county. I commented upon +it to a young gentleman with a pointed beard, who sat next to me at +dinner, and said that it looked to me like Renaissance. The young +gentleman suggested, alternatively, that it looked more like bronze. I +did not dispute the point, but I think he found the subject precarious, +as he turned to the young lady on his left, and I heard him embark upon +a new theme. +</P> + +<A NAME="img-171"></A> +<CENTER> +<IMG CLASS="imgcenter" SRC="images/img-171.jpg" ALT="James." BORDER="2"> +<H4 CLASS="h4center"> +James. +</H4> +</CENTER> + +<P> +"I was half dead with the toothache all day," he observed. +</P> + +<P> +The young lady replied sympathetically that toothache was a fright. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, indeed, that's true," said James, smoothly entering the +conversation from behind my chair. "I got my own share of it. Sure +there was one time I used to be roaring like a Banshee all night with +it." +</P> + +<P> +"Were you so?" said the gentleman, with a wink at me. "That must have +been a long time ago, James." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, indeed, it is too, Doctor," replied James meditatively, "going +on forty years, I daresay. I went to Dublin, and I went to a great +dentist that was in it that time, and he pulled all the teeth I had, +and he gave me a new set entirely." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, my!" said the young lady, "that must have been very expensive." +</P> + +<P> +"It was so," said James, not without pride. "Twenty pounds I gave him." +</P> + +<P> +"That was awful," said the young lady, feelingly; "it was well to be +you that had it to spend." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, it wasn't all out so bad," said James; "sure I only wore them a +few times—I wouldn't be bothered with them, and a doctor that was a +friend of mine gave me ten pounds for them." +</P> + +<P> +"I suppose they were a fit for a patient of his?" said the doctor. +</P> + +<P> +"They were a bad fit for me, anyway," returned James, glancing over his +shoulder at the clattering operations of his two female subordinates, +with the eye of the sergeant-major—the eye that always contains a +grievance. "I was a footman with the old Lord Garretmore that time. +Sure that was where the chandelier came from. A grand house it was, +too—big slobs of marble on the tables, and gold legs under them, and +ye'd bog to the knees in the carpets. Well, it was the first night +after me getting the teeth, there was a gentleman stayed for dinner, +and he was to go away by the night train. Forty horses were in the +stables, and there wasn't one but was out at grass, and I had to go out +beating the bushes for an old mare that was round the house always, +herself and her foal, to put her under the side car. 'Prua! Prua!' +says I, calling the mare in the dark, and with that the teeth lepped +out of my mouth, with respects to you!" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, fie!" said the mother of the young lady. +</P> + +<P> +"What did you do then, James?" inquired the Doctor. +</P> + +<P> +"I took the white tie off me, and I tied it to the bush that was next +me, for a token, and 'twas that way I got them again the next morning, +thanks be to God." +</P> + +<P> +Having concluded his story, James started on a perfunctory tour of the +table with the wine card. He stopped to pull the turf fire together, +and, with a furtive eye at the glass over the chimney-piece, he +rearranged the long lock of hair that draped his bald pate. It was +dyed, of that peculiar shade of chestnut that disdains subterfuge, and +the fact and its suggestions were distressing where an old servant was +concerned; so also was the manner in which he hobbled on his heels. +</P> + +<P> +"His walk's full of corns," said the young doctor, eyeing him not +without sympathy. "He's a great old character. I believe they keep +him here to talk to the tourists." +</P> + +<P> +It is a melancholy fact that in Ireland, in these later days, +"characters" have become aware of their position, and palpably live up +to their reputation. But James was in a class of his own. +</P> + +<P> +I said didactically, even combatively, that "characters" were free and +easy, but that James was easy without being free. +</P> + +<P> +"I'll bet he's not easy in his feet, anyhow!" said the Doctor brutally. +"Have you any more soup there, James?" +</P> + +<P> +The mother of the young lady, who had hitherto preserved a silence, +broken only by the audible assimilation of her soup, here laid down her +spoon and said in cryptic disparagement: +</P> + +<P> +"Tin!" +</P> + +<P> +"Well, I'd say it was the best we had yet," said the Doctor. "I'd +undertake to pull a puppy through distemper with it." +</P> + +<P> +"That's the soup she has always for th'assizes," said James. "Grand +soup it is, and I declare to ye, she makes it out of egg shells and +every old rubbish!" +</P> + +<P> +The young lady's mother emitted a short laugh, but her empty soup-plate +told heavily against her. +</P> + +<P> +The meal wore slowly on. A sea fish, of a genus unknown to me, and +amazingly endowed with bones, was consumed in distracted silence. +</P> + +<P> +"I hear you have a fish shop opened in Ballinagar, Mrs. M'Evoy," +remarked the Doctor, taking his last fish bone out of action with +professional adroitness, and addressing the mother of the young lady, +"That's very up-to-date. There wasn't one I met from Ballinagar but +was bragging of it." +</P> + +<P> +"It was the Hoolahanes that had it," said Mrs. M'Evoy. "It's closed." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh dear, why so?" said the Doctor. "Why did they do that, I wonder?" +</P> + +<P> +"They said that morning, noon, and night people were bothering them for +fish," returned Mrs. M'Evoy, to whom this triumph of the artistic +temperament presented no exceptional feature. +</P> + +<P> +"Unless it might be on a fast day, I'd never ask to taste a bit of +fish," remarked James, giving a helping hand to the conversation. +"There was a man I knew from this place got his death in Liverpool from +a bit of fish. It stuck to the upper gum. 'Bill,' says he to the one +that was with him, 'so help me God,' says he, 'I'm dyin',' says he; and +sure that's how he met his death! It was in some grand hotel he was, +and he was too shy to give the puff to send out the bit." +</P> + +<P> +"I'd like to send that to the 'B.M.J.'," said the Doctor gravely. +"Maybe you could give me the man's name, James?" +</P> + +<P> +"There was them that could swear to it," said James, depositing a +syphon on the table in a determined manner, "but they were before your +day, Doctor Hickey." +</P> + +<P> +"How young he is!" said Miss M'Evoy archly. "Don't be flattering him, +James." +</P> + +<P> +"Indeed I'll not flatter him," returned James, "there's plenty doing +that." +</P> + +<P> +It was at about this point that a dish containing three roast ducks was +placed in front of me. Circumstances had decreed that I sat at the end +of the table; it was my task to deal with the ducks, and during the +breathless and steamy struggle that ensued, I passed out of the +conversation, which, indeed, had resolved itself into a more personal +affair between Dr. Hickey and Miss M'Evoy. +</P> + +<P> +It was somewhere in the reposeful period that came with the cheese, +that Dr. Hickey ordered a bottle of port, of which he very handsomely +invited the ladies and me to partake. He leaned back in his chair. +</P> + +<P> +"Was this in the cellar the time of the flood?" he said, putting down +his glass. "I don't mean Noah's flood, James; you mightn't remember +that; but the time the river came up in the town here." +</P> + +<P> +"If it was Noah's flood itself," said James, instantly accepting +combat, "it couldn't get into our cellars. But, faith, it was up in +this room you're sitting in, and I had to get up on the table from it, +and it ruz to the table, and I had to hang out of the chandelier, and a +boat came into the room then and took me out. Sure that was the time +that the porpoise came up the river, with the dint of the flood, and +she was in it for a week, in front of the hotel." +</P> + +<P> +"In compliment to the visitors, I suppose?" said the Doctor. "And what +happened her, James?" +</P> + +<P> +"She was in it till a whale came up the river," replied James, with the +simplicity of Holy Writ, "and b'Jove he banished her!" +</P> + +<P> +"It's a wonder you'd let him treat a lady that way, James," said Dr. +Hickey. +</P> + +<P> +It was still twilight when we left the dining-room, and strayed to the +open hall door, and out into the September evening. In the east a +rose-pink moon was rising in lavender haze, and a faint wind blew from +it; the subtle east wind of September, warmed by its journey across the +cornfields, turf-scented by the bogs. There was a narrow garden +between the hotel and the river, a place where were new and +already-neglected flower-beds, and paths heavy with coarse river +gravel, and grass that had been cut, not too recently, with a scythe. +A thatched summer-house completed the spasmodic effort of the hotel to +rise to smartness. The West of Ireland cannot be smart, nor should any +right-minded person desire that it should be so. +</P> + +<P> +Dr. Hickey and I sat and smoked on the parapet wall above the river, +while the slated and whitewashed town darkened into mystery. Little +lights came slowly out, and behind the town the grey shape of Dreelish +mountain lowered in uncompromising abruptness, a brooding presence, +felt rather than seen. In the summer-house James was lighting a +Chinese lantern, of a somewhat crumpled and rheumatic outline. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, now, that's a great notion!" said Dr. Hickey, with the lethargic +and pessimistic humour of his type. "That'll be in the +prospectus—'Hotel grounds illuminated every night.' I wonder did they +buy that at the Jumble Sale after the Fancy Fair in the Town Hall?" +</P> + +<P> +We sat there, and the moon and the round red Chinese lantern looked at +each other across the evening, and had a certain resemblance, and I +reflected on the fact that an Irishman is always the critic in the +stalls, and is also, in spirit, behind the scenes. +</P> + +<P> +"Look at James now," said the Doctor. "He's inviting the ladies out to +have coffee in the summer-house. That's very fashionable. I suppose +we should go there too." +</P> + +<P> +We sat with Mrs. and Miss M'Evoy in the summer-house, and drank +something that was unearthly black in the red light, and was singularly +unsuggestive of coffee. The seats were what is known as "rustic," and +had aggressive knobs in unexpected places; the floor held the +invincible dampness of the West, yet the situation was not +disagreeable. At the other side of the river men were sitting on a +wall, and talking, quietly, inexhaustibly; now and then a shout of +laughter broke from one of them, like a flame from a smouldering fire. +</P> + +<P> +"These lads are waiting to go back on the night mail," said the Doctor; +"you wouldn't think they're up since maybe three this morning to come +in to the fair." +</P> + +<P> +Here a railway whistle made a thin bar of sound somewhere out under the +low moon, that had now lifted herself clear of the haze. A voice +called from the hill-side: +</P> + +<P> +"Hora-thu! Tommeen! Let yee be coming on!" +</P> + +<P> +The men tumbled on to the road, and hurried, heavy-footed, in the +direction of the station. +</P> + +<P> +"Sure, they've half an hour yet, the creatures," said Mrs. M'Evoy. +</P> + +<P> +"They have, and maybe an hour before they have the pigs shunted," said +James, re-entering with a plate of biscuits, adorned with pink and +white sugar. +</P> + +<P> +"Ah! what signifies half an hour here or there on this line!" said Dr. +Hickey. "I'm told there was a lady travelling on it last week, and she +had a canary in a cage, and the canary got loose and flew out of the +window, and by George, the lady pulled the communication cord, and +stopped the train!" +</P> + +<P> +"Well, now, she showed her sense," said Mrs. M'Evoy, with an utterance +slightly muffled in pink biscuit. +</P> + +<P> +"She and the guard went then trying to catch the canary," continued Dr. +Hickey, "and he'd sit till they'd get near him, and then he'd fly on +another piece. Everyone that was in the train was hanging out of it, +and betting on it, from one carriage to another, and some would back +the lady and some would back the bird, and everyone telling them what +to do." +</P> + +<P> +"It's a pity <I>you</I> weren't in it," said Miss M'Evoy, "they'd have been +all right then." +</P> + +<P> +"It was that bare bit of bog near Bohirmeen," pursued Dr. Hickey, +without a stagger, "not a tree in it. 'If he have a fly left in him at +all,' says a chap out of a Third Smoker, 'ye'll get him in Mike +Doogan's bush.' That was the only bush in the country." +</P> + +<P> +"'Twas true for him," said James. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, they got him in the bush," proceeded Dr. Hickey, "singing away +for himself; but they had some trouble crossing the drains. I'm told +the guard said the lady lepped like a horse!" +</P> + +<P> +"You had it right, all to the singing," commented Mrs. M'Evoy, +advancing as it were to the footlights. "I have the little bird +upstairs this minute, and she never sang a note yet!" +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. M'Evoy here permitted herself to subside into fat and deep-seated +chuckles, and Miss M'Evoy, James, and I gave way suitably to our +feelings. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, now, I thought it was a nice idea, the canary to be singing," +said Dr. Hickey, emerging from the situation as from a football +scrimmage, in which he had retained possession of the ball. "The next +time I tell the story, I'll leave that out, and I can say that the lady +that lepped like a horse was Mrs. M'Evoy. They'll believe me then." +</P> + +<P> +"Why wouldn't you say the canary was an eagle?" said Miss M'Evoy. +"There used to be plenty eagles in these mountains back here." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, indeed, I might too," said Dr. Hickey. "I remember it was +somewhere in these parts that an uncle of mine was staying one time, +and a man came to the hotel with an eagle to sell to the tourists. My +uncle was like Mrs. M'Evoy here, he was very fond of birds; and the man +said the eagle'd be a lovely pet. Whatever way it was, he bought it." +He paused to light a cigarette, and James pretended to collect the +coffee cups. +</P> + +<P> +"He gave the eagle to the Boots to mind for him," resumed the Doctor, +"and the Boots put it into an empty bedroom. It wasn't more than seven +o'clock next morning when my uncle was wakened up, and the waiter came +in. 'There's a man in the kitchen, your honour,' says he, 'and he has +a great fighting aigle, and he says he'll fight your honour's aigle in +the passage.' They had a grand fight between the two o' them in the +spare room, and in the end my uncle's eagle went up the chimney, and +the man's eagle went out through the glass in the window. My uncle had +a nice bill to pay for all that was broken in the room, and in the end +he gave the eagle to the Zoo." +</P> + +<P> +"Faith, he did not!" shouted James suddenly. "He left him stuck in the +chimbley! And sure it was I that got him out, and meself that sold him +to a gentleman that was going to Ameriky. Sure, I was the waiter!" +</P> + +<P> +Dr. Hickey threw himself back in his rustic chair. +</P> + +<P> +"Holy smoke! This is no place for me," he said; "every story I have is +true in spite of me." +</P> + +<P> +Soon afterwards the ladies went to bed, and Dr. Hickey and I smoked on +for a time. He explained to me that he was here as "locum" for a +friend of his; it wasn't much of a catch, but he was only just after +passing for his Medical, and you'd nearly go as locum for a tinker's +dog after you had three years' grinding in Dublin put in. This was a +God-forsaken sort of a hole, not a hound within fifty miles, nor anyone +that would know a hound if they saw one, but the fishing was middling +good. From this point the conversation flowed smoothly into channels +of sport, and the dual goals of Dr. Hickey's ambition were divulged to +me. +</P> + +<P> +"There was a chap I was at school with—Knox his name was—that has a +little pack of foxhounds down in the South, and he's as good as +promised me I'm to whip in to him if I can get the Skebawn Dispensary +that's vacant now, and I might have as good a chance of it as another." +</P> + +<P> +My own ambitions were also, at the moment, dual, being matrimonial, +with a Resident Magistracy attached, but I did not feel it necessary to +reveal them. I mentioned that I was having a day's fishing here on my +way to Donegal to shoot grouse, but did not add that Philippa, to whom +I was newly engaged, was implicated in the grouse party, still less +that it was my intention to meet her the next afternoon at Carrow Cross +Junction, an hour away, and proceed with her to the home of her uncle, +an hour or so further on. +</P> + +<P> +"You might have three hours, or maybe four, to wait at Carrow Cross," +said Dr. Hickey, as if tracking my thought; "why wouldn't you drive out +to the Sports at Carrow Bay? It's only four miles, and there's a +Regatta there to-morrow, and when the tide goes out they have races on +the sands. I believe there's a trotting-match too, and an exhibition +of crochet." +</P> + +<P> +It did not seem to me that I wanted to go to Carrow Bay, but it was not +necessary to say so. +</P> + +<P> +Trucks at the station were banging into their neighbours, with much +comment from the engine; I thought of Tommeen and his comrades, up +since 3 A.M., and still waiting to get home, and it suggested the +privileges of those who could go to bed. +</P> + +<P> +It was over a whisky and soda in the heavily reminiscent atmosphere of +the smoking-room that Dr. Hickey told me he was going to take the +ladies to the Sports, and mentioned that there would be a train at +eleven, and a spare seat on the car from Carrow Cross. It required no +special effort to see the position that I was to occupy in relation to +Mrs. M'Evoy; I followed the diplomatic method of my country; I looked +sympathetic, and knew certainly that I should not be there. +</P> + +<P> +I leaned out of my window that night, to look at the river, with the +moon on it, hustling over the shallows, and thought of the porpoise, +who had been so unchivalrously banished by the whale. I also wondered +when the English post got in. I was presently aware of a head +projecting from a window just below, and a female voice said, as if in +continuance of a conversation: +</P> + +<P> +"We should coax James for the cold duck to take with us." +</P> + +<P> +"That's a good idea," replied the rotund voice of Mrs. M'Evoy; "we'll +get nothing out there that a Christian could eat, and there might be +that gentleman too." (That gentleman closed one eye.) "Come in now, +Ally! There's an east wind coming in that would perish the crows." +</P> + +<P> +The guillotine slam of the sash followed. The river warbled and washed +through the stillness; its current was not colder, more clear, than +"that gentleman's" resolve that he would not grace the luncheon party +at Carrow Bay Sports. +</P> + +<P> +I breakfasted late and in solitude, ministered to by one of the female +underlings of James; the voice of James himself, I heard distantly, in +war and slaughtering, somewhere behind the scenes. The letter that I +wanted had not failed me, and I smoked a very honeyed cigarette over it +in the garden afterwards. A glimpse of Dr. Hickey at the hotel door in +a palpably new tie, and of Mrs. and Miss M'Evoy in splendour in the +hall, broke into my peace. I quietly but unhesitatingly got over the +wall of the garden, and withdrew by way of the river bank. +</P> + +<P> +When the 11 o'clock train had left I returned to the halcyon stillness +of the hotel; my own train left at 1.30; it was a time favourable, and +almost attractive, for letter writing. As I wrote, I heard the voice +of James demanding in thunder where was Festus O'Flaherty, and why +hadn't he the chickens plucked. A small female voice replied that the +Doctor and the ladies had left their lunch after them, and that Festus +had run up to the station to try would he overtake them with it, and +the thrain was gone. +</P> + +<P> +"And if it was themselves they left after them," retorted James, still +in thunder, "what was that to him?" +</P> + +<P> +To this conundrum no answer was attempted; I bestowed upon Mrs. M'Evoy +some transient compassion, and she and her company departed, hull down, +below the horizon of my thoughts. +</P> + +<P> +A few hours afterwards, I trod the solitudes of Carrow Cross Junction, +and saw the train that had brought me there bend like a caterpillar +round a spur of hill, and disappear. When I looked round again the +little bookstall was shuttered up, and the bookstall lady was vanishing +down a flight of steps; the porter had entrenched himself in the goods +store; the stationmaster was withdrawn from human ken with the +completeness only achievable by his kind. I was suspended in space for +three hours, and the indifference of my fellow-creatures was +unconcealed. A long walk to nowhere and back again was the obvious +resource of the destitute. +</P> + +<P> +The town of Carrow Cross lay in a hollow below the station, with the +blue turf smoke stagnant above its muddle of slate and thatched roofs; +I skirted it, and struck out into the country. I did not find it +attractive. Potato fields in September are not looking their best; +there were no trees, and loose, crooked walls overran the landscape. +The peak of Dreelish mountain was visible, but the dingy green country +rose high between me and it, like the cope on the neck of a priest. I +walked for an hour; I sat on a wall and read Philippa's letter again, +and found, with a shock, that I had only one cigarette left. A fatuous +fear of missing the train turned me back in the direction of the +station, slightly hungry, and profoundly bored. I came into the town +by a convent, and saw the nuns walking flowingly in twos, under +chestnut trees; asceticism in its most pictorial aspect, with the +orange leaves and the blue September haze, and the black robes and +white headgear. I wondered how they managed to go on walking neatly to +nowhere and back again with such purpose, and if they felt as jaded as +I, and as little enlivened by the environs of Carrow Cross. +</P> + +<P> +The town was an unprepossessing affair of two or three streets, +whitewash and thatch squeezed between green and gold pubs, like old +country-women among fashionable daughters. Everything was closed; as I +looked along the empty street an outside car drawn by a dun pony turned +into it at high speed, the pony forging with a double click-clack. As +the car swung towards me some one flourished a stick, some one else a +red parasol. +</P> + +<P> +"We got a bit tired waiting for the sports," Dr. Hickey said, as he +assisted Mrs. M'Evoy to alight at a house labelled Lynch's Railway +Hotel, in royal blue; "it seemed that the tide wasn't going out as fast +as the Committee expected. It might be another hour or more before the +race-course would be above water, and we thought we might as well come +on here and get something to eat at the Hotel." +</P> + +<P> +"It has the appearance of being closed," said Mrs. M'Evoy, in a voice +thinned by famine. +</P> + +<P> +"That might be a fashion it has in the afternoon, when themselves does +be at their dinner," said the car-driver. +</P> + +<P> +The front door was certainly closed, and there was neither knocker nor +bell, nothing but a large well-thumbed keyhole. Dr. Hickey hammered +with his stick; nothing happened. +</P> + +<P> +"They're gone to the races so," said the car-driver. +</P> + +<P> +In the silence that followed it seemed that I could hear the flagging +beat of Mrs. M'Evoy's heart. +</P> + +<P> +"Wait awhile," said Dr. Hickey; "the window isn't bolted!" +</P> + +<P> +The sill was no more than two feet from the ground, the sash yielded to +pressure and went up; Dr. Hickey dived in, and we presently heard him +assail the front door from inside. +</P> + +<P> +It was locked, and its key had apparently gone to the races. I +followed Dr. Hickey by way of the window, so did Miss M'Evoy; we pooled +our forces, and drew her mamma after us through the opening of two foot +by three, steadily, as the great god Pan drew the pith from the reed. +</P> + +<P> +We found ourselves in a small sitting-room, almost filled by a table; +there was a mature smell of cabbage, but there was nothing else to +suggest the presence of food. We proceeded to the nether regions, +which were like a chapter in a modern realistic novel, and found a +sickly kitchen fire, the horrid remains of the Lynch family breakfast, +an empty larder, and some of the home attire of the race-goers, lying, +as the tree lies, where it fell. +</P> + +<P> +"There's a sort of a butcher in the town," said Dr. Hickey, when the +search-parties had converged on each other, empty-handed, "maybe we +could cook something——" +</P> + +<P> +"If it was even a bit of salt pork—" said Mrs. M'Evoy, seizing the +poker and attacking the sleepy fire. +</P> + +<P> +"Let you get some water, and I'll wash the plates," said Miss M'Evoy to +Dr. Hickey. +</P> + +<P> +I looked at my watch, saw that I had still an hour and a half to play +with, and departed to look for the butcher. +</P> + +<P> +Neither by sign-board nor by shop front did the Carrow Cross butcher +reveal himself. I was finally investigating a side street, where the +houses were one-storeyed, and thatched, and wholly unpromising, when a +heavy running step, that might have been a horse's, thundered behind +me, and a cumbrous pale woman, with the face of a fugitive, plunged +past me, and burst in at a cottage door like a mighty blast of wind. A +little girl, in tears, thudded barefooted after her. The big woman +turned in the doorway, and shrieked to me. +</P> + +<P> +"Thim's madmen, from th' Asylum! Come inside from them, for God's +sake!" +</P> + +<P> +I looked behind me up the street, and saw a small, decorous party of +men, flanked by a couple of stalwart keepers in uniform. One of the +men, a white-faced being in seedy black, headed them, playing an +imaginary fiddle on his left arm, and smiling secretly to himself. +Whether the lady had invited me to her house as a protector, or as a +refugee, I did not know: she herself had vanished, but through the +still open door I saw, miraculously, a fragment or two of meat, hanging +in the interior. I had apparently chanced upon the home of the Carrow +Cross butcher. +</P> + +<P> +A greasy counter and a chopping-block put the matter beyond doubt; I +beat upon an inner door: a wail of terror responded, and then a muffled +voice: +</P> + +<P> +"Come in under the bed to me, Chrissie, before they'd ketch ye!" +</P> + +<P> +There was nothing for it but to take from a hook a grey and white +fragment that looked like bacon, place half-a-crown on the counter, and +depart swiftly. +</P> + +<P> +"I gave a few of the Asylum patients leave to go to the Sports," said +Dr. Hickey, a little later, when we were seated between the large bare +table and the wall of the little sitting-room, with slices of fried +pork weltering on our plates. "I saw the fellow waltzing down the +street. Ah! he's fairly harmless, and they've a couple o' keepers with +them anyway." +</P> + +<P> +"The only pity was that you left the half-crown," said Mrs. M'Evoy; "a +shilling was too much for it." +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. M'Evoy was considerably flushed, and had an effective black smear +on her forehead, but her voice had recovered its timbre. There was a +tin of biscuits on the table, there was a war-worn brown teapot, and +some bottles of porter; it was now four hours since I had eaten +anything; in spite of the cold and clear resolve of the night before, I +was feeding, grossly yet enjoyably, with Dr. Hickey and his friends. +</P> + +<P> +"This is a Temperance Hotel for the past year," remarked Dr. Hickey, +delicately knocking off the head of a porter bottle with the +sitting-room poker. "That's why it was upstairs I found the porter. I +suppose they took the corkscrew to the Sports with them." +</P> + +<P> +"How did they lose the license at all?" said Mrs. M'Evoy; "I thought +there wasn't a house in Carrow Cross but had one." +</P> + +<P> +"It was taken from them over some little mistake about selling +potheen," replied Dr. Hickey, courteously applying the broken neck of +the bottle to Mrs. M'Evoy's tumbler. "The police came to search the +house, and old Lynch, that was in bed upstairs, heard them, and threw a +two-gallon jar of potheen out of the top back window, to break it. The +unlucky thing was that there was a goose in the yard, and it was on the +goose it fell." +</P> + +<P> +"The creature!" said Miss M'Evoy, "was she killed?" +</P> + +<P> +"Killed to the bone, as they say," replied the Doctor; "but the trouble +was, that on account of falling on the goose the jar wasn't broken, so +the bobbies got the potheen." +</P> + +<P> +"Supposing they summons you now for the porter!" said Mrs. M'Evoy, +facetiously, casting her eye through the open window into the bare +sunshiny street. +</P> + +<P> +"They'll have summonses enough at Carrow Bay to keep them out of +mischief," returned Dr. Hickey. "It's a pity now, Major, you didn't +patronise the Sports. They might have put you on judging the cakes +with Mrs. M'Evoy." +</P> + +<P> +"Why then, the one they put on with me was the man they had judging the +vegetables," said Mrs. M'Evoy, after a comfortable pull at the +contraband porter. "'That's a fine weighty cake,' says me lad, +weighing a sponge-cake on his hand. 'We'll give that one the prize.'" +</P> + +<P> +"I wish you brought it here with you," said her daughter, "as weighty +as it was." +</P> + +<P> +"They put <I>me</I> judging the row-boats," said Dr. Hickey, "but after the +third race I had to give up, and put five stitches in one of the men +that was in the mark-boat." +</P> + +<P> +I said that the mark-boat ought to have been a fairly safe place. +</P> + +<P> +"Safe!" said Dr. Hickey. "It was the hottest corner in the course. I +thought they were sunk twice, but they might have been all right if +they hadn't out-oars and joined in the race on the second round. They +got in first, as it happened, and it was in the course of the protest +that I had to put in the stitches. It was a good day's sport, as far +as it went." +</P> + +<P> +"Ah, there's no life in a Regatta without a band," said Miss M'Evoy +languidly, with her elbows on the table and her cup in her hand. "Now +Ringsend Regatta's sweet!" +</P> + +<P> +"I'm afraid Miss M'Evoy didn't enjoy herself to-day," said Dr. Hickey. +"Of course she's used to so much attention in Dublin——" +</P> + +<P> +"It's kind of you to say that," said Miss M'Evoy; "I'm sure you're +quite an authority on Dublin young ladies." +</P> + +<P> +"Is it me?" said Dr. Hickey; "I'd be afraid to say Boo to a goose. But +I've a brother that could tell you all about them. He's not as shy as +I am." +</P> + +<P> +"He must be a great help and comfort to you," returned Miss M'Evoy. +</P> + +<P> +"He's very romantic," said Dr. Hickey, "and poetical. He was greatly +struck with two young ladies he met at the Ringsend Regatta last month. +He mistook their address, someway, and when he couldn't find them, what +did he do but put a poem in the papers—the Agony Column, y'know——" +</P> + +<P> +"We'd like to hear that," said Mrs. M'Evoy, putting her knife into the +salt with unhurried dexterity. +</P> + +<P> +"I forget it all, only the last verse," said Dr. Hickey, "it went this +way: +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +'You are indeed a charming creature,<BR> +Perfect alike in form and feature,<BR> +I love you and none other.<BR> +Oh, Letitia—Here's your Mother!'"<BR> +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +As Dr. Hickey, his eyes modestly on his plate, concluded the ode, I +certainly intercepted a peculiar glance between the ladies. +</P> + +<P> +"I call that very impident," said Mrs. M'Evoy, winking at me. +</P> + +<P> +"It was worth paying a good deal to put that in print!" commented Miss +M'Evoy unkindly. "But that was a lovely Regatta," she continued, "and +the music and the fireworks were grand, but the society's very mixed. +Do you remember, M'ma, what happened to Mary and me that evening, the +time we missed you in the dark?" +</P> + +<P> +"Indeed'n I do," said Mrs. M'Evoy, her eyes still communing with her +daughter's, "and I remember telling you it was the last evening I'd let +you out of my sight." +</P> + +<P> +"It was a gentleman that picked up my umbrella," began Miss M'Evoy +artlessly. +</P> + +<P> +Dr. Hickey dropped his knife on the floor, and took some time to pick +it up. +</P> + +<P> +"And he passed the remark to me that it was a nice evening," went on +Miss M'Evoy. "'It is,' said I. Now, M'ma, why wouldn't I give him a +civil answer?" +</P> + +<P> +"That's according to taste," said Mrs. M'Evoy. +</P> + +<P> +"Well indeed I didn't fancy his looks at all. It was pitch dark only +for the fireworks, but I thought he had a nasty kind of a foreign look, +and a little pointed beard on him too. If you saw the roll of his eye +when the green fire fell out of the rockets you'd think of +Mephistopheles——" +</P> + +<P> +"There's no doubt Mephistopheles was one of Shakespeare's grandest +creations," said Dr. Hickey hurriedly. His eyes besought my aid. It +struck me that this literary digression was an attempt to change the +conversation. +</P> + +<P> +Miss M'Evoy resumed her narrative. +</P> + +<P> +"'That's a pretty flower you have in your button-hole,' said he. 'It +is,' said I." +</P> + +<P> +"You didn't tell him a great deal he didn't know," said her mother. +</P> + +<P> +"'Maybe you might give it to me?' said he. 'Maybe I might not!' said +I. 'And where do you live?' said he. 'Percy Place,' says Mary, before +you could wink. Anyone would have to believe her. 'Upon my soul,' +said he, 'I'll have the pleasure of calling upon you. Might I ask what +your name is?' 'O'Rooney,' says Mary, 'and this is my cousin, Miss +Letitia Gollagher.' Well, when Mary said 'Gollagher,' I <I>burst!</I>" +</P> + +<P> +Miss M'Evoy here put down her cup, and to some slight extent repeated +the operation. +</P> + +<P> +"I suppose the foreign gentleman told you his own name then?" said Dr. +Hickey, whose complexion had warmed up remarkably. +</P> + +<P> +"He did not," said Miss M'Evoy; "but perhaps that was because he wasn't +asked, and it was then M'ma came up. I can tell you he didn't wait to +be introduced!" +</P> + +<P> +"I have a sister-in-law living in Percy Place," said Mrs. M'Evoy, +passing her handkerchief over her brow, and addressing no one in +particular, "and it was some day last month she was telling me of a +young man that was knocking at all the doors down the street, and she +thought he was a Collector of some sort. He came to her house too, and +he told the girl he was looking for some ladies of the name of +Gollagher or O'Rooney." +</P> + +<P> +She paused, and regarded Dr. Hickey. +</P> + +<P> +"I wonder did he find them?" asked Dr. Hickey, who was obviously being +forced on to the ropes. +</P> + +<P> +"I thought you might be able to tell us that!" said Mrs. M'Evoy, +delivering her knock-out blow with the suddenness that belongs to the +highest walks of the art. +</P> + +<P> +Miss M'Evoy, with equal suddenness, uttered a long and strident yell, +and lay back in her place, grasping my arm as she did so, in what I am +convinced was wholly unconscious sympathy. She and I were side by +side, facing the window, and through the window, which, as I have +mentioned, was wide open, I was aware of a new element in the situation. +</P> + +<P> +It was a figure in blue in the street outside; a soft and familiar +blue, and it bore a parasol of the same colour. The figure was at a +standstill; and very blue, the burning blue of tropical heavens, were +the eyes that met mine beneath the canopy of the parasol. Even before +my own had time to blink I foreknew that never, in time or in eternity, +should I be able to make Philippa accept thoroughly my explanation. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +Philippa's explanation was extremely brief, and was addressed rather to +the empty street of Carrow Cross than to me, as I crawled by her side. +There had been, she said, half an hour to wait, and as I was not at the +station—the blue eyes met mine for a steely moment—she had gone for a +little walk. She had met some horrid drunken men, and turned into +another street to avoid them, and then—— +</P> + +<P> +A brimming silence followed. We turned up the road that led to the +station. +</P> + +<P> +"There are those men again!" exclaimed Philippa, coming a little nearer +to me. +</P> + +<P> +In front of us, deviously ascending the long slope, was the Asylum +party; the keepers, exceedingly drunk, being assisted to the station by +the Lunatics. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap08"></A> + +<P CLASS="t3b"> +VIII +</P> + +<P CLASS="t4b"> +THE BOSOM OF THE McRORYS +</P> + +<P> +Since the day when fate had shipwrecked us at the end of the Temple +Braney shrubbery, and flung us, dripping, into the bosoms of the +McRorys, we had been the victims of an indissoluble friendship with the +family. This fulfilled itself in many ways. +</P> + +<P> +Gratitude, what is known as Common Gratitude (which is merely a hollow +compliance with the voice of conscience), impelled us to lunch Mr. and +Mrs. McRory, heavily and elaborately (but without any one to meet +them); to invite the whole family to a lawn-tennis party (and the whole +family came); and, at other people's tennis parties, to fawn upon them +(when it was no longer possible to elude them). It was a despicable +position, and had I at all foreseen, when the picnic sank at Temple +Braney pier, that the result would have been dinner-parties, I should +unhesitatingly have left Philippa to drown. +</P> + +<P> +The intimacies imposed by Common Gratitude had, under the healing hand +of time, become less acute, and might, indeed, have ceased to affect +us, had not fate again intervened, and cemented the family friendship +in the most public way possible. There befell a Harvest Festival in +Skebawn Church, with a Bishop, and an Anthem, and a special collection. +To it the McRorys, forsaking their own place of worship, came in power, +and my wife, very superfluously, indicated to Mrs. McRory a seat in our +pew. The pew is a front one, and Mrs. McRory became at once a +figure-head to the rest of the congregation—a buxom figure-head, +upholstered tightly in royal blue satin, that paled the ineffectual +fires of the pulpit dahlias, and shouted in a terrible major chord with +the sunflowers in the east window. She creaked mysteriously and +rhythmically with every breath; a large gold butterfly, poised on an +invisible spring, quivered and glittered above her bonnet. It was +while waiting for the service to begin that Philippa was inspired to +whisper to Mrs McRory some information, quite immaterial, connected +with the hymns. The next moment I perceived that Mrs. McRory's +butterfly had fixed its antennæ into some adjunct of my wife's hat that +was at once diaphanous and sinewy, with the result that the heads of +the two ladies were locked together. A silent struggle ensued; the +butterfly's grappling-irons held, so also did the hat-trimming, and +Philippa and Mrs. McRory remained brow to brow in what seemed to be a +prolonged embrace. At this point Philippa showed signs of collapse; +she said that Mrs. McRory's nose, glowing like a ruby within two inches +of her own, made her hysterical. I affected unconsciousness, while my +soul thirsted for an axe with which to decapitate one or both of the +combatants, and subsequently to run amok among the congregation, now, +as the poet says, "abashlessly abandoned to delight." The butterfly's +vitals slowly uncoiled, and were drawn out into a single yet +indomitable strand of gold wire; the Bishop was imminent, when a female +McRory in the pew behind (known to the Fancy as "Larkie") intervened +with what were, I believe, a pair of manicure scissors, and the +incident closed. +</P> + +<P> +It was clear that our blood-brotherhood with the McRorys was +foreordained and predestined. We evaded two invitations to dinner, but +a third was inescapable, even though an alarming intimacy was +foreshadowed by the request that we should come "in a very quiet way." +</P> + +<P> +"Do they expect us to creep in in tennis shoes?" I demanded. +</P> + +<P> +"I think it only means a black tie," said Philippa, with the idea that +she was soothing me. +</P> + +<P> +"If I have to go to a McRory Free-and-Easy, I shall not act as such," I +returned, slamming myself into my dressing-room, and dragging forth +ceremonial attire. +</P> + +<P> +As, with a docility that I was far from feeling, I followed my wife +into the drawing-room at Temple Braney, and surveyed the semicircle of +McRorys and unknown notabilities (summarised as "Friends from Dublin") +that silently awaited us, I felt that neither freedom nor ease would be +my lot. But few things in life are quite as bad as one expects them to +be—always excepting sea-sickness. In its dreary circuit of the room, +my eye met that of my old friend Miss Bobby Bennett, of the Curranhilty +Hunt, niece of its Master, and consultant and referee in all its +affairs. My friendship with Miss Bennett was of an ideal nature; when +we met, which was seldom, we were delighted to see one another; in the +intervals we forgot one another with, I felt sure, an equal +completeness. Her social orbit was incalculable; she resembled a fox +of whom I heard an earth-stopper say that you "couldn't tell any +certain place where he wouldn't puck out." Whether it was at +Punchestown, or at a Skebawn Parish tea, or judging cakes and crochet +at an Agricultural Show, wherever she appeared it was with the same air +of being on top of the situation and of extracting the utmost from it. +</P> + +<P> +To me befell the onerous task of taking the Lady of the House in to +dinner, but upon my other hand sat Miss Bennett (squired by a Friend +from Dublin of apparently negligible quality), and before I had +recovered from the soup—a hell-broth of liquid mustard that called +itself mulligatawny—I found that to concentrate upon her was no more +than was expected of me by both ladies. Mrs. McRory's energies were +indeed fully engrossed by the marshalling of a drove of heated females, +who hurried stertorously and spasmodically round the table, driven as +leaves before the wind by fierce signals from their trainer. Opposite +to me sat that daughter of the house whose manicure scissors had +terminated the painful episode of the butterfly. I had always +maintained that she was the prettiest of the McRorys, and it was +evident that Irving, the new District Inspector of R.I.C., who sat +beside her, shared my opinion. He was a serious, lanky young man, and +at such moments as he found himself deprived of Miss McRory's exclusive +attention, he accepted no alternative, and devoted himself austerely to +his food. +</P> + +<P> +Miss Bennett's intention was, I presently discovered, to hunt with +Flurry Knox's hounds on the following day: she had brought over a +horse, and it became clear to me that her secondary intention was to +return without it. +</P> + +<P> +"Larkie McRory's going to take up hunting," she said in her low swift +voice. "The new D.I. hunts, you know." +</P> + +<P> +Miss Bennett's astute grey eyes rested upon the young lady in question, +and returned to me laden with inference. +</P> + +<P> +"He's got a horse from a farmer for her to ride to-morrow—goodness +knows what sort of a brute it is!—I hope she won't break her neck. +She's the best of the lot. If the old man had sense he'd buy my mare +for her—he's full of money—and I'd let her go cheap, too, as I have a +young one coming on." +</P> + +<P> +It is worthy of mention that I have never known Miss Bennett's stable +composed of anything save old ones to go cheap and young ones coming +on. I asked her what she would give me if I didn't tell Mr. McRory +that her mare was touched in the wind. +</P> + +<P> +"I'll give you in charge for defamation of character," replied Miss +Bennett, with speed comparable only to the dart of an ant-eater's +tongue. "Anything else you'd like to know? But look at Larkie now, I +ask of you! Quick!" +</P> + +<P> +I did as desired, and was fortunate enough to see Miss McRory in the +act of putting a spoonful of salt in Mr. Irving's champagne, what time +he was engaged in repulsing one of Mrs. McRory's band of flaming +ministers, who, with head averted in consultation with a collaborator, +was continuously offering him melted butter, regardless of the fact +that he had, at the moment, nothing in front of him but the tablecloth. +</P> + +<P> +"There's Miss Larkie's Dublin manners for you," said Miss Bennett, and +passed on to other themes. +</P> + +<P> +I should say theme, because, speaking broadly, Miss Bennett had but +one, and all roads sooner or later led to it. During the slow progress +of the meal I was brought up to date in the inner gossip of the +Curranhilty country. I learned that Mrs. Albert Dougherty had taken to +riding astride because she thought it was smart, and it was nothing but +the grab she got of the noseband that saved her from coming off every +time she came down a drop. I asked for that Mr. Tomsy Flood whose +career had twice, at vital points, been intersected by me. +</P> + +<P> +"Ah, poor Tomsy! He took to this, y'know," Miss Bennett slightly +jerked her little finger, "and he wouldn't ride a donkey over a sod of +turf. They sent him out to South Africa, to an ostrich farm, and when +the people found he couldn't ride they put him to bed with a setting of +ostrich eggs to keep them warm, and he did that grand, till some one +gave him a bottle of whisky, and he got rather lively and broke all the +eggs. They say it's a lay-preacher he's going to be now!" +</P> + +<P> +Across a dish of potatoes, thrust at me for the fourth time, I told +Miss Bennett that it was all her fault, and that she had been very +unkind to Tomsy Flood. Miss Bennett gave me a look that showed me what +she still could do if she liked, and replied that she supposed I was +sorry that she hadn't gone to South Africa with him. +</P> + +<P> +"I suppose we'll all be going there soon," she went on. "Uncle says if +Home Rule comes there won't be a fox or a Protestant left in Ireland in +ten years' time; and he said, what's more, that if <I>he</I> had to choose +it mightn't be the Protestants he'd keep! But that was because the +Dissenting Minister's wife sent in a claim of five pounds to the Fowl +Fund, and said she'd put down poison if she didn't get it." +</P> + +<P> +Not thus did Philippa and old McRory, at their end of the table, fleet +the time away. Old McRory, as far as I could judge, spoke not at all, +but played tunes with his fingers on the tablecloth, or preoccupied +himself with what seemed to be an endeavour to plait his beard into a +point. On my wife's other hand was an unknown gentleman, with rosy +cheeks, a raven moustache, and a bald head, who was kind enough to +solace her isolation with facetious stories, garnished with free and +varied gestures with his knife, suggestive of sword-practice, all +concluding alike in convulsive tenor laughter. I was aware, not +unpleasantly, that Philippa was bearing the brunt of the McRory +bean-feast. +</P> + +<P> +When at length my wife's release was earned, and the ladies had rustled +from the room in her wake, with all the conscious majesty of the Mantle +Department, I attempted some conversation with my host, but found that +it was more considerate to leave him to devour unmolested the +crystallised fruits and chocolates that were not, I felt quite sure, +provided by Mrs. McRory for the Master of the House. I retired upon +the D.I., my opinion of whom had risen since I saw him swallow his +salted champagne without a change of countenance. That he addressed me +as "Sir" was painful, but at about my age these shocks have to be +expected, and are in the same category as lumbago, and what my dentist +delicately alludes to as "dentures." +</P> + +<P> +The young District Inspector of Irish Constabulary has wisdom beyond +his years: we talked profoundly of the state of the country until the +small voice of old McRory interrupted us. +</P> + +<P> +"Major," it said, "if you have enough drink taken we might join the +ladies." +</P> + +<P> +Most of the other gallants had already preceded us, and as I crossed +the hall I heard the measured pounding of a waltz on the piano: it +created an impulse, almost as uncontrollable as that of Spurius Lartius +and Herminius, to dart back to the dining-room. +</P> + +<P> +"That's the way with them every night," said old McRory +dispassionately. "They mightn't go to bed now at all." +</P> + +<P> +Old McRory had a shadowy and imperceptible quality that is not unusual +in small fathers of large families; it always struck me that he +understood very thoroughly the privileges of the neglected, and pursued +an unnoticed, peaceful, and observant path of his own in the +background. I watched him creep away in his furtive, stupefied manner, +like a partly-chloroformed ferret. "'Oh, well is thee, thou art +asleep!'—or soon will be," I said to myself, as I turned my back on +him and faced the music. +</P> + +<P> +I was immediately gratified by the spectacle of Philippa, clasped to +the heart of the gentleman who had been kind to her at dinner, and +moving with him in slow and crab-like sidlings round the carpet. Her +eyes met mine with passionate appeal; they reminded me of those of her +own fox-terrier, Minx, when compelled to waltz with my younger son. +</P> + +<P> +The furniture and the elder ladies had been piled up in corners, and +the dancing element had been reinforced by a gang of lesser McRorys and +their congeners, beings who had not been deemed worthy of a place at +the high table. Immured behind the upright piano sat Mrs. McRory, +thumping out the time-honoured "Blue Danube" with the plodding rhythm +of the omnibus horse. I furtively looked at my watch; we had dined at +7.30, and it was now but a quarter to ten o'clock. Not for half an +hour could we in decency withdraw, and, finding myself at the moment +beside Miss Larkie McRory, it seemed to me that I could do no less than +invite her to take the carpet with me. +</P> + +<P> +I am aware that my dancing is that of ten years ago, which places it in +the same scrap-heap class as a battleship of that date, but Miss McRory +told me that she preferred it, and that it exactly suited her step. It +would be as easy to describe the way of a bird in the air as to define +Miss McRory's step; scrap-heap or no, it made me feel that I walked the +carpet like a thing of life. We were occasionally wrecked upon reefs +of huddled furniture, and we sustained a collision or two of first-rate +magnitude: after these episodes my partner imperceptibly steered me to +a corner, in which I leaned heavily against whatever was most stable, +and tried to ignore the fact that the floor was rocking and the walls +were waving, and that it was at least two years since I had exceeded in +this way. +</P> + +<P> +It was in one of these intervals that Miss McRory told me that she was +going hunting next day, and that he—her long hazel-grey eyes indicated +Mr. Irving, now slowly and showily moving a partner about the room—had +got a horse for her to ride, and she had never hunted before. She +hoped to goodness she wouldn't fall off, and (here she dealt me the +fraction of a glance) she hoped I'd pick her up now and again. I said +that the two wishes were incompatible, to which she replied that she +didn't know what incompatible meant; and I told her to ask Mr. Irving +whether he had found that salt and champagne were compatible. +</P> + +<P> +"I thought you only wore that old eyeglass for show," replied Miss +McRory softly, and again looked up at me from under her upcurled Irish +eyelashes; "it was out of spite he drank it! A girl did that to my +brother Curly at a dance, and he poured it down her back." +</P> + +<P> +"I think Mr. Irving treated you better than you deserved," I replied +paternally, adventuring once more into the tide of dancers. +</P> + +<P> +When, some five minutes afterwards, I resigned my partner to Irving +D.I., I felt that honour had been satisfied, and that it was now +possible to leave the revel. But in this I found that I had reckoned, +not so much without my host, as without my fellow-guest. Philippa, to +my just indignation, had blossomed into the success of the evening. +Having disposed of the kind-hearted gentleman (with the pink cheeks and +the black moustache), she was immediately claimed by Mr. De Lacey +McRory, the eldest son of the house, and with him exhibited a +proficiency in the latest variant of the waltz that she had hitherto +concealed from me. The music, like the unseen orchestra of a +merry-go-round, was practically continuous. Scuffles took place at +intervals behind the upright piano, during which music-books fell +heavily upon the keys, and one gathered that a change of artist was +taking place, but the fundamental banging of the bass was maintained, +and the dancing ceased not. The efforts of the musicians were +presently reinforced by a young lady in blue, who supplied a shrill and +gibbering <I>obligato</I> upon a beribboned mandoline, and even, at some +passionate moments, added her voice to the <I>ensemble</I>. +</P> + +<P> +"Will this go on much longer?" I asked of Miss Bennett, with whom I had +withdrawn to the asylum of a bow window. +</P> + +<P> +"D'ye mean Miss Cooney O'Rattigan and her mandoline?" replied Miss +Bennett. "I can tell you it was twice worse this afternoon when she +was singing Italian to it. I never stayed here before, and please +goodness I never will again; the wardrobe in my room is crammed with +Mrs. McRory's summer clothes, and the chest of drawers is full of +apples! Ah, but after all," went on Miss Bennett largely, "what can +you expect from a cob but a kick? Didn't Tomsy Flood find a collection +of empty soda-water bottles in his bed the time he stayed here for the +wedding, when you found him stitched up in the feather bed!" +</P> + +<A NAME="img-214"></A> +<CENTER> +<IMG CLASS="imgcenter" SRC="images/img-214.jpg" ALT="Miss Cooney O'Rattigan." BORDER="2"> +<H4 CLASS="h4center"> +Miss Cooney O'Rattigan. +</H4> +</CENTER> + +<P> +I said that the soda-water bottles had probably prepared him for the +ostrich eggs, and Miss Bennett asked me if it were true that I had once +found a nest of young mice in the foot of my bed at Aussolas, because +that was the story she had heard. I was able to assure her that, on +the contrary, it had been kittens, and passing from these pleasing +reminiscences I asked her to come forth and smoke a cigarette in the +hall with me, as a preliminary to a farther advance in the direction of +the motor. I have a sincere regard for Miss Bennett, but her dancing +is a serious matter, with a Cromwellian quality in it, suggestive of +jack boots and the march of great events. +</P> + +<P> +The cigarettes were consolatory, and the two basket-chairs by the fire +in the back-hall were sufficiently comfortable; but the prospect of +home burned like a beacon before me. The clock struck eleven. +</P> + +<P> +"They're only beginning now!" said Miss Bennett, interpreting without +resentment my glance at it. "Last night it was near one o'clock in the +morning when they had high tea, and then they took to singing songs, +and playing 'Are you there, Mike?' and cock-fighting." +</P> + +<P> +I rose hastily, and began to search for my overcoat and cap, prepared +to plunge into the frosty night, when Miss Bennett offered to show me a +short way through the house to the stableyard, where I had left the car. +</P> + +<P> +"I slipped out that way after dinner," she said, picking up a fur-lined +cloak and wrapping it about her. "I wanted to make sure the mare had a +second rug on her this cold night." +</P> + +<P> +I followed Miss Bennett through a wheezy swing-door; a flagged passage +stretched like a tunnel before us, lighted by a solitary candle planted +in its own grease in a window. A long battle-line of bicycles occupied +one side of the passage; there were doors, padlocked and cobwebbed, on +the other. A ragged baize door at the end of the tunnel opened into +darkness that smelt of rat-holes, and was patched by a square or two of +moonlight. +</P> + +<P> +"This is a sort of a lobby," said Miss Bennett. "Mind! There's a +mangle there—and there are oars on the floor somewhere——" +</P> + +<P> +As she spoke I was aware of a distant humming noise, like bees in a +chimney. +</P> + +<P> +"That sounds uncommonly like a motor," I said. +</P> + +<P> +"That's only the boiler," replied Miss Bennett; "we're at the back of +the kitchen here." +</P> + +<P> +She advanced with confidence, and flung open a door. A most startling +vista was revealed, of a lighted room with several beds in it. +Children's faces, swelled and scarlet, loomed at us from the pillows, +and an old woman, with bare feet and a shawl over her head, stood +transfixed, with a kettle in one hand and a tumbler in the other. +</P> + +<P> +Miss Bennett swiftly closed the door upon the vision. +</P> + +<P> +"My gracious heavens!" she whispered, "what on earth children are +those? I'm sure it's mumps they have, whoever they are. And how +secret the McRorys kept it!—and did you see it was punch the old woman +was giving them?" +</P> + +<P> +"We might have asked her the way to the yard," I said, inwardly +resolving to tell Philippa it was scarlatina; "and she might have given +us a light." +</P> + +<P> +"It was this door I should have tried," said my guide, opening another +with considerable circumspection. +</P> + +<P> +Sounds of hilarity immediately travelled to us along a passage; I +followed Miss Bennett, feeling much as if I were being led by a +detective into Chinatown, San Francisco. A square of light in the wall +indicated one of those inner windows that are supposed to give light +mutually to room and passage, and are, as a matter of fact, an +architect's confession of defeat. Farther on a door was open, and +screams of laughter and singing proceeded from it. I admit, without +hesitation, that we looked in at the window, and thus obtained a full +and sufficient view of the <I>vie intime</I> of the Temple Braney kitchen. +A fat female, obviously the cook, was seated in the midst of a +remarkably lively crowd of fellow-retainers and camp-followers, +thumping with massive knuckles on a frying-pan, as though it were a +banjo, and squalling to it something in an unknown tongue. +</P> + +<P> +"She's taking off Miss Cooney O'Rattigan!" hissed Miss Bennett, in +ecstasy. "She's singing Italian, by way of! And look at those two +brats of boys, Vincent and Harold, that should have been in their beds +two hours ago!" +</P> + +<P> +Masters Vincent and Harold McRory were having the time of their lives. +One of them, seated on the table, was shovelling tipsy-cake into his +ample mouth with a kitchen spoon; the other was smoking a cigarette, +and capering to the squalls of the cook. +</P> + +<P> +As noiselessly as two bats Miss Bennett and I flitted past the open +door, but a silence fell with a unanimity that would have done credit +to any orchestra. +</P> + +<P> +"They saw us," said Miss Bennett, scudding on, "but we'll not tell on +them—the creatures!" +</P> + +<P> +An icy draught apprised us of an open door, and through it we escaped +at length from the nightmare purlieus of the house into the yard, an +immense quadrangle, where moonlight and black shadows opposed one +another in a silence that was as severe as they. Temple Braney House +and its yard dated from what may be called the Stone Age in Ireland, +about the middle of the eighteenth century, when money was plenty and +labour cheap, and the Barons of Temple Braney, now existent only in +guidebooks, built, as they lived, on the generous scale. +</P> + +<P> +We crossed the yard to the coach-house in which I had left my motor: +its tall arched doorway was like the mouth of a cave, and I struck a +match. It illuminated a mowing-machine, a motor-bicycle, and a flying +cat. But not my car. The first moment of bewilderment was closed by +the burning of my fingers by the match. +</P> + +<P> +"Are you sure it was here you left it?" said Miss Bennett, with a +fatuity of which I had not believed her capable. +</P> + +<P> +The presence of a lady was no doubt a salutary restraint, but as I went +forth into the yard again, I felt as though the things I had to leave +unsaid would break out all over me like prickly heat. +</P> + +<P> +"It's the medical student one," said Miss Bennett with certainty, "the +one that owns the motor-bike." +</P> + +<P> +The yard and the moonlight did not receive this statement with a more +profound silence than I. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm sure he won't do it any harm," she went on, making the elementary +mistake of applying superficial salves to a wound whose depths she was +incapable of estimating. "He's very good about machinery—maybe it's +only round to the front door he took it." +</P> + +<P> +As Miss Bennett offered these consolations I saw two small figures +creep from the shadows of the house. Their white collars shone in the +moonlight, and, recognising them as the youngest members of the +inveterate clan of McRory, I hailed them in a roar that revealed very +effectively the extent of my indignation. It did not surprise me that +the pair, in response to this, darted out of the yard gate with the +speed of a pair of minnows in a stream. +</P> + +<P> +I pursued, not with any hope of overtaking them, but because they were +the only clue available, and in my wake, over the frosty ground, in her +satin shoes, followed that sound sportswoman, Miss Bennett. +</P> + +<P> +The route from the stable-yard to the front of Temple Braney House is a +long and circuitous one, that skirts a plantation of evergreens. At +the first bend the moonlight displayed the track of a tyre in the +grass; at the next bend, where the edge was higher, a similar economy +of curve had been effected, and that the incident had been of a fairly +momentous nature was suggested by the circumstance that the tail lamp +was lying in the middle of the drive. It was as I picked it up that I +heard a familiar humming in the vicinity of the hall door. +</P> + +<P> +"He didn't go so far, after all," said Miss Bennett, somewhat blown, +but holding her own, in spite of the satin shoes. +</P> + +<P> +I turned the last corner at a high rate of speed, and saw the dignified +Georgian façade of the house, pale and placid in the moonlight; through +the open hall door a shaft of yellow light fell on the ground. The car +was nowhere to be seen, yet somewhere, close at hand, the engine +throbbed and drummed to me,—a <I>cri de coeur</I>, as I felt it, calling to +me through the accursed jingle of the piano that proceeded from the +open door. +</P> + +<P> +"Where the devil——?" I began. +</P> + +<P> +Even as I spoke I descried the car. It was engaged, apparently, in +forcing its way into the shrubbery that screened one end of the house. +The bonnet was buried in a holly bush, the engine was working, slowly +but industriously. The lamps were not lighted, and there was no one in +it. +</P> + +<P> +"Those two imps made good use of their legs, never fear them!" puffed +Miss Bennett; "the 'cuteness of them—cutting away to warn the brother!" +</P> + +<P> +"What's this confounded thing?" I said fiercely, snatching at something +that was caught in the handle of the brake. +</P> + +<P> +Miss Bennett snatched it in her turn, and held it up in the moonlight, +while I stilled the fever of the engine. +</P> + +<P> +"Dublin for ever!" she exclaimed. "What is it but the streamers of +Miss Cooney's mandoline! There's the spoils of war for you! And it's +all the spoils you'll get—the whole pack of them's hid in the house by +now!" +</P> + +<P> +From an unlighted window over the hall door a voice added itself to the +conversation. +</P> + +<P> +"God help the house that holds them!" it said, addressing the universe. +</P> + +<P> +The window was closed. +</P> + +<P> +"That's old McRory!" said Miss Bennett in a horrified whisper. +</P> + +<P> +Again I thought of Chinatown, sleepless, incalculable, with its +infinite capacity for sheltering the criminal. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +"—But, darling," said Philippa, some quarter of an hour later, as we +proceeded down the avenue in the vaulted darkness of the beech-trees +(and I at once realised that she had undertaken the case for the +defence), "you've no reason to suppose that they took the car any +farther than the hall door." +</P> + +<P> +"It is the last time that it will be taken to <I>that</I> hall door," I +replied, going dead slow, with my head over the side of the car, +listening to unfamiliar sounds in its interior—sounds that did not +suggest health. "I should like to know how many of your young friends +went on the trip——" +</P> + +<P> +"My dear boy," said Philippa pityingly, "I ask you if it is likely that +there would have been more than two, when one of them was the lady with +the mandoline! And," she proceeded with cat-like sweetness, "I did not +perceive that you took a party with you when you retired to the hall +with your old friend Miss Bennett, and left me to cope single-handed +with the mob for about an hour!" +</P> + +<P> +"Whether there were two or twenty-two of them in the car," I said, +treating this red herring with suitable contempt, "I've done with your +McRorys." +</P> + +<P> +I was, very appropriately, in the act of passing through the Temple +Braney entrance gates as I made this pronouncement, and it was the +climax of many outrages that the steering-gear, shaken by heaven knows +what impacts and brutalities, should suddenly have played me false. +The car swerved in her course—fortunately a slow one—and laid her +bonnet impulsively against the Temple Braney gate pillar, as against a +loved one's shoulder. +</P> + +<P> +As we regained our composure, two tall forms appeared in the light of +the head lamps, and one of them held up his hand. I recognised a +police patrol. +</P> + +<P> +"That's the car right enough," said one of them. He advanced to my +side. "I want your name, please. I summons you for furious driving on +the high road, without lights, a while ago, and refusing to stop when +called on to do so. Go round and take the number, M'Caffery." +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +When, a few days later, the story flowed over and ran about the +country, some things that were both new and interesting came to my ears. +</P> + +<P> +Flurry Knox said that Bobby Bennett had sold me her old mare by +moonlight in the Temple Braney yard, and it was a great credit to old +McRory's champagne. +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Knox, of Aussolas, was told that I had taken Mrs. McRory for a run +in the car at one o'clock in the morning, and on hearing it said "De +gustibus non est disputandum." +</P> + +<P> +Some one, unknown, repeated this to Mrs. McRory, and told her that it +meant "You cannot touch pitch without being disgusted." +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Cadogan, my cook, reported to Philippa that the boy who drove the +bread-cart said that it was what the people on the roads were saying +that the Major was to be fined ten pounds; to which Mrs. Cadogan had +replied that it was a pity the Major ever stood in Temple Braney, but +she supposed that was laid out for him by the Lord. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap09"></A> + +<P CLASS="t3b"> +IX +</P> + +<P CLASS="t4b"> +PUT DOWN ONE AND CARRY TWO +</P> + +<P> +The promise of that still and moonlit December night, wherein we had +bean-feasted with the McRorys, was shamelessly broken. +</P> + +<P> +The weather next morning was a welter of wind and mist, with rain flung +in at intervals. The golden fox on the stable weathercock was not at +peace for a moment, facing all the southern points of the compass as if +they were hounds that held it at bay. For my part, I do not know why +people go out hunting on such days, unless it be for the reason that +many people go to church, to set an example to others. +</P> + +<P> +Philippa said she went because she had done her hair for riding before +she could see out of the window—a fiction beneath the notice of any +intelligent husband. I went because I had told my new groom, Wilson +(an English disciplinarian), that I was going, and I was therefore +caught in the cogs of the inexorable wheel of stable routine. I also +went because I nourished a faint hope that I might be able to place +before the general public, and especially before Flurry Knox, an +authentic first version of the McRory episode. Moreover, I had a +headache; but this I was not going to mention, knowing that the sun +never sets upon the jests consecrated to after-dinner headaches. +</P> + +<P> +As we rode away from Shreelane, and felt the thick small rain in our +faces, and saw the spray blown off the puddles by the wind, and heard +the sea-gulls, five miles inland, squealing in the mist overhead, I +said that it was preposterous to think of hunting at Lonen Hill in such +weather, and that I was going home. Philippa said that we might as +well go on to the meet, to exercise the horses, and that we could then +come straight home. (I have a sister who has said that I am a lath +painted to look like iron, and that Philippa is iron painted to look +like a lath.) +</P> + +<P> +The meet was in shelter, the generous shelter of Lonen Hill, which +interposed itself between us and the weather. There is just space for +the road, between the shore of Lough Lonen and the southern face of the +hill, that runs precipitously up into the sky for some six hundred +feet, dark with fir-trees, and heather, and furze, fortified with +rock—a place renowned as a fastness for foxes and woodcock (whose +fancies as to desirable winter residences generally coincide). One +would have thought that only a pack of monkeys could deal with such a +covert, but hounds went through it, and so did beaters—or said they +did. +</P> + +<P> +We found the hounds waiting in an old quarry under the side of the +hill, and, a little farther on, a very small and select company of +waterproofs was huddled under the branches of a fir-tree that hung over +the road. As we neared them I recognised Miss Bennett's firm and +capable back: she was riding the black mare that she had come over to +"pass on" to old McRory. It was Philippa who pointed out that she was +accompanied by Miss Larkie McRory, seated on a stout and shaggy animal, +whose grey hindquarters were draped by the folds of its rider's +voluminous black macintosh, in a manner that recalled the historic +statue of the Iron Duke. Farther on, Mrs. Flurry and her mother, the +redoubtable Lady Knox, were getting out of a motor and getting +themselves on to their horses. +</P> + +<P> +"There's room under the umbrella for Mrs. Yeates!" called out Miss +Bennett hospitably, "but the Major must find one for himself, and a +very big one, too!" +</P> + +<P> +"We could make room for him here," said Miss Larkie McRory, "if he +liked to come." +</P> + +<P> +I maintained, I hope, an imperturbable demeanour, and passed on. +</P> + +<P> +"Who is that?" said Lady Knox, approaching me, on her large and +competent iron grey. +</P> + +<P> +I informed her, briefly, and without prejudice. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, one of that crew," said Lady Knox, without further comment. +</P> + +<P> +Lady Knox is not noted for receptive sympathy, yet this simple +statement indicated so pleasingly our oneness of soul in the matter of +the McRorys, that I was on the verge of flinging overboard the +gentlemanlike scruples proper to a guest, and giving her the full +details of last night's revel. At this moment, however, her son-in-law +came forth from the quarry with his hounds, and his coadjutors, Dr. +Hickey and Michael, and moved past us. +</P> + +<P> +"Yeates!" he called out, "I'd be obliged to you if you'd take that +point up on the hill, on the down-wind side, where he often breaks." +He looked at me with a serious, friendly face. "He won't break <I>down</I>, +you know—it's only motors do that." +</P> + +<P> +This witticism, concocted, no doubt, in the seclusion of the quarry, +called for no reply on my part—(or, to be accurate, no suitable reply +presented itself). There was an undoubted titter among the +waterproofs; I moved away upon my mission at a dignified trot: a trot +is seldom dignified, but Daniel has dignity enough for himself and his +rider. +</P> + +<P> +Daniel stands sixteen hands two inches in his stockings, of which he +wears one white one, the rest of his enormous body being of that +unlovely bluish-dun colour to which a dark bay horse turns when +clipped. His best friend could not deny that he "made a noise"; his +worst enemy was fain to admit that he was glad to hear it in front of +him at a nasty place. Some one said that he was like a Settled +Religious Faith, and no lesser simile conveys the restful certainty +imparted by him. It was annoying, no doubt, to hear people say, after +I had accomplished feats of considerable valour, that that horse +couldn't make a mistake, and a baby could ride him; but these were mere +chastenings, negligible to the possessor of a Settled Religious Faith. +</P> + +<P> +I trotted on through the rain, up a steep road seamed with +watercourses, with Lonen Hill towering on my left, and a lesser hill on +my right. Looking back, I saw Flurry dismount, give his horse to a +boy, and clamber on to the wall of the road: he dropped into the wood, +and the hounds swarmed over after him, looking like midgets beside the +tremendous citadel that they were to attack. Hickey and Michael, +equally dwarfed by the immensities of the position, were already +betaking themselves through the mist to their allotted outposts in +space. Five-and-twenty couple of hounds would have been little enough +for that great hill-side; Flurry had fifteen, and with them he began +his tough struggle through the covert, a solitary spot of red among +pine-stems, and heather, and rocks, cheering his fifteen couple with +horn and voice, while he climbed up and up by devious ways, seemingly +as marvellously endowed with wind as the day itself. I cantered on +till, at the point where the wood ended, it became my melancholy duty +to leave the road and enter upon the assault of the hill. I turned in +at a gap beside the guardian thorn-bush of a holy well, on whose +branches votive rags fluttered in the wind, and addressed Daniel to his +task of carrying thirteen stone up an incline approximating to a rise +of one in three. +</P> + +<P> +A path with the angles of a flash of lightning indicated the views of +the local cow as to the best method of dealing with the situation. +Daniel and I accepted this, as we had done more than once before, and +we laboured upwards, parallel with the covert, while the wind, heavy +with mist, came down to meet us, and shoved against us like a living +thing. We gained at length a shelf on the hill-side, and halting there +in the shelter of a furzy hummock, I applied myself to my job. From +the shelf I commanded a long stretch of the boundary wall of the wood, +including a certain gap which was always worthy of special attention, +and for a quarter of an hour I bent a zealous and travelling gaze upon +the wall, with the concentration of a professor of a Higher Thought +Society. +</P> + +<P> +As is not unusual in such cases, nothing happened. At rare intervals a +hint of the cry of hounds was carried in the wind, evanescent as a +whiff from a summer garden. Once or twice it seemed to swing towards +me, and at such moments the concentration of my eyeglass upon the gap +was of such intensity that had the fox appeared I am confident that he +would instantly have fallen into a hypnotic trance. As time wore on I +arrived at the stage of obsession, when the music of the hounds and the +touches of the horn seemed to be in everything, the wind, the streams, +the tree branches, and I could almost have sworn hounds were away and +running hard, until some vagrant voice in the wood would dispel the +mirage of sound. This was followed by the reactionary period of +pessimism, when I seemed to myself merely an imbecile, sitting in heavy +rain, staring at a stone wall. Half an hour, or more, passed. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm going out of this," I said to myself defiantly; "there's reason in +the roasting of eggs." +</P> + +<P> +It seemed, however, my duty to go up rather than down, and I coerced +Daniel into the bed of a stream, as offering the best going available. +It led me into a cleft between the hill-side and the wall of the +covert, which latter was, like a thing in a fairy tale, changing very +gradually from a wall into a bank. I ascended the cleft, and presently +found that it, too, was changing its nature, and becoming a flight of +stairs. Daniel clattered slowly and carefully up them, basing his +feet, like Sir Bedivere, on "juts of slippery crag that rang +sharp-smitten with the dint of arméd heels." +</P> + +<P> +We had reached the top in safety when I heard a thin and wavering +squeal behind me, and looking back saw Miss Larkie McRory ascending the +rocky staircase on the grey cob, at a speed that had obviously, and +legitimately, drawn forth the squeal. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, gracious! The brute! I can't stop him!" she cried as she rushed +upon me. +</P> + +<P> +The grey cob here bumped into Daniel's massive stern, rebounded, and +subsided, for the excellent reason that no other course was open to it. +Miss McRory's reins were clutched in a looped confusion, that summoned +from some corner of my brain a memory of the Sultan's cipher on the +Order of the Medjidie: her hat was hanging down her back, and there was +a picturesqueness about her hair that promised disaster later on. Her +hazel eyes shone, and her complexion glowed like a rose in rain. +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. Irving's fit to be tied!" she continued. "His horse jumped about +like a mad thing when he saw those awful steps——!" +</P> + +<P> +Sounds of conflict and clattering came from below. I splashed onwards +in the trough between the hill and the fence, and had emerged into a +comparatively open space with my closely attendant McRory, when the +impassioned face of Mr. Irving's Meath mare shot into view at the top +of the steps. The water in the trough was apparently for her the limit +of what should or could be endured. She made a crooked spring at the +hill-side, slipped, and, recognising the bank as the one civilised +feature in a barbarous country, bounced sideways on to the top of it, +pivoted there, and sat down backwards into a thicket of young ash and +hazel trees. A succession of short yells from Miss McRory acclaimed +each phase of the incident; Mr. Irving's face, as he settled down +amongst the branches, was as a book where men might read strange +matters, not of an improving nature. +</P> + +<P> +It was probably the reception accorded to the bay mare by the branches +and briars in which she had seated herself that caused her to return to +the top of the bank in a kangaroo-bound, as active as it was +unexpected. Horses can do these things when they choose, but they +seldom choose. From the top of the bank she dropped into the trough, +and joined us, with her nerves still in a state of acute indignation, +and less of her rider in the saddle than is conventional, but a dinge +in his pot-hat appeared to be the extent of the damage. Miss McRory's +eye travelled from it to me, but she abstained from comment. It was +the eye of a villain and a conspirator. I had by no means forgotten +the injuries inflicted on me by her brothers, nor did I forget that +Flurry had said that there wasn't one of the family but was as clever +as the devil and four times as unscrupulous. Yet, taken in conjunction +with the genuineness of her complexion, and with the fact that Irving +was probably twenty years my junior, "I couldn't"—as the song +says—"help smiling at McRory O'More" (behind the back of young Mr. +Irving, D.I.). +</P> + +<P> +It transpired that Irving, from some point of vantage below, shared, it +would appear, with Miss McRory, had seen the hounds running out of the +top of the wood, and had elected to follow me. He did not know where +any one was, had not heard a sound of the horn, and gave it as his +opinion that Flurry was dead, and that trying to hunt in this country +was simply farcical. He bellowed these things at me in his +consequential voice as we struggled up the hill against the immense +weight of wind, in all the fuss, anxiety, and uncertainty out of which +the joys of hunting are born. It was as we topped the ultimate ridge +that, through the deafening declamations of the wind, I heard, faint as +a bar of fairy music, distant harmonies as of hounds running. +</P> + +<P> +The wind blew a hole in the mist, and we had a bird's-eye view of a few +pale-green fields far below: across one of them some pigmy forms were +moving; they passed over a dark line that represented a fence, and +proceeded into the heart of a cloud. +</P> + +<P> +"That's about the limit," shouted Irving, dragging at his mare's mouth, +as she swerved from a hole in the track. "It's only in this +God-forsaken country that a fox'd go away in the teeth of a storm like +this!" +</P> + +<P> +To justify to Mr. Irving the disregard of the Lonen Hill foxes for the +laws of the game was not my affair. It seemed to me that in piloting +him and Miss McRory I was doing rather more than humanity had any right +to expect. I have descended Lonen Hill on various occasions, none of +them agreeable, but never before with an avalanche travelling hard on +my heels—a composite avalanche that slid, and rushed, and dropped its +hind-legs over the edge at bad corners, and was throughout vocal with +squeals, exclamations, inquiries as to facts of which Providence could +alone be cognisant, and thunderous with objurgations. The hill-side +merged at length into upland pasture, strange little fields, composed +partly of velvet patches, like putting-greens, predominantly of +nightmare bunkers of rocks and furze. We rushed downwards through +these, at a pace much accelerated by the prevalence of cattle gaps; the +bay mare, with her head in the air, zigzagging in bounds as +incalculable as those of a grasshopper; the grey cob, taking sole +charge of Miss McRory, tobogganing with her hind feet, propping with +her fore, and tempering her enthusiasm with profound understanding of +the matter. Finally, a telegraph-post loomed through the fog upon us, +and a gate discovered itself, through which we banged in a bunch on to +the high road. A cottage faced us, with a couple of women and an old +man standing outside it. +</P> + +<P> +To them we put the usual question, with the usual vehemence (always +suggestive of the King's Troopers in romance, hotly demanding +information about a flying rebel). +</P> + +<P> +"I didn't see a fox this long while," replied the old man deliberately, +"but there was a few jocks went west the road a while ago." +</P> + +<P> +The King's Troopers, not specially enlightened, turned their steeds and +went in pursuit of the jocks. A stone gap, flung in ruins among black +hoof-marks, soon gave a more precise indication, and we left the road, +with profound dubiety on my part as to where we were going and how we +were going to get there. The first fence decided the matter for +Irving, D.I. It was a bank on which slices of slatey stone had been +laid, much as in Germany slabs of cold sausage are laid upon bread. +The Meath mare looked at it but once, and fled from it at a tangent; +the grey pony, without looking at it, followed her. Daniel selected an +interval between the slabs, and took me over without comment. Filled +by a radiant hope that I had shaken off both my companions, I was +advancing in the line of the hoof-tracks, when once more I heard behind +me on the wind cries as of a storm-driven sea-gull, and the grey cob +came up under my stirrup, like a runaway steam pinnace laying itself +beside a man-o'-war. Miss McRory was still in the saddle, but minus +reins and stirrup; the wind had again removed her hat, which was +following her at full stretch of its string, like a kite. Had it not +been for her cries I should have said, judging by her face, that she +was thoroughly enjoying herself. +</P> + +<P> +Having achieved Daniel's society the cob pulled up, and her rider, not +without assistance from me, restored her hat, reins, and stirrup to +their proper spheres. I looked back, and saw Irving's mare, still on +the farther side of the fence, her nose pointing to the sky, as if +invoking the protection of heaven, and I knew that for better for worse +Miss McRory was mine until we reached the high road. No doubt the +thing was to be: as one of our own poets has sung of Emer and +Cuchulain, "all who read my name in Erin's story would find its loving +letters linked with" those of McRory. The paraphrase even +rhymed—another finger-mark of Fate. Yet it was hard that, out of all +the possible, and doubtless eager, squires of the hunting-field I +should have been chosen. +</P> + +<P> +The hoof-tracks bent through a long succession of open gaps to a +farmyard, and there were swallowed in the mire of a lane. I worked the +lane out for every inch it was worth, with the misty rain pricking my +face as it were with needles, and the intention to go home at the +earliest possible opportunity perfecting itself in my heart. But the +lane, instead of conducting us to the high road, melted disastrously +into a turf bog. I pulled up, and the long steady booming of the sea +upon the rocks made a deep undertone to the wind. There was no voice +of hound or horn, and I was on the point of returning to the farmhouse +when the mist, in its stagey, purposeful way, again lifted, and laid +bare the sky-line of a low hill on our left. A riderless horse was +limping very slowly along it, led by something that seemed no higher +than a toadstool. Obviously we were on the line of the hunt, and +obviously, also, it was my duty to enquire into the matter of the +horse. I turned aside over a low bank, hotly followed by the grey cob, +and the wail to which I was now becoming inured. As Miss McRory +arrived abruptly at my side, she cried that she would have been off +that time only for the grab she got of his hair. (By which I believe +she meant the mare's mane.) +</P> + +<P> +Fortune favoured us with broken-down fences; we overtook the horse, and +found it was Flurry Knox's brown mare, hobbling meekly in tow of a very +small boy. In one of her hind fetlocks there was a clean, sharp cut +that might have been done with a knife. +</P> + +<P> +In answer to my questions the small boy pointed ahead. I polished my +eyeglass, and, with eyes narrowed against the wind, looked into the +south-west, and there saw, unexpectedly, even awfully near, the +Atlantic Ocean, dingy and angry, with a long line, as of battle-smoke, +marking its assault upon the cliffs. Between the cliffs and the hill +on which we were standing a dark plateau, striped with pale grey walls, +stretched away into the mist. +</P> + +<P> +"There's the huntsman for ye," squeaked the little boy, who looked +about six years old. +</P> + +<P> +I descried at a distance of perhaps a quarter of a mile a figure in a +red coat, on foot, in the act of surmounting one of the walls, +accompanied by a hovering flock of country boys. +</P> + +<P> +"The dogs is out before him," pursued the little boy at the full pitch +of his lungs. "I seen the fox, too. I'll go bail he has himself +housed in the Coosheen Grohogue by now." +</P> + +<P> +"Gracious!" said Miss McRory. +</P> + +<P> +I said he probably had a simpler telegraphic address, and that, no +matter where he was, it was now my duty to overtake Mr. Knox and offer +him my horse; "and you," I added, "had better get this little boy to +show you the way to the road." +</P> + +<P> +Miss McRory replied confidently that she'd sooner stay with me. +</P> + +<P> +I said, as well as I remember, that her preference was highly +flattering, but that she might live to regret it. +</P> + +<P> +Miss McRory answered that she wished I wouldn't be spying at her +through that old glass of mine; she knew well enough she was a show, +and her hair was coming down, and she'd as soon trust herself to the +cat as to that little urchin. +</P> + +<P> +As I made my way downwards over the knife-edged ridges of rock and +along their intervening boggy furrows, I should myself have been +grateful for the guidance of the cat. Even the grey cob accepted the +matter as serious, and kept the brake hard on, accomplishing the last +horrid incident of the descent—a leap from the slant of the hill on to +the summit of a heathery bank—without frivolity, even with anxiety. +We had now arrived at the plateau above the cliffs—a place of brown, +low-growing ling, complicated by boggy runnels, and heavily sprinkled +with round stones. The mist was blowing in thicker than ever, Flurry +and his retinue were lost as though they had never been, and the near +thunder of the breakers, combined with the wind, made an impenetrable +din round me and Miss McRory. +</P> + +<P> +After perhaps a mile, in the course of which I got off several times to +pull down loose walls for the benefit of my companion, I discovered the +rudiments of a lane, which gradually developed into a narrow but +indubitable road. The rain had gone down the back of my neck and into +my boots: I determined that if Flurry had to finish the run on +all-fours, I would stick to the lane until it took me to a road. What +it took me to was, as might have been foreseen in any County Cork +bohireen, a pole jammed across it from wall to wall and reinforced by +furze-bushes—not a very high pole, but not one easy to remove. I +pulled up and looked dubiously from it to Miss McRory. +</P> + +<P> +"D'ye dare me?" she said. +</P> + +<P> +"I bet you sixpence you take a toss if you do," I replied firmly, +preparing to dismount. +</P> + +<P> +"Done with you!" said Miss McRory, suddenly smiting the grey cob with a +venomous little cutting whip (one that probably dated from the sixties, +and had for a handle an ivory greyhound's head with a plaited silver +collar round its neck). +</P> + +<P> +I have seldom seen a pole better and more liberally dealt with, as far +as the grey cob's share of the transaction went, and seldom, indeed, +have I seen a rider sail more freely from a saddle than Miss McRory +sailed. She alighted on her hands and knees, and the cob, with the +sting of the whip still enlivening her movements, galloped on up the +lane and was lost in the mist. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, you won your sixpence," said Miss McRory dauntlessly, as I +joined her. "I suppose you're delighted." +</P> + +<P> +I assured her with entire sincerity that I was very much the reverse, +and proceeded at high speed in pursuit of the cob. The result of this +excursion—a fairly prolonged one—was the discovery that the lane led +into a road, and that it was impossible to decide in which direction +the fugitive had gone. I returned in profound gloom to my young lady, +and found her rubbing herself down with a bunch of heather. +</P> + +<P> +"So you couldn't ketch her!" she called out as I approached. "What'll +we do now?" She was evidently highly amused. "I'll tell the Peeler it +was your fault. You dared me!" +</P> + +<P> +My reply need not be recorded: I only know it was by no means up to the +standard to which Miss McRory was accustomed. +</P> + +<P> +I took what seemed to be the only possible course, and established her +seated sideways on my saddle, with her foot—and it is but fair to say, +a very small foot—in the leather instead of the stirrup, and her right +hand knotted in Daniel's mane. I held the off stirrup, and splashed +beside her in the ruts and mud. The mist was thicker than ever, the +wind was pushing it in from the sea in great masses, and Miss McRory +and I progressed onward in a magic circle of some twenty yards in +diameter, occupied only by herself and me, with Daniel thrown in as +chaperon. +</P> + +<P> +On arriving at the road I relied on the wind for guidance, and turning +to the right, let it blow us in what was, I trusted, our course. It +was by this time past three o'clock, we were at least nine or ten miles +from home, and one of my boots had begun to rub my heel. There was +nothing for it but to keep on as we were going, until we met something, +or some one, or died. +</P> + +<P> +It is worthy of record that in these afflicting circumstances Miss +Larkie McRory showed a staying power, attained, probably, in the long +and hungry bicycle picnics of her tribe, that was altogether +commendable. Not for an instant did she fail to maintain in me the +belief that she found me one of the most agreeable people she had ever +met, a little older, perhaps, than Irving, D.I., but on that very +account the more to be confided in. It was not until the pangs of +hunger recalled to me the existence of my sandwiches that I discovered +she had no food with her, nor, as far as could be gathered, had she had +any breakfast. +</P> + +<P> +"Sure they were all snoring asleep when I started. I just got a cup o' +tea in the kitchen——" +</P> + +<P> +This, I suppose, was a point at which I might suitably have said +something incisive about the feats of her brethren on the previous +night, but with deplorable weakness I merely offered her my sandwiches. +Miss McRory replied that she'd fall off in a minute if she were to let +go the mane, and why wouldn't I eat them myself? I said if there were +any shelter left in Ireland I would wait till I got there, and we could +then decide who should eat them. +</P> + +<P> +Æons of mist and solitude ensued. I must have walked for an hour or +more, without meeting anyone except one old woman, who could only speak +Irish, and I had begun to feel as if my spur were inside my boot +instead of outside, when I became aware of something familiar about the +look of the fences. It was not, however, until I felt shelter rising +blessedly about us, and saw the thorn bush with the rags hanging from +it, that I realised that our luck had turned, and we had blundered our +way back to the holy well under the side of Lonen Hill. The well was +like a tiny dripping cave, about as big as a beehive, with a few inches +of water in it; a great boulder stood guard over it, and above it +stooped the ancient and twisted thorn bush. It seemed indicated as a +place of rest, none the less that my heel was by this time considerably +galled by my boot. +</P> + +<P> +Miss McRory glissaded from my saddle into my arms, and was assisted by +me to deposit herself on a flat stone beside the well, stiff, wet, but +still undefeated. We shared my sandwiches, we drank whisky mixed with +the water of the holy well, and Miss McRory dried her face with her +handkerchief, and her complexion looked better than ever. Daniel, +slowly and deliberately, ate the rags off the thorn bush. I have been +at many picnics that I have enjoyed less. +</P> + +<P> +By the time we had got to the gingerbread biscuits I had discovered +that Mr. Irving thought she had talked too much to me after dinner last +night, and that it was a wonder to her how men could be so cross about +nothing. I said I was sorry she called it nothing, at which she looked +up at me and down again at the gingerbread, and did not reply. After +this I felt emboldened to ask her why she had been called so +inappropriate a name as "Larkie." +</P> + +<P> +Miss McRory agreed that it was indeed a silly old name, and that it was +a friend of one of her brothers, a Mr. Mulcahy, who had said that she +and her sisters were "'Lorky little gurls with lorge dork eyes.' He +had that way of speaking," she added, "because he thought it was grand, +and he always kept his watch at English time. He said he ran over to +London so often it wasn't worth while to change it." +</P> + +<P> +She herself had never been out of Ireland, and she supposed she'd never +get the chance. +</P> + +<P> +I said that when she married Mr. Mulcahy she could keep her watch at +Irish time, so as to equalise things. +</P> + +<P> +Miss McRory suggested that I should give her a watch as a wedding +present, and that, English or Irish time, it would be all hours of the +night before we were home. +</P> + +<P> +I realised with a slight shock that the position had indeed become +inverted when one of the House of McRory had to remind me, after about +four hours in her undiluted society, of the flight of time. It was now +past four, which was bad enough, and a still greater shock awaited me +in the discovery that I was dead lame, the interval of repose having +been fatal to my damaged heel. +</P> + +<P> +I have always asserted, and shall continue to do so to my dying day, +that the way out of the difficulty was suggested by Miss McRory. I +mounted Daniel, Miss McRory ascended the boulder by the holy well, +announcing that she was as stiff as fifty crutches, and that once she +got up she'd be there for life. The thing was done somehow, thanks to +the incomparable forbearance of Daniel, and with Miss McRory seated +behind me on his broad back, and her arms clasped round my waist, I +once more, and very cautiously, took the road. +</P> + +<P> +Daniel continued to conduct himself like a gentleman, but considering +how precarious was the position of Miss McRory, it was unnerving to +feel her shaken by silent and secret laughter. +</P> + +<P> +"You'll fall off," I warned her. +</P> + +<P> +She replied by a further paroxysm, and asked me what size I took in +stays—she supposed about forty inches. +</P> + +<P> +Dusk was now an accomplished fact: thickened with fog and rain, it was +even turning to darkness as we descended the long hill. But, humanly +speaking, the end was in sight. There was, I knew, a public-house a +couple of miles farther on, where a car might be hired, and there I +proposed to bid a long farewell to Miss Larkie McRory, and to send her +home by herself, to have rheumatic fever, as I assured her. +</P> + +<P> +We moved on and on, at a careful foot-pace: we were out in the wind +again, and it was very cold. It was also quite dark. Silence fell +upon us, and, after a time, the sustained pressure of Miss McRory's +hat-brim against my shoulder suggested that it was the silence of +exhaustion, if not of sleep. I thought of her with compassion. I +believe I formulated her to myself as a poor little girl, and found +myself asserting with defiance to imaginary detractors that no one +could say she hadn't pluck, and that, in spite of her family, she +really had a soul to be saved. +</P> + +<P> +Again we found ourselves in shelter, and a greater darkness in the +darkness told that we were in the lee of a wooded hill. I knew where I +was now, and I said to Miss McRory that the pub was just round the +corner, and she replied at once that that was where they always were, +in Dublin anyway. She also said she thought she heard horses' hoofs +coming up behind us. I pushed on. +</P> + +<P> +We turned the corner, and were immediately struck blind by the twin +glare of the lamps of a motor, that lay motionless, as in ambush, at +the side of the road. Even the equanimity of Daniel was shattered; he +swung to one side, he drifted like a blown leaf, and Miss McRory clung +to me like a knapsack. As we curveted in the full glare of the +limelight, I was aware of a figure in a pot-hat and a vast fur coat +standing near the motor. Even as I recognised Lady Knox three or four +muddy hounds trailed wearily into the glare, and a voice behind me +shouted, "'Ware horse!" +</P> + +<P> +Flurry came on into the light: there was just room in me for a +sub-conscious recognition of the fact that he was riding the missing +grey cob, and that this was a typical thing, and one that might have +been expected. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +At the hunt dinner that took place soon afterwards some one sang a +song, one that I have ceased to find amusing. The first verse runs as +follows: +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +"Throttin' to the Fair,<BR> + Me and Moll Moloney,<BR> +Sittin', I declare,<BR> + On a single pony——"<BR> +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +By a singular coincidence, the faces of all those present turned +towards me. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap10"></A> + +<P CLASS="t3b"> +X +</P> + +<P CLASS="t4b"> +THE COMTE DE PRALINES +</P> + +<P> +"I had forgotten how nice London is!" purred Philippa, as we moved +beautifully across the threshold of Bill Cunningham's club, and were +conducted to the lift with a tender deference that was no more than was +due to our best clothes. +</P> + +<P> +The Ladies' Tea-room at Bill's club was a pleasant place, looking +forth, high above the noise, upon trees that were yellow in the hazy +October afternoon. In a very agreeable bow-window were Lady Derryclare +and the tea-table, and with her were her son, and a small and +ornamental young man, who was introduced to us as Mr. Simpson-Hodges. +</P> + +<P> +"Front name John, known to a large circle of admirers as 'Mossoo,'" +supplemented Bill, whose hands were so clean that I found it difficult +to recognise him. +</P> + +<P> +"So called because of the incredible circumstance that he can speak +French, in spite of the best Public School education," said Lady +Derryclare. "When I think of the money that has been wasted on you! +You good for nothing creature!" +</P> + +<P> +"It's more his looks," pursued Bill, "his dark foreign beauty——" +</P> + +<P> +"These humorists!" said Mr. Simpson-Hodges indulgently, showing a set +of white teeth under a diminutive black moustache. "Please, Lady +Derryclare, let's talk of something pleasant." +</P> + +<P> +"Ask him about the chickens you made him get from the Chicken Farmers +for the dance his regiment gave," said Bill to his mother. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, that was rather a bad business," said Mr. Simpson-Hodges +apologetically, with an eye on Philippa, who, in a new hat, was looking +about five-and-twenty. "I'm sure no one wants to hear about it." +</P> + +<P> +"Mossoo ran the supper and he ordered three brace," said Bill, "but +they never turned up till the week after the show! The postman was +viewed coming up to the Mess towing something after him on a long +painter. The painter was superfluous. The chickens would have +followed him at a trot if he had been kind to them. They kept them for +the drag, I believe. Didn't you, Mossoo? He's one of the Whips, you +know." +</P> + +<P> +"They'd have been quite useful," admitted Mr. Simpson-Hodges. +</P> + +<P> +"How interesting to be a Whip!" said Philippa, looking at him with +egregious respect. +</P> + +<P> +"Rather too interesting, sometimes," replied Simpson-Hodges, expanding +to the glance in a way not unfamiliar to me. "Last time we were out +the fellow with the drag started from the cross-roads where we were +going to meet, and was asinine enough to take it a bit down the road +before he went into the country, and, as it happened, we were bringing +the hounds up to the meet by that particular road. They simply put +down their heads and ran it heel for all they were worth! The First +Whip and I galloped our best, but we couldn't get to their heads, and +we all charged into the middle of the meet full-cry!" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh! I wish I had been there!" said Philippa ardently. +</P> + +<P> +"We wished we were anywhere else," replied Mr. Simpson-Hodges; "the +Brigadier was there, and everybody. We heard all about it afterwards, +I can tell you!" +</P> + +<P> +"That ought to have happened in Mr. Knox's country, Major Yeates!" said +Lady Derryclare, whose interest in fox-hunting was more sympathetic +than technical. +</P> + +<P> +"We don't run drags, Lady Derryclare," I said reproachfully, but Lady +Derryclare had already entered upon another topic. +</P> + +<P> +Simpson-Hodges, however, did not end there. +</P> + +<P> +A week afterwards Philippa and I crept home, third class, with full +trunks and empty pockets, sustained only by the aphorism, evolved by my +wife, that economies, and not extravagances, are what one really +regrets. It was approaching the end of November before we next heard +of Simpson-Hodges. The Derryclares had come down for their first +woodcock shoot, and Bill swooped over one morning in the big Daimler +and whirled us back with him over the forty intervening miles of bog +and mountain, to shoot, and to dance on the carpet after dinner, and to +act charades; to further, in short, the various devices for exercising +and disciplining a house party. Mr. John Simpson-Hodges was there, no +less ornamental than in London, and as useful as he was ornamental. He +shot well, he danced beautifully, and he made of the part of a French +Count in a charade so surprising a work of art that people said—as is +the habit of people—that he ought to be making a hundred a week on the +stage. +</P> + +<P> +Before we left the Derryclares Philippa told me that she had arranged +with "those boys"—by which she referred to Mr. Cunningham and the +French Count—to come over next week and have a hunt with Flurry Knox's +hounds. Something whispered to me that there was more in this than met +the eye, but as they were to provide their own mounts the position was +unassailable, and I contented myself with telling her that a +predilection for the society of the young was one of the surest signs +of old age. +</P> + +<P> +It was not till we were all seated at breakfast on the morning of the +meet (which was to be at Castle Knox), that it was suggested, with all +the spontaneity of a happy thought, by Bill, that "Mossoo" should be +introduced to the members of the Hunt as a Frenchman who was unable to +speak English. +</P> + +<P> +"Call him the Comte de Pralines," said Philippa, with suspicious +promptitude. +</P> + +<P> +"You can call him Napoleon Buonaparte if you like," I said defiantly, +"<I>I</I> shall stay at home!" +</P> + +<P> +"All the Curranhilty people will be there," said Philippa softly. +</P> + +<P> +The thought of introducing the Comte de Pralines to Miss Bobbie Bennett +was certainly attractive. +</P> + +<P> +"I refuse to introduce him to Lady Knox," I said with determination, +and knew that I had yielded. +</P> + +<P> +A meet at Castle Knox always brought out a crowd; there were generally +foxes, and always luncheon, and there was a touch of the G.O.C. about +Lady Knox that added a pleasing edge of anxiety, and raised the meet to +something of the nature of a full-dress parade. I held to my point +about Lady Knox, and did nothing more compromising than tremble in the +background, while Bill Cunningham presented the Comte de Pralines to +the lady of the house, supplementing the presentation with the +statements that this was his first visit to Ireland, and that he spoke +no English. +</P> + +<P> +The Comte de Pralines, in the newest of pink coats, and the whitest of +breeches, and the most glittering of boots and spurs, stood on the step +below Lady Knox, with the bridle of his hireling over his arm, and his +shining silk hat in his hand. Still with his hat in his hand, and +looking, as Miss Larkie McRory whispered to me, "as pretty as a +Christmas card," the Count rippled forth a stream of mellifluous +French, commenting upon the beauty of the day, of the place, of the +scene. +</P> + +<P> +Lady Knox's face deepened to so apoplectic a crimson, and her eyes +became so fixed that I, watching the scene apprehensively, doubted if +it were not my duty to rush at her and cut open her hunting-stock. +When the Count ceased, having, as far as I could gather, enquired as to +when she had last been to Auteuil, and if she had ever hunted in +France, Lady Knox paused, and said very slowly: +</P> + +<P> +"Er—<I>j'espère que nous aurons un bon jour aujourdhui</I>." Then, +rapidly, to me, "Take your friend in for a drink, Major Yeates." +</P> + +<P> +My heart bled for her, and also quaked for myself, but I was into it +now, up to my chin. +</P> + +<P> +During the next ten minutes Bill Cunningham, feebly abetted by me, +played the game remorselessly, sparing neither age nor sex. In the +hall, amidst the sloe-gins and the whiskies and sodas (to which the +Count, for a foreigner, took remarkably kindly), introductions slipped +between cup and lip, poisoning the former and paralysing the latter. +The victims took it variously; some sought refuge in bright smiles and +large foreign gestures; some, in complete mental overthrow, replied in +broken English to Mossoo's sugared periods; all were alike in one +point, they moved as swiftly as might be, and as far as possible, out +of the immediate neighbourhood of the Comte de Pralines. Philippa, +who, without any solid attainment, can put up a very good bluff in +French, joined spasmodically in these encounters, alternately goading +Mossoo to fresh outrages, and backing out when the situation became too +acute. I found her, affecting to put her sandwiches into the case on +her saddle, and giving way to her feelings, with her face pressed +against her mare's shoulder. +</P> + +<P> +"I introduced him to Bobbie Bennett," she said brokenly; "and he asked +her if she spoke French. She looked at me as if she were drowning, and +said, '<I>Seulement très petit</I>'!" +</P> + +<P> +I said, repressively, that Lady Knox could see her, and that people +would think, firstly, that she was crying, and secondly, that she was +mad. +</P> + +<P> +"But I am mad, darling!" replied my wife, turning a streaming face to +me. +</P> + +<P> +I informed her of my contempt for her, and, removing myself from her +vicinity, collected myself for the introduction of the Count to Flurry +Knox and Dr. Hickey. By this time most of the Field were mounted, and +the Comte de Pralines bent to his horse's mane as he uncovered with +grave courtesy on his presentation to the Master and the First Whip, +and proceeded to express the profundity of his gratification at meeting +an Irish Master of Hounds. The objects of the attention were palpably +discomposed by it; Flurry put a finger to his cap, with a look at me +expressive of No Surrender; Dr. Hickey, in unconscious imitation of the +Count, bowed low, but forgot about his cap. +</P> + +<P> +"He has no English, I'm told," said Flurry, eyeing the Count +suspiciously. +</P> + +<P> +I stopped myself on the verge of bowing assent, so infectious was the +grace of the Pralines manner. +</P> + +<P> +"Is he come to buy horses for the German Army?" went on Flurry. (It +need hardly be said that this occurred before the War.) +</P> + +<P> +I explained that he was French. +</P> + +<P> +"You wouldn't know what these foreigners might be up to," returned Mr. +Knox, quite unconvinced. "I'm going on now——" +</P> + +<P> +He too moved expeditiously out of the danger zone. +</P> + +<P> +The Field straggled down the avenue, and progressed over tracts of +tussocky grass in the wake of the hounds, towards the plantation that +was the first draw. The Keeper was outside the wood, with the +assurance that there was a score of foxes in it, and that they had the +country ate. +</P> + +<P> +"Maybe they'll eat the hounds, so," said Flurry. "Let you all stay +outside. You can be talking French now for a bit——" +</P> + +<P> +I looked round to see who were availing themselves of this permission. +The Count had by this time been introduced to Miss Larkie McRory; +Philippa was apparently acting as interpreter, and Miss McRory was +showing no disposition to close the interview. The Field had +withdrawn, and had formed itself into a committee-meeting on the Count. +</P> + +<A NAME="img-259"></A> +<CENTER> +<IMG CLASS="imgcenter" SRC="images/img-259.jpg" ALT="Miss Larkie McRory." BORDER="2"> +<H4 CLASS="h4center"> +Miss Larkie McRory. +</H4> +</CENTER> + +<P> +It was warm and sunny in the shelter of the wood. Although the time +was November there were still green leaves on some of the trees; it was +a steamy day after a wet night, and I thought to myself that if the +hounds <I>did</I> run—Here came a challenge from the wood, answered +multitudinously, and the next minute they were driving through the +laurels towards the entrance gates, with a cry that stimulated even the +many-wintered Daniel to capers quite unbefitting his time of life, or +mine. The Castle Knox demesne is a large one, and being surrounded by +a prohibitively high and coped wall, it is easier to find a fox there +than to get away with one. Mighty galloping on the avenues followed, +with interludes in the big demesne fields, where every gate had been +considerately left open, and in which every horse with any pretensions +to <I>savoir faire</I> stiffened his neck, and put up his back, and pulled. +The hounds, a choir invisible, carried their music on through the +plantations, with whimpering, scurrying pauses, with strophe and +anti-strophe of soprano and bass. Sometimes the cry bore away to the +demesne wall, and some one would shout "They're away!" and the question +of the Front Gate versus the Western Gate would divide us like a sword. +Twice, in the undergrowth, above the sunk fence that separated us from +the wood, the quick, composed face of the fox showed itself; at last, +when things were getting too hot in the covert, he sprang like a cat +over the ditch, and flitted across the park with that gliding gait that +dissimulates its own speed, while I and my fellows offered a painful +example of the discordance of the human voice when compared with that +of the hound, and five or six couple pitched themselves out of the wood +and stretched away over the grass. +</P> + +<P> +It was fortunate for the Comte de Pralines that his entirely British +view-holloa was projected for the most part into my ear (the drum of +which it nearly split) and was merged in the general enthusiasm as we +let ourselves go. +</P> + +<P> +"For God's sake, Major Yeates!" said Michael, the Second Whip, +thundering up beside me as we neared the covert on the further side of +the park, "come into the wood with me and turn them hounds! Mr. +Flurry's back on another fox with the body of the pack, and he's very +near his curse!" +</P> + +<P> +I followed Michael into the covert, and was myself followed by a +section of the Field, who might, with great advantage, have remained +outside. In the twinkling of an eye Michael was absorbed into the +depths of the wood; so also were the six couple, but not so my retinue, +who pursued me like sleuth-hounds, as I traversed the covert at such +speed as the narrow rides permitted. I made at length the negative +discovery that it contained nothing save myself and my followers, a +select party, consisting of the Comte de Pralines, Miss McRory, Miss +Bobbie Bennett, Lady Knox's coachman on a three-year-old, and a little +boy in knickerbockers, on a midget pony with the bearing of a war-horse +and a soul to match. We had come to a baffled pause at the cross-ways, +when faint and far away, an indisputable holloa was borne to us. +</P> + +<P> +"They've gone out the West Gate," said the coachman, from among the +tree-trunks into which he had considerately manoeuvred the kicking end +of the three-year-old. "It must be they ran him straight out into the +country——" +</P> + +<P> +We made for the West Gate, reached it without sight or sound of Flurry +or anyone else, and, on the farm road outside it, pulled up to listen. +</P> + +<P> +The holloa was repeated; half a mile ahead a gesticulating figure +signalled to us to come on. I wish to put it on record that I said I +could not hear the hounds. The Comte de Pralines (excitable, like all +Frenchmen) spurred his hireling at the opposite bank, saying, as he +shot past me: +</P> + +<P> +"It's no damned use humbugging here any longer!" +</P> + +<P> +As I turned Daniel to follow him, my eyes met those of Miss Larkie +McRory, alight with infernal intelligence; they challenged, but at the +same time they offered confederacy. I jumped into the field after the +Count; Miss McRory followed. +</P> + +<P> +"I'll tell Lady Knox on you!" she murmured, as she pounded beside me on +the long-legged spectre, who, it may be remembered, had been described +as "the latther end of a car-horse." +</P> + +<P> +The holloa had come to us from the side of a smooth green hill, and +between us and it was a shallow valley, neatly fenced with banks that +did credit to Sir Valentine Knox's farming. The horses were fresh, the +valley smiled in the conventional way, and spread sleek pastures before +us; we took the down grade at a cheerful pace, and the banks a shade +faster than was orthodox, and the coachman's three-year-old made up in +enthusiasm what he lacked in skill, and the pony, who from the first +was running away, got over everything by methods known only to itself. +The Comte de Pralines held an undeviating line for the spot whence the +holloa had proceeded; when we reached it there was no one to be seen, +but there was another holloa further on. The pursuit of this took us +on to a road, and here the Castle Knox coachman, who had scouted on +ahead, yelled something to the effect that he saw a rider out before +him, accompanying the statement by an application of the spurs to the +dripping but undaunted three-year-old. A stretching gallop up the road +ensued, headed by the little boy and the coachman, who had both secured +a commanding lead. The pace held for about a hundred yards, when the +road bent sharply to the left, more sharply indeed than was anticipated +by the leaders, who, as their mounts skidded as it were on one wheel +round the corner, sailed from their saddles with singular unanimity and +landed in the ditch. At the same moment the rider we had been +following came into view; he was a priest, in immaculate black coat and +top-hat, seated on a tall chestnut horse, and proceeding at a tranquil +footpace on his own affairs. +</P> + +<P> +He had seen the fox, he admitted (I am inclined to think he had headed +him), and he had heard a man shouting, but no hounds had come his way. +He was entirely sympathetic, and, warm as I was at the moment, a chill +apprehension warned me that we might presently need sympathy. +</P> + +<P> +"It's my belief," said Miss Bennett, voicing that which I had not put +into words, "we've been riding after the fox, and the hounds didn't +leave the covert at all!" +</P> + +<P> +An elaborate French oath from the Count fell, theatrical as a +drop-scene, on the close of the first act. Miss Larkie McRory looked +at him admiringly, and allowed just the last rays of her glance to +include me. +</P> + +<P> +It was when we had retraced our steps to the bend of the road that we +had a full view of the Castle Knox coverts, crowning in gold and brown +those pleasant green slopes, easy as the descent to Avernus, down which +we had galloped with such generous ardour some fifteen minutes ago. +Outside the West Gate, through which we had emerged from the demesne, +were three motionless figures in scarlet; Lady Knox and her grey horse +were also recognisable; a few hounds were straying undecidedly in the +first of the grass fields that we had traversed. +</P> + +<P> +A note of the horn leaped to us across the valley, an angry and +peremptory note. One of the scarlet figures started at a canter and +turned the hounds. Another and longer blast followed. As if in +obedience to its summoning, the coachman's three-year-old came ramping, +riderless, down the road; he passed us with his head high in air and +his flashing eye fixed upon the distant group, and, with a long shrill +neigh, put his tail over his back and directed his flight for his owner +and her grey horse. +</P> + +<P> +"God help poor Tierney!" said Miss Bennett, in a stricken voice, "and +ourselves too! I believe they saw us all the time, and we galloping +away on the line of the fox!" +</P> + +<P> +"I'm going home," I said. "Will you kindly make my apologies to the +Master?" +</P> + +<P> +"I'll kindly do no such thing," replied Miss Bennett. "I'll let Flurry +Knox cool off a bit before I meet him again, and that won't be this +side of Christmas, if <I>I</I> can help it! Good-bye, dear friends!" +</P> + +<P> +She turned her mare, and set her face for her own country. +</P> + +<P> +There now remained only the Count, Miss McRory, and myself, and to +remove ourselves from the field of vision of the party at the gate was +our first care. We had, no doubt, been thoroughly identified, +nevertheless the immediate sensation of getting a furzy hill between us +and Flurry was akin to that of escaping from the rays of a +burning-glass. In shelter we paused and surveyed each other. +</P> + +<P> +The Comte de Pralines, with his shiny hat very much on the back of his +head, put down his reins, shoved his crop under his knee, and got out +his cigarette case. +</P> + +<P> +"Well," he began philosophically, striking a match, "our luck ain't +in——!" +</P> + +<P> +He broke off, the match went out, and a lively glow suffused his +unsheltered countenance. +</P> + +<P> +"<I>Vous voyez mon cher—</I>" he resumed, very rapidly. "<I>J'ai appris +quelques petits mots——</I>" +</P> + +<P> +"What a lovely English accent he has!" interrupted Miss McRory +rapturously; "it's a lot nicer than his French one. To look at him +you'd never think he was so clever. It's a pity he wouldn't try to +pick up a little more." +</P> + +<P> +"Now, that's hitting a man when he's down," said the Comte de Pralines. +"I want some one to be kind to me. I've had a poor day of it; no one +would talk to me. I stampeded them wherever I went." +</P> + +<P> +"I didn't notice Miss McRory stampeding to any great extent," I said. +</P> + +<P> +"Wait awhile!" rejoined Miss McRory. "Maybe the stampeding will be +going the other way when you and he meet Lady Knox!" +</P> + +<P> +"I shan't wait an instant," said the Comte de Pralines, "you and Major +Yeates will explain." +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +The horses had been moving on, and the covert was again in sight, about +a quarter of a mile away on our left. There was nothing to be seen, +but hounds were hunting again in the demesne; their cry drove on +through the woods inside the grey demesne wall; they were hunting in a +body, and they were hunting hard. +</P> + +<P> +At each moment the cry was becoming more remote, but it was still +travelling on inside the wall. The fear of Flurry fell from us as a +garment, and the only question that presented itself was whether to +return to the West Gate or to hold on outside. It was a long-accepted +theory at Castle Knox that the demesne wall was not negotiable, and +that the foxes always used the gates, like Christians; bearing this in +mind, I counselled the Front Gate and the outside of the wall. A +couple of lanes favoured us; we presently found ourselves in a series +of marshy fields, moving along abreast of the invisible hounds in the +wood. They were in the thickest and least accessible part of it, and +Flurry's voice and horn came faintly as from a distance. +</P> + +<P> +I explained that it was impossible to ride that part of the wood, but +that, if they held on as they were going, the Front Gate would make it +all right for us, and of course Flurry would—— +</P> + +<P> +"Oh! look, look, look!" shrieked Miss McRory, snatching at my arm and +pointing with her whip. +</P> + +<P> +A short way ahead of us a huge elm tree had fallen upon the wall; the +greenish-yellow leaves still clinging to its branches showed that the +catastrophe was recent. It had broken down the wall to within five or +six feet of the ground, and was reclining in the breach that it had +made, with its branches sprawling in the field. I followed the line of +Miss Larkie's whip, and was just in time to see a fox float like a red +leaf from one of these to the ground, and glide straight across our +front. He passed out of sight over a bank, and the Count stood up in +his stirrups, put his finger in his ear, and screamed in a way that +must have been heard in the next county. I contributed a not +ineffective bellow, and Miss McRory decorated the occasion with long +thin squeals. +</P> + +<P> +The hounds, inside the wall, answered in an agony that was only allayed +by the discovery that the trunk of the tree formed as handy a bridge +for them as for the fox. They came dropping like ripe fruit through +the branches, and, under our rejoicing eyes, swarmed to the fox's line, +and flung on, in the fullest of full-cry, over the bank on which we had +last seen him. I have not failed to assure Flurry Knox that anything +less suggestive of "sneaking away with the hounds" than the manner of +our departure could hardly be conceived, but Mr. Knox has not withdrawn +the phrase. +</P> + +<P> +It may be conceded that Flurry had grounds for annoyance. Had I had +the fox in one hand and the Ordnance Map in the other, I could hardly +have improved on the course steered by our pilot. Up hill for a bit, +when the horses were fresh, with gradients just steep enough to temper +Daniel's well-sustained tug of war, yet not so steep as to make a +three-foot bank look like a house, or to guarantee a big knee at each +"stone gap." Then high and dry country, with sheep huddled in +defensive positions in the corners of the fields, and grass like a +series of putting-greens, minus the holes, and fat, comely banks, and +thin walls, from which the small round stones rattled harmlessly as +Miss McRory's car-horse swept through them. Down into a long valley, +with little sky-blue lakes, set in yellow sedge; and there was a +helpful bog road there, that nicked nicely with the bending line of the +hounds through the accompanying bog, and allayed a spasm of acute +anxiety as to whether we should ever get near them again. Then upwards +once more, deviously, through rougher going, with patches of +low-growing furze sprouting from blackened tracts where the hillside +had been set on fire, with the hounds coming to their noses among +brakes of briars and bracken; finally, in the wind and sun of the +hill-top, a well-timed check. +</P> + +<P> +We looked back for the first time, half in fear that we might find +Flurry hot on our track, half in hope that he and his horn were coming +to our help; but neither in the green country nor in the brown valley +was there any sign or sound of him. There was nothing to be seen but a +couple of men standing on a fence to watch us, nothing to be heard +except cur dogs vociferating at every cottage. +</P> + +<P> +"Fifteen couple on," said the Count professionally. "How many does +Knox usually have out?" +</P> + +<P> +"All he's got," I said, mopping my brow. +</P> + +<P> +"I don't see the two that have no hair on their backs," said Miss +McRory, whose eyes, much enhanced by the radiant carmine of her cheeks, +beamed at us through wisps and loops of hair. "I know them, they're +always scratching, the poor things!" +</P> + +<P> +That Miss McRory and her steed kept, as they did, their place in what +is known to history as the Great Castle Knox Run, is a matter that I do +not pretend to explain. Some antiquarian has unearthed the fact that +the car-horse had three strains of breeding, and had twice been second +in a Point-to-Point; but I maintain that credit must be ascribed to +Miss Larkie, about whom there is something inevitable; some street-boy +quality of being in the movement. +</P> + +<P> +We were now on a heathery table-land, with patches of splashy, rushy +ground, from which the snipe flickered out as the hounds cast +themselves through it. Presently, on the top of a hard, peaty bank, a +hound spoke, hesitatingly, yet hopefully, and plunged down on the other +side; the pack crowded over, and drove on through the heather. Daniel +changed feet on a mat of ling with a large stone in it, and therefrom +ramped carefully out over a deep cut in the peat, unforeseen, and +masked by tufts of heather. The hireling of the Comte de Pralines had, +up to this, done his work blamelessly, if without originality; he had +an anxiousness to oblige that had been matured during a dread winter +when he had been the joint property of three subalterns, but he +reserved to himself a determination to drop economically off his banks, +and boggy slits were not in his list of possibilities. +</P> + +<P> +How the matter occurred I do not know, but, when I looked round, his +head alone was visible, and the Count was standing on his in the +heather. Miss McRory's car-horse, who had pulled up in the act of +following the Count, with a suddenness acquired, no doubt, in the +shafts of a Cork covered-car, was viewing the scene with horror from +the summit of the bank. The hounds were by this time clear of the +heather, and were beginning to run hard; it was not until I was on the +further side of the next bank that I cast another fleeting look back; +this time the Count was standing on his feet, but the hireling was +still engulfed, and Miss McRory was still on the wrong side of the +slit. After that I forgot them, wholly and heartlessly, as is +invariable in such cases. +</P> + +<P> +As a matter of fact, I had no attention to spare for anyone but myself, +even though we went, for the first twenty minutes or so, as on rubber +tyres, through bland dairy farms wherein the sweet influences of the +dairy-cow had induced gaps in every fence, and gates into every road. +The scent, mercifully for Daniel, was not quite what it had been; the +fox had run through cattle, and also through goats (a small and odorous +party, on whose behalf, indeed, some slight intervention on my part was +required), and it was here, when crossing a road, that a donkey and her +foal, moved by some mysterious attraction akin to love at first sight, +attached themselves to me. Undeterred by the fact that the mother's +foreleg was fettered to her hind, the pair sped from field to field in +my wake; at the checks, which just then were frequent, they brayed +enthusiastically. I thought to elude them at a steep drop into a road, +but they toboganned down it without an effort; when they overtook me +the fetter-chain was broken, and clanked from the mother's hind-leg as +if she were a family ghost. +</P> + +<P> +There came at length a moment, outside a farm-house, when it seemed as +if the fox had beaten us. Here, on the farther side of Castle Knox, I +was well out of my own country, and what the fox's point might be was +represented by the letter X. Nevertheless it was here that I lifted +the hounds and brought off the cast of a life-time; I am inclined to +think that he had lain down under a hayrick and was warned of our +approach by the voices of my attendant jackasses; my cast was probably +not much more of a fluke than such inspirations usually are, but the +luck was with me. Old Playboy, sole relic of my deputy Mastership, +lifted his white head and endorsed my suggestion with a single bass +note; Rally, Philippa's prize puppy, uttered a soprano cadenza, and the +pack suddenly slid away over the pasture fields, with the smoothness +and unanimity of the <I>Petits Chevaux</I> over their green cloth. +</P> + +<P> +It was now becoming for Daniel and me something of an effort to keep +our proud and lonely place in or about the next field to the hounds. +The fields were coming smaller, the gaps fewer; Daniel had no intention +of chucking it, but he gave me to understand that he meant to take the +hills on the second speed. And, unfortunately, the hills were coming. +The hounds, by this time three fences ahead, flung over a bank on the +upgrade, a bank that would give pause for reflection at the beginning +of a run. I tried back, scrambled into a lane, followed it up the +hill, with the cry of the hounds coming fainter each minute, dragged a +cart wheel and a furze bush out of a gap with my crop, found myself in +a boggy patch of turnips, surrounded by towering fuchsia hedges, and +realised that the pack had passed in music out of sight. +</P> + +<P> +I stood still and looked at my watch. It was already an hour and +twenty minutes from the word "Go!" and the hounds were not only gone +but were still going. A man who has lost hounds inevitably follows the +line of least resistance. I retired from the turnip field, and +abandoned myself to the lane, which seemed not disinclined to follow +the direction in which the hounds had been heading. Since the hayrick +episode they had been running right-handed, and the lane bent +right-handed over the end of the hill, and presently deposited me on a +road. It was one of the moments when the greatness of the world is +borne in upon the wayfarer. There was a spacious view from the +hill-side; three parishes, at least, offered themselves for my +selection, and I surveyed them, solitary and remote as the evening +star, and with no more reason than it for favouring one more than +another. A harrowing, and, by this time, but too familiar cry, broke +on my ear, an undulating cry as of a thing that galloped as it roared. +My admirers were still on my trail; I gave Daniel a touch of the spurs +and trotted on to the right. +</P> + +<P> +No human being was visible, but some way ahead there was a slated house +at a cross-roads; there, at all events, I could get my bearings. There +were porter-barrels outside it, and from some distance I heard two +voices, male and female, engaged in loud and ferocious argument; I had +no difficulty in diagnosing a public-house. When Daniel and I darkened +the doorway the shouting ceased abruptly, and I saw a farmer, in his +Sunday clothes, making an unsteady retreat through a door at the back +of the shop. The other disputant, a large, middle-aged woman, remained +entrenched behind the counter, and regarded me with a tranquil and +commanding eye. She informed me, as from a pulpit, that I was six +miles from Castle Knox, and with dignity, as though leaving a pulpit, +she moved from behind the counter, and advanced to the door to indicate +my road. I asked her if she had seen anything of the hounds. +</P> + +<P> +"There was one of your dogs looked in the door to me a while ago," she +replied, "but he got a couple of boxes from the cat that have kittens; +I d'no what way he went. Indeed I was bothered at the time with that +poor man that came in to thank me for the compliment I paid him in +going to his sister's funeral." +</P> + +<P> +I said that he certainly seemed to feel it very much. At which she +looked hard at me and said that he was on his way to a wedding, and +that it might be he had a drop taken to rise his heart. "He was after +getting a half a crown from a gentleman—a huntsman like yourself," she +added, "that was striving to get his horse out of a ditch." +</P> + +<P> +"Was there a lady with him?" I asked. +</P> + +<P> +"There was, faith! And the two o' them legged it away then through the +country, and they galloping like the deer!" +</P> + +<P> +So, in all love, we parted; before I reached the next turning renewed +sounds of battle told me that the compliment was still being pressed +home. +</P> + +<P> +My road, bending ever to the right, strolled through an untidy +nondescript country, with little bits of bog, and little lumps of hill, +and little rags of fields. I had jogged a mile or so when I saw a +hound, a few fields away to my right, poking along on what appeared to +be a line; he flopped into a boggy ditch, and scrambled from it on to a +fence. He stood there undecidedly, like any human being, reviewing the +situation, and then I saw his head and stern go up. The next moment I +also heard what he had heard, a faint and far-away note of the horn. +It came again, a long and questing call. +</P> + +<P> +The road was flat and fairly straight; far away upon it something was +moving gradually into my scope of vision, something with specks of red +in it. It advanced upon me, firmly, and at a smart pace; heading it, +like the ram of a battleship, was Mr. Knox. With him, "of all his +halls had nursed," remained only the two hounds with the hairless +backs, the two who, according to Miss McRory, were always scratching. +Behind him was a small and unsmiling selection from those who, like +him, had lost the hunt. Lady Knox headed them; my wife and Bill +brought up the rear. The hound whom I had seen in the bog had preceded +me, and was now joining himself to his two comrades, putting the best +face he could upon it, with a frowning brow and his hackles up. The +comrades, in their official position of sole representatives of the +pack, received him with orthodox sternness, and though unable, for +obvious reasons, to put their hackles up, the bald places on their +backs were of an intimidating pink. +</P> + +<P> +My own reception followed the same lines. +</P> + +<P> +"Where are the hounds?" barked Flurry, in the awful tones of a parent +addressing a governess who, through gross neglect, has mislaid her +charges. +</P> + +<P> +Before I had had time to make up my mind whether to be truculent or +pacific, there was a shout away on our left. At some little distance +up a by-road, a man was standing on a furze-plumed bank, beckoning to +us with a driving-whip. Flurry stood in his stirrups, and held up his +cap. The man yelled information that was wholly unintelligible, but +the driving-whip indicated a point beyond him, and Flurry's brown mare +jumped from a standstill to a gallop, and swung into the by-road. +</P> + +<P> +The little band of followers swung after him. When Lady Knox was well +ahead, I followed, and found myself battering between high banks behind +Philippa and Bill Cunningham. +</P> + +<P> +"Where's Mossoo?" my wife said breathlessly, as Daniel's head drew +level with her sandwich case. "We met the man who pulled him out of +the ditch—up in the hills there——" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, by Jove!" said Bill, "Flurry asked him if it was a Frenchman, and +the chap said, 'French or German, he had curses as good as yourself!' +I told Flurry it must have been you!" +</P> + +<P> +"I don't mind Flurry, it's Lady Knox——" began Philippa. +</P> + +<P> +Here we all came to a violent full-stop. Flurry's advance had been +arrested by a covered-car and horse drawn across the road; the horse +was eating grass, the driver, with the reins in his hand, was standing +with his back to us on the top of the bank from which he had hailed us, +howling plaudits, as if he were watching a race. There were distant +shouts, and barking dogs, and bellowing cattle, and blended with them +was the unmistakable baying of hounds. +</P> + +<P> +I daresay that what Flurry said to the driver did him good—did Flurry +good, I mean. The car lurched to one side, and, as we squeezed past +it, we saw between its black curtains a vision of a scarlet-faced +bride, embedded in female relatives; two outside cars, driverless, and +loaded with wedding guests, were drawn up a little farther on. Flurry, +still exploding like a shell, thundered on down the lane; the high bank +ended at a gateway, he turned in, and as we crushed in after him we +were greeted by a long and piercing "Who-whoop!" +</P> + +<P> +We were in a straggling field with furzy patches in it. At the farther +end of it was a crowd of country people on horses and on foot, +obviously more wedding-guests; back of all, on a road below, was a +white-washed chapel, and near it, still on the chestnut horse, was the +priest who had headed the morning fox. Close to one of the clumps of +furze the Comte de Pralines was standing, knee-deep in baying hounds, +holding the body of the fox high above his head, and uttering scream +upon scream of the most orthodox quality. He flung the fox to the +hounds, the onlookers cheered, Miss McRory, seated on the car-horse, +waved the brush above her head, and squealed at the top of her voice +something that sounded like "Yoicks!" Her hair was floating freely +down her back; a young countryman, in such sacrificial attire as +suggested the bridegroom, was running across the field with her hat in +his hand. +</P> + +<P> +Flurry pulled up in silence; so did we. We were all quite outside the +picture, and we knew it. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, the finest hunt ever you see!" cried the bridegroom as he passed +us; "it was Father Dwyer seen him shnaking into the furze, the villyan!" +</P> + +<P> +"Worry, worry, worry! Tear him and eat him, old fellows!" shouted the +Comte de Pralines. "Give the hounds room, can't you, you chaps! I +suppose you never saw them break up a fox before!" This to the wedding +guests, who had crowded in, horse and foot, on top of the scuffling, +growling pack. +</P> + +<P> +Flurry turned an iron face upon me. His eye was no bigger than a pin's +head. +</P> + +<P> +"I suppose it's from Larkie McRory he got the English?" he said; "he +learnt it quick." +</P> + +<P> +"The McRorys don't speak English!" said Lady Knox, in a voice like a +north-east wind. +</P> + +<P> +"<I>Seulement très petit!</I>" Philippa murmured brazenly. +</P> + +<P> +Whether Lady Knox heard her or not, I am unable to say. Her face was +averted from me, and remained as inflexible as a profile on a coin—a +Roman coin, for choice. +</P> + +<P> +The faculty of not knowing when you are beaten is one that has, I +think, been lauded beyond its deserving. Napoleon the Great has +condemned manoeuvring before a fixed position, and Lady Knox was +clearly a fixed position. Accepting these tenets, I began an +unostentatious retirement, in which I was joined by Philippa. We were +nearing safety and the gate of the field, when a yearning, choking wail +came to us from the lane. +</P> + +<P> +"The Bride?" queried my wife hysterically. +</P> + +<P> +It was repeated; in the same instant my admirers, the jackasses, <I>mère +et fils</I>, advanced upon the scene at a delirious gallop, and, sobbing +with the ecstasy of reunion, resumed their attendance upon Daniel. +</P> + +<P> +For a moment the attention of the field, including even that of the +Roman coin, was diverted from the Comte de Pralines, and was +concentrated upon our retreat. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap11"></A> + +<P CLASS="t3b"> +XI +</P> + +<P CLASS="t4b"> +THE SHOOTING OF SHINROE +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Joseph Francis M'Cabe rose stiffly from his basket chair, picked up +the cushion on which he had been seated, looked at it with animosity, +hit it hard with his fist, and, flinging it into the chair, replaced +himself upon it, with the single word: +</P> + +<P> +"Flog!" +</P> + +<P> +I was aware that he referred to the flock with which the cushions in +the lounge of Reardon's Hotel were stuffed. +</P> + +<P> +"They have this hotel destroyed altogether with their improvements," +went on Mr. M'Cabe between puffs, as he lit his pipe. "God be with the +time this was the old smoking-room, before they knocked it and the hall +into one and spoilt the two of them! There were fine solid chairs in +it that time, that you'd sleep in as good as your bed, but as for these +wicker affairs, I declare the wind 'd whistle through them the same as +a crow's nest." He paused, and brought his heel down heavily on the +top of the fire. "And look at that for a grate! A Well-grate they +call it,—<I>I'd</I> say, 'Leave Well alone!' Thirty years I'm coming to +Sessions here, and putting up in this house, and in place of old Tim +telling me me own room was ready for me, there's a whipper-snapper of a +snapdragon in a glass box in the hall, asking me me name in broken +English" (it may be mentioned that this happened before the War), "and +'Had I a Cook's ticket?' and down-facing me that I must leave my key in +what he called the 'Bew-ro.'" +</P> + +<P> +I said I knew of a lady who always took a Cook's ticket when she went +abroad, because when she got to Paris there would be an Englishman on +the platform to meet her, or at all events a broken Englishman. +</P> + +<P> +Mr. M'Cabe softened to a temporary smile, but held on to his grievance +with the tenacity of his profession. (I don't think I have mentioned +that he is a Solicitor, of a type now, unfortunately, becoming +obsolete.) He had a long grey face, and a short grey moustache; he +dyed his hair, and his age was known to no man. +</P> + +<P> +"There was one of Cook's tourists sat next me at breakfast," he +resumed, "and he asked me was I ever in Ireland before, and how long +was I in it. 'Wan day,' says I!" +</P> + +<P> +"Did he believe you?" I asked. +</P> + +<P> +"He did," replied Mr. M'Cabe, with something that approached compassion. +</P> + +<P> +I have always found old M'Cabe a mitigating circumstance of Sessions at +Owenford, both in Court and out of it. He was a sportsman of the +ingrained variety that grows wild in Ireland, and in any of the +horse-coping cases that occasionally refresh the innermost soul of +Munster, it would be safe to assume that Mr. M'Cabe's special gifts had +ensured his being retained, generally on the shady side. He fished +when occasion served, he shot whether it did or not. He did not +exactly keep horses, but he always knew some one who was prepared to +"pass on" a thoroughly useful animal, with some infirmity so +insignificant that until you tried to dispose of him you did not +realise that he was yours, until his final passing-on to the next +world. He had certain shooting privileges in the mountains behind the +town of Owenford (bestowed, so he said, by a grateful client), and it +had often been suggested by him that he and I should anticipate some +November Sessions by a day, and spend it "on the hill." We were now in +the act of carrying out the project. +</P> + +<P> +"Ah, these English," M'Cabe began again, mixing himself a glass of +whisky and water, "they'd believe anything so long as it wasn't the +truth. Talking politics these lads were, and by the time they had +their ham and eggs swallowed they had the whole country arranged. 'And +look,' says they—they were anglers, God help us!—'look at all the +money that's going to waste for want of preserving the rivers!' 'I beg +your pardon,' says I, 'there's water-bailiffs on the most of the +rivers. I was defending a man not long since, that was cot by the +water-bailiff poaching salmon on the Owen. 'And what proof have you?' +says I to the water-bailiff. 'How do you know it was a salmon at all?' +'Is it how would I know?' says the bailiff, 'didn't I gaff the fish for +him meself!'" +</P> + +<P> +"What did your anglers say to that?" I enquired. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, they didn't quite go so far as to tell me I was a liar," said +Mr. M'Cabe tranquilly. "Ah, telling such as them the truth is wasting +what isn't plenty! Then they'll meet some fellow that lies like a +tooth-drawer, and they'll write to the English <I>Times</I> on the head of +him!" He stretched forth a long and bony hand for the tumbler of +whisky and water. "And talking of tooth-drawers," he went on, "there's +a dentist comes here once a fortnight, Jeffers his name is, and a great +sportsman too. I was with him to-day"—he passed his hand consciously +over his mouth, and the difference that I had dimly felt in his +appearance suddenly, and in all senses of the word, flashed upon +me—"and he was telling me how one time, in the summer that's past, +he'd been out all night, fishing in the Owen. He was going home before +the dawn, and he jumped down off a bank on to what he took to be a +white stone—and he aimed for the stone, mind you, because he thought +the ground was wet—and what was it but a man's face!" M'Cabe paused +to receive my comment. "What did he do, is it? Ran off for his life, +roaring out, 'There's a first-rate dentist in Owenford!' The fellow +was lying asleep there, and he having bundles of spurge with him to +poison the river! He had taken drink, I suppose." +</P> + +<P> +"Was he a water-bailiff too?" said I. "I hope the conservators of the +river stood him a set of teeth." +</P> + +<P> +"If they did," said M'Cabe, with an unexpected burst of feeling, "I +pity him!" He rose to his feet, and put his tumbler down on the +chimney-piece. "Well, we should get away early in the morning, and +it's no harm for me to go to bed." +</P> + +<P> +He yawned—a large yawn that ended abruptly with a metallic click. His +eyes met mine, full of unspoken things; we parted in a silence that +seemed to have been artificially imposed upon Mr. M'Cabe. +</P> + +<P> +The wind boomed intermittently in my chimney during the night, and a +far and heavy growling told of the dissatisfaction of the sea. Yet the +morning was not unfavourable. There was a broken mist, with shimmers +of sun in it, and the carman said it would be a thing of nothing, and +would go out with the tide. The Boots, a relic of the old <I>régime</I>, +was pessimistic, and mentioned that there were two stars squez up agin +the moon last night, and he would have no dependence on the day. +M'Cabe offered no opinion, being occupied in bestowing in a species of +dog-box beneath the well of the car a young red setter, kindly lent by +his friend the dentist. The setter, who had formed at sight an +unfavourable opinion of the dog-box, had resolved himself into an +invertebrate mass of jelly and lead, and was with difficulty +straightened out and rammed home into it. +</P> + +<P> +"Have we all now?" said M'Cabe, slamming the door in the dog's face. +"Take care we're not like me uncle, old Tom Duffy, that was going +shooting, and was the whole morning slapping his pockets and saying, +'Me powder! me shot! me caps! me wads!' and when he got to the bog, 'O +tare an' ouns!' says he, 'I forgot the gun!'" +</P> + +<P> +There are still moments when I can find some special and +not-otherwise-to-be-attained flavour in driving on an outside car; a +sense of personal achievement in sitting, by some method of instinctive +suction, the lurches and swoops peculiar to these vehicles. Reardon's +had given us its roomiest car and its best horse, a yellow mare, with a +long back and a slinging trot, and a mouth of iron. +</P> + +<P> +"Where did Mr. Reardon get the mare, Jerry?" asked M'Cabe, as we +zigzagged in successive hairbreadths through the streets of Owenford. +</P> + +<P> +"D-Dublin, sir," replied the driver, who, with both fists extended in +front of him and both heels planted against his narrow footboard, +seemed to find utterance difficult. +</P> + +<P> +"She's a goer!" said M'Cabe. +</P> + +<P> +"She is—she killed two men," said Jerry, in two jerks. +</P> + +<P> +"That's a great credit to her. What way did she do it?" +</P> + +<P> +"P-pulled the lungs out o' them!" ejaculated Jerry, turning the last +corner and giving the mare a shade more of her head, as a tribute, +perhaps, to her prowess. +</P> + +<P> +She swung us for some six miles along the ruts of the coast road at the +same unflinching pace, after which, turning inland and uphill, we began +the climb of four miles into the mountains. It was about eleven +o'clock when we pulled up beside a long and reedy pool, high up in the +heather; the road went on, illimitably it seemed, and was lost, with +its attendant telegraph posts, in cloud. +</P> + +<P> +"Away with ye now, Jerry," said M'Cabe; "we'll shoot our way home." +</P> + +<P> +He opened the back of the dog-box, and summoned its occupant. The +summons was disregarded. Far back in the box two sparks of light and a +dead silence indicated the presence of the dog. +</P> + +<P> +"How, snug you are in there!" said M'Cabe; "here, Jerry, pull him out +for us. What the deuce is this his name is? Jeffers told me +yesterday, and it's gone from me." +</P> + +<P> +"I d'no would he bite me?" said Jerry, taking a cautious observation +and giving voice to the feelings of the party. "Here, poor fellow! +Here, good lad!" +</P> + +<P> +The good lad remained immovable. The lure of a sandwich produced no +better result. +</P> + +<P> +"We can't be losing our day with the brute this way," said M'Cabe. +"Tip up the car. He'll come out then, and no thanks to him." +</P> + +<P> +As the shafts rose heavenwards, the law of gravitation proved too many +for the setter, and he slowly slid to earth. +</P> + +<P> +"If I only knew your dam name we'd be all right now," said M'Cabe. +</P> + +<P> +The carman dropped the shafts on to the mare, and drove on up the pass, +with one side of the car turned up and himself on the other. The +yellow mare had, it seemed, only begun her day's work. A prophetic +instinct, of the reliable kind that is strictly founded on fact, warned +me that we might live to regret her departure. +</P> + +<P> +The dentist's setter had, at sight of the guns, realised that things +were better than he had expected, and now preceded us along the edge of +the lake with every appearance of enthusiasm. He quartered the ground +with professional zeal, he splashed through the sedge, and rattled +through thickets of dry reeds, and set successively a heron, a +water-hen, and something, unseen, that I believe to have been a +water-rat. After each of these efforts he rushed in upon his quarry, +and we called him by all the gun-dog names we had ever heard of, from +Don to Grouse, from Carlo to Shot, coupled with objurgations on a +rising scale. With none of them did we so much as vibrate a chord in +his bosom. He was a large dog, with a blunt stupid face, and a faculty +for excitement about nothing that impelled him to bound back to us as +often as possible, to gaze in our eyes in brilliant enquiry, and to +pant and prance before us with all the fatuity of youth. Had he been +able to speak, he would have asked idiotic questions, of that special +breed that exact from their victim a reply of equal imbecility. +</P> + +<P> +The lake and its environs, for the first time in M'Cabe's experience, +yielded nothing; we struck up on to the mountain side, following the +course of an angry stream that came racing down from the heights. We +worked up through ling and furze, and skirted flocks of pale stones +that lay in the heather like petrified sheep, and the dog, ranging +deliriously, set water-wagtails and anything else that could fly; I +believe he would have set a blue-bottle, and I said so to M'Cabe. +</P> + +<P> +"Ah, give him time; he'll settle down," said M'Cabe, who had a +thankfulness for small mercies born of a vast experience of makeshifts; +"he might fill the bag for us yet." +</P> + +<P> +We laboured along the flank of the mountain, climbing in and out of +small ravines, jumping or wading streams, sloshing through yellow +sedgery bog; always with the brown heather running up to the misty +skyline, and always with the same atrocious luck. Once a small pack of +grouse got up, very wild, and leagues out of range, thanks to the +far-reaching activities of the dog, and once a hermit woodcock exploded +out of a clump of furze, and sailed away down the slope, followed by +four charges of shot and the red setter, in equally innocuous pursuit. +And this, up to luncheon time, was the sum of the morning's sport. +</P> + +<P> +We ate our sandwiches on a high ridge, under the lee of a tumbled pile +of boulders, that looked as if they had been about to hurl themselves +into the valley, and had thought better of it at the last moment. +Between the looming, elephant-grey mountains the mist yielded glimpses +of the far greenness of the sea, the only green thing in sight in this +world of grey and brown. The dog sat opposite to me, and willed me to +share my food with him. His steady eyes were charged with the +implication that I was a glutton; personally I abhorred him, yet I +found it impossible to give him less than twenty-five per cent. of my +sandwiches. +</P> + +<P> +"I wonder did Jeffers take him for a bad debt," said M'Cabe +reflectively, as he lit his pipe. +</P> + +<P> +I said I should rather take my chance with the bad debt. +</P> + +<P> +"He might have treated me better," M'Cabe grumbled on, "seeing that I +paid him seven pound ten the day before yesterday, let alone that it +was me that was the first to put him up to this—this bit of Shinroe +Mountain that never was what you might call strictly preserved. When +he came here first he didn't as much as know what cartridges he'd want +for it. 'Six and eight,' says I, 'that's a lawyer's fee, so if you +think of me you'll not forget it!' And now, if ye please," went on Mr. +Jeffers' preceptor in sport, "he's shooting the whole country and +selling all he gets! And he wouldn't as much as ask me to go with him; +and the excuse he gives, he wouldn't like to have an old hand like me +connyshooring his shots! How modest he is!" +</P> + +<P> +I taunted M'Cabe with having been weak enough thus to cede his rights, +and M'Cabe, who was not at all amused, said that after all it wasn't so +much Jeffers that did the harm, but an infernal English Syndicate that +had taken the Shinroe shooting this season, and paid old Purcell that +owned it ten times what it was worth. +</P> + +<P> +"It might be as good for us to get off their ground now," continued +M'Cabe, rising slowly to his feet, "and try the Lackagreina Valley. +The stream below is their bounds." +</P> + +<P> +This, I hasten to say, was the first I had heard of the Syndicate, and +I thought it tactless of M'Cabe to have mentioned it, even though the +wrong that we had done them was purely technical. I said to him that I +thought the sooner we got off their ground the better, and we descended +the hill and crossed the stream, and M'Cabe said that he could always +shoot this next stretch of country when he liked. With this assurance, +we turned our backs on the sea and struck inland, tramping for an hour +or more through country whose entire barrenness could only be explained +on the hypothesis that it has been turned inside out to dry. So far it +had failed to achieve even this result. +</P> + +<P> +The weather got thicker, and the sport, if possible, thinner; I had +long since lost what bearings I possessed, but M'Cabe said he knew of a +nice patch of scrub in the next valley that always held a cock. The +next valley came at last, not without considerable effort, but no patch +of scrub was apparent. Some small black and grey cattle stood and +looked at us, and a young bull showed an inclination to stalk the dog; +it seemed the only sport the valley was likely to afford. M'Cabe +looked round him, and looked at his watch, and looked at the sky, which +did not seem to be more than a yard above our heads, and said without +emotion: +</P> + +<P> +"Did ye think of telling the lad in the glass box in the hall that we +might want some dinner kept hot for us? I d'no from Adam where we've +got to!" +</P> + +<P> +There was a cattle track along the side of the valley which might, +though not necessarily, lead somewhere. We pursued it, and found that +it led, in the first instance, to some blackfaced mountain sheep. A +cheerful interlude followed, in which the red setter hunted the sheep, +and we hunted the setter, and what M'Cabe said about the dentist in the +intervals of the chase was more appropriate to the occasion than to +these pages. +</P> + +<P> +When justice had been satiated, and the last echo of the last yell of +the dog had trembled into silence among the hills, we resumed the +cattle-track, which had become a shade more reliable, and, as we +proceeded, began to give an impression that it might lead somewhere. +The day was dying in threatening stillness. Lethargic layers of mist +bulged low, like the roof of a marquee, and cloaked every outline that +could yield us information. The dog, unchastened by recent events, and +full of an idiot optimism, continued to range the hillside. +</P> + +<P> +"I suppose I'll never get the chance to tell Jeffers my opinion of that +tom-fool," said M'Cabe, following with an eye of steel the +perambulations of the dog; "the best barrister that ever wore a wig +couldn't argue with a dentist! He has his fist half way down your +throat before you can open your mouth; and in any case he'll tell me we +couldn't expect any dog would work for us when we forgot his name. +What's the brute at now?" +</P> + +<P> +The brute was high above us on the hillside, setting a solitary furze +bush with convincing determination, and casting backward looks to see +if he were being supported. +</P> + +<P> +"It might be a hare," said M'Cabe, cocking his gun, with a revival of +hope that was almost pathetic, and ascending towards the furze bush. +</P> + +<P> +I neither quickened my pace nor deviated from the cattle track, but I +may admit that I did so far yield to the theory of the hare as to slip +a cartridge into my gun. +</P> + +<P> +M'Cabe put his gun to his shoulder, lowered it abruptly, and walked up +to the furze bush. He stooped and picked up something. +</P> + +<P> +"He's not such a fool after all!" he called out; "ye said he'd set a +blue-bottle, and b' Jove ye weren't far out!" +</P> + +<P> +He held up a black object that was neither bird nor beast. +</P> + +<P> +I took the cartridge out of my gun as unobtrusively as possible, and +M'Cabe and the dog rejoined me with the product of the day's sport. It +was a flat-sided bottle, high shouldered, with a short neck; M'Cabe +extracted the cork and took a sniff. +</P> + +<P> +"Mountain dew no less!" (Mr. M'Cabe adhered faithfully to the stock +phrases of his youth.) "This never paid the King a shilling! Give me +the cup off your flask, Major, till we see what sort it is." +</P> + +<P> +It was pretty rank, and even that seasoned vessel, old M'Cabe, admitted +that it might be drinkable in another couple of years, but hardly in +less; yet as it ran, a rivulet of fire, through my system, it seemed to +me that even the water in my boots became less chill. +</P> + +<P> +"In the public interest we're bound to remove it," said M'Cabe, putting +the bottle into his game bag; "any man that drank enough of that 'd rob +a church! Well, anyway, we're not the only people travelling this +path," he continued; "whoever put his afternoon tea to hide there will +choose a less fashionable promenade next time. But indeed the poor man +couldn't be blamed for not knowing such a universal genius of a dog was +coming this way! Didn't I tell you he'd fill the bag for us!" +</P> + +<P> +He extracted from his pockets a pair of knitted gloves, and put them +on; it was equivalent to putting up the shutters. +</P> + +<P> +It was shortly after this that we regained touch with civilisation. +Above the profile of a hill a telegraph post suddenly showed itself +against the grey of the misty twilight. We made as bee-like a line for +it as the nature of the ground permitted, and found ourselves on a +narrow road, at a point where it was in the act of making a hairpin +turn before plunging into a valley. +</P> + +<P> +"The Beacon Bay road, begad!" said M'Cabe; "I didn't think we were so +far out of our way. Let me see now, which way is this we'd best go." +</P> + +<P> +He stood still and looked round him, taking his bearings; in the +solitude the telegraph posts hummed to each other, full of information +and entirely reticent. +</P> + +<P> +The position was worse than I thought. By descending into the valley +we should, a couple or three miles farther on, strike the coast road +about six miles from home; by ascending the hill and walking four +miles, we should arrive at the station of Coppeen Road, and, with luck, +there intercept the evening train for Owenford. +</P> + +<P> +"And that's the best of our play, but we'll have to step out," +concluded M'Cabe, shortening the strap of his game-bag, and settling it +on his back. +</P> + +<P> +"If I were you," I said, "I'd chuck that stuff away. Apart from +anything else, it's about half a ton extra to carry." +</P> + +<P> +"There's many a thing, Major, that you might do that I might not do," +returned M'Cabe with solemnity, "and in the contrairy sense the +statement is equally valid." +</P> + +<P> +He faced the hill with humped shoulders, and fell with no more words +into his poacher's stride, and I followed him with the best imitation +of it that I could put up after at least six hours of heavy going. +M'Cabe is fifteen years older than I am, and I hope that when I am his +age I shall have more consideration than he for those who are younger +than myself. +</P> + +<P> +It was now nearly half-past five o'clock, and by the time we had +covered a mile of puddles and broken stones it was too dark to see +which was which. I felt considerable dubiety about catching the train +at Coppeen Road, all the more that it was a flag station, demanding an +extra five minutes in hand. Probably the engine-driver had long since +abandoned any expectation of passengers at Coppeen Road, and, if he +even noticed the signal, would treat it as a practical joke. It was +after another quarter of an hour's trudge that a distant sound entered +into the silence that had fallen upon M'Cabe and me, an intermittent +grating of wheels upon patches of broken stone, a steady hammer of +hoofs. +</P> + +<P> +M'Cabe halted. +</P> + +<P> +"That car's bound to be going to Owenford," he said; "I wonder could +they give us a lift." +</P> + +<P> +A single light (the economical habit of the South of Ireland) began to +split the foggy darkness. +</P> + +<P> +"Begad, that's like the go of Reardon's mare!" said M'Cabe, as the +light swung down upon us. +</P> + +<P> +We held the road like highwaymen, we called upon the unseen driver to +stop, and he answered to the name of Jerry. This is not a proof of +identity in a province where every third man is dignified by the name +of Jeremiah, but as the car pulled up it was Reardon's yellow mare on +which the lamplight fell, and we knew that the fates had relented. +</P> + +<P> +We should certainly not catch the train at Coppeen Road, Jerry assured +us; "she had," he said, "a fashion of running early on Monday nights, +and in any case if you'd want to catch that thrain, you should make +like an amber-bush for her." +</P> + +<P> +We agreed that it was too late for the preparation of an ambush. +</P> + +<P> +"If the Sergeant had no objections," continued Jerry, progressing +smoothly towards the tip that would finally be his, "it would be no +trouble at all to oblige the gentlemen. Sure it's the big car I have, +and it's often I took six, yes, and seven on it, going to the races." +</P> + +<P> +I was now aware of two helmeted presences on the car, and a decorous +voice said that the gentlemen were welcome to a side of the car if they +liked. +</P> + +<P> +"Is that Sergeant Leonard?" asked M'Cabe, who knew every policeman in +the country. "Well, Sergeant, you've a knack of being on the spot when +you're wanted!" +</P> + +<P> +"And sometimes when he's not!" said I. +</P> + +<P> +There was a third and unhelmeted presence on the car, and something of +stillness and aloofness in it had led me to diagnose a prisoner. +</P> + +<P> +The suggested dispositions were accomplished. The two policemen and +the prisoner wedged themselves on one side of the car, M'Cabe and I +mounted the other, and put the dog on the cushion of the well behind us +(his late quarters in the dog-box being occupied by half a mountain +sheep, destined for the hotel larder). The yellow mare went gallantly +up to her collar, regardless of her augmented load; M'Cabe and the +Sergeant leaned to each other across the back of the car, and fell into +profound and low-toned converse; I smoked, and the dog, propping his +wet back against mine, made friends with the prisoner. It may be the +Irish blood in me that is responsible for the illicit sympathy with a +prisoner that sometimes incommodes me; I certainly bestowed some of it +upon the captive, sandwiched between two stalwarts of the R.I.C., and +learning that the strong arm of the Law was a trifle compared with the +rest of its person. +</P> + +<P> +"What sport had you, Major?" enquired Jerry, as we slackened speed at a +hill. +</P> + +<P> +I was sitting at the top of the car, under his elbow, and he probably +thought that I was feeling neglected during the heart-to-heart +confidences of M'Cabe and the Sergeant. +</P> + +<P> +"Not a feather," I replied. +</P> + +<P> +"Sure the birds couldn't be in it this weather," said Jerry +considerately; he had in his time condoled with many sportsmen. "I'm +after talking to a man in Coppeen Road station, that was carrying the +game bag for them gentlemen that has Mr. Purcell's shooting on Shinroe +Mountain, and what had the four o' them after the day—only one +jack-snipe!" +</P> + +<P> +"They went one better than we did," I said, but, as was intended, I +felt cheered—"what day were they there?" +</P> + +<P> +"To-day, sure!" answered Jerry, with faint surprise, "and they hadn't +their luncheon hardly ate when they met one on the mountain that told +them he seen two fellas walking it, with guns and a dog, no more than +an hour before them. 'That'll do!' says they, and they turned about +and back with them to Coppeen Road to tell the police." +</P> + +<P> +"Did they see the fellows?" I asked lightly, after a panic-stricken +pause. +</P> + +<P> +"They did not. Sure they said if they seen them, they'd shoot them +like rooks," replied Jerry, "and they would too. It's what the man was +saying if they cot them lads to-day they'd have left them in the way +they'd be given up by both doctor and priest! Oh, they're fierce +altogether!" +</P> + +<P> +I received this information in a silence that was filled to bursting +with the desire to strangle M'Cabe. +</P> + +<P> +Jerry leaned over my shoulder, and lowered his voice. +</P> + +<P> +"They were saying in Coppeen Road that there was a gentleman that came +on a mothor-bike this morning early, and he had Shinroe shot out by ten +o'clock, and on with him then up the country; and it isn't the first +time he was in it. It's a pity those gentlemen couldn't ketch <I>him</I>! +<I>They'd</I> mothor-bike him!" +</P> + +<P> +It was apparent that the poaching of the motor-bicycle upon the +legitimate preserves of carmen was responsible for this remarkable +sympathy with the law; I, at all events, had it to my credit that I had +not gone poaching on a motor-bicycle. +</P> + +<P> +Just here M'Cabe emerged from the heart-to-heart, and nudged me in the +ribs with a confederate elbow. I did not respond, being in no mood for +confederacy, certainly not with M'Cabe. +</P> + +<P> +"The Sergeant is after telling me this prisoner he has here is +prosecuted at the instance of that Syndicate I was telling you about," +he whispered hoarsely in my ear, "for hunting Shinroe with greyhounds. +He was cited to appear last week, and he didn't turn up; he'll be +before you to-morrow. I hope the Bench will have a fellow-feeling for +a fellow-creature!" +</P> + +<P> +The whisper ended in the wheezy cough that was Mr. M'Cabe's equivalent +for a laugh. It was very close to my ear, and it had somewhere in it +the metallic click that I had noticed before. +</P> + +<P> +I grunted forbiddingly, and turned my back upon M'Cabe, as far as it is +possible to do so on an outside car, and we hammered on through the +darkness. Once the solitary lamp illumined the prolonged countenance +of a donkey, and once or twice we came upon a party of sheep lying on +the road; they melted into the night at the minatory whistle that is +dedicated to sheep, and on each of these occasions the dentist's dog +was shaken by strong shudders, and made a convulsive attempt to spring +from the car in pursuit. We were making good travelling on a long +down-grade, a smell of sea-weed was in the mist, and a salt taste was +on my lips. It was very cold; I had no overcoat, my boots had plumbed +the depths of many bogholes, and I found myself shivering like the dog. +</P> + +<P> +It was at this point that I felt M'Cabe fumbling at his game-bag, that +lay between us on the seat. By dint of a sympathy that I would have +died rather than betray, I divined that he was going to tap that fount +of contraband fire that he owed to the dentist's dog. It was, +apparently, a matter of some difficulty; I felt him groping and tugging +at the straps. +</P> + +<P> +I said to myself, waveringly: "Old blackguard! I won't touch it if he +offers it to me." +</P> + +<P> +M'Cabe went on fumbling: +</P> + +<P> +"Damn these woolly gloves! I can't do a hand's turn with them." +</P> + +<P> +In the dark I could not see what followed, but I felt him raise his +arm. There was a jerk, followed by a howl. +</P> + +<P> +"Hold on!" roared M'Cabe, with a new and strange utterance, "Thtop the +horth! I've dropped me teeth!" +</P> + +<P> +The driver did his best, but with the push of the hill behind her the +mare took some stopping. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, murder! oh, murder!" wailed M'Cabe, lisping thickly, "I pulled +them out o' me head with the glove, trying to get it off!" He scrambled +off the car. "Give me the lamp! Me lovely new teeth——" +</P> + +<P> +I detached the lamp from its socket with all speed, and handed it to +M'Cabe, who hurried back on our tracks. From motives of delicacy I +remained on the car, as did also the rest of the party. A minute or +two passed in awed silence, while the patch of light went to and fro on +the dark road. It seemed an intrusion to offer assistance, and an +uncertainty as to whether to allude to the loss as "them," or "it," +made enquiries a difficulty. +</P> + +<P> +"For goodneth'ake have none o' ye any matcheth, that ye couldn't come +and help me?" demanded the voice of M'Cabe, in indignation blurred +pathetically by his gosling-like lisp. +</P> + +<P> +I went to his assistance, and refrained with an effort from suggesting +the employment of that all-accomplished setter, the dentist's dog, in +the search; it was not the moment for pleasantry. Not yet. +</P> + +<P> +We crept along, bent double, like gorillas; the long strips of broken +stones yielded nothing, the long puddles between them were examined in +vain. +</P> + +<P> +"What the dooth will I do to-morrow?" raged M'Cabe, pawing in the +heather at the road's edge. "How can I plead when I haven't a blathted +tooth in me head?" +</P> + +<P> +"I'll give you half a crown this minute, M'Cabe," said I brutally, "if +you'll say 'Sessions'!" +</P> + +<P> +Here the Sergeant joined us, striking matches as he came. He worked +his way into the sphere of the car-lamp, he was most painstaking and +sympathetic, and his oblique allusions to the object of the search were +a miracle of tact. +</P> + +<P> +"I see something white beyond you, Mr. M'Cabe,"' he said respectfully, +"might that be them?" +</P> + +<P> +M'Cabe swung the lamp as indicated. +</P> + +<P> +"No, it might not. It's a pebble," he replied, with pardonable +irascibility. +</P> + +<P> +Silence followed, and we worked our way up the hill. +</P> + +<P> +"What's that, sir?" ventured the Sergeant, with some excitement, +stopping again and pointing. "I think I see the gleam of the gold!" +</P> + +<P> +"Ah, nonthenth, man! They're vulcanite!" snapped M'Cabe, more +irascibly than ever. +</P> + +<P> +The word nonsense was a disastrous effort, and I withdrew into the +darkness to enjoy it. +</P> + +<P> +"What colour might vulcanite be, sir?" murmured a voice beside me. +</P> + +<P> +Jerry had joined the search-party; he lighted, as he spoke, an inch of +candle. On hearing my explanation he remarked that it was a bad +chance, and at the same instant the inch of candle slipped from his +fingers and fell into a puddle. +</P> + +<P> +"Divil mend ye for a candle! Have ye a match, sir? I haven't a one +left!" +</P> + +<P> +As it happened, I had no matches, my only means of making a light being +a patent tinder-box. +</P> + +<P> +"Have you a match there?" I called out to the invisible occupants of +the car, which was about fifteen or twenty yards away, advancing +towards it as I spoke. The constable politely jumped off and came to +meet me. +</P> + +<P> +As he was in the act of handing me his match-box, the car drove away +down the hill. +</P> + +<P> +I state the fact with the bald simplicity that is appropriate to great +disaster. To be exact, the yellow mare sprang from inaction into a +gallop, as if she had been stung by a wasp, and had a start of at least +fifty yards before either the carman or the constable could get under +weigh. The carman, uttering shrill and menacing whistles, led the +chase, the constable, though badly hampered by his greatcoat, was a +good second, and the Sergeant, making the best of a bad start, followed +them into the night. +</P> + +<P> +The yellow mare's head was for home, and her load was on its own legs +on the road behind her; hysterical yelps from the dentist's dog +indicated that he also was on his own legs, and was, in all human +probability, jumping at the mare's nose. As the rapturous beat of her +hoofs died away on the down-grade, I recalled the assertion that she +had pulled the lungs out of two men, and it seemed to me that the +prisoner had caught the psychological moment on the hop. +</P> + +<P> +"They'll not ketch him," said M'Cabe, with the flat calm of a broken +man, "not to-night anyway. Nor for a week maybe. He'll take to the +mountains." +</P> + +<P> +The silence of the hills closed in upon us, and we were left in our +original position, plus the lamp of the car, and minus our guns, the +dentist's dog, and M'Cabe's teeth. +</P> + +<P> +Far, far away, from the direction of Coppeen Road, that sinister +outpost, where evil rumours were launched, and the night trains were +waylaid by the amber-bushes, a steady tapping sound advanced towards +us. Over the crest of the hill, a quarter of a mile away, a blazing +and many-pointed star sprang into being, and bore down upon us. "A +motor-bike!" ejaculated M'Cabe. "Take the light and thtop him—he +wouldn't know what I wath thaying—if he ran over them they're done +for! For the love o' Merthy tell him to keep the left thide of the +road!" +</P> + +<P> +I took the lamp, and ran towards the bicyclist, waving it as I ran. +The star, now a moon of acetylene ferocity, slackened speed, and a +voice behind it said: +</P> + +<P> +"What's up?" +</P> + +<P> +I stated the case with telegraphic brevity, and the motor-bicycle slid +slowly past me. Its rider had a gun slung across his back, my lamp +revealed a crammed game-bag on the carrier behind him. +</P> + +<P> +"Sorry I can't assist you," he called back to me, keeping carefully at +the left-hand side of the road, "but I have an appointment." Then, as +an afterthought, "There's a first-rate dentist in Owenford!" +</P> + +<P> +The red eye of the tail light glowed a farewell and passed on, like all +the rest, into the night. +</P> + +<P> +I rejoined M'Cabe. +</P> + +<P> +He clutched my arm, and shook it. +</P> + +<P> +"That wath Jefferth! <I>Jefferth</I>, I tell ye! The dirty poacher! And +hith bag full of our birdth!" +</P> + +<P> +It was not till the lamp went out, which it did some ten minutes +afterwards, that I drew M 'Cabe from the scene of his loss, gently, as +one deals with the bereaved, and faced with him the six-mile walk to +Owenford. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<P CLASS="t4"> +PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN BY BALLANTYNE, HANSON & CO. LTD. +<BR> +EDINBURGH AND LONDON +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<HR> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap12"></A> + +<P CLASS="t3b"> +<I>BY THE SAME AUTHORS</I> +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +SOME EXPERIENCES OF AN IRISH +R.M. With 31 Illustrations by E. Œ. SOMERVILLE. Crown 8vo. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +FURTHER EXPERIENCES OF AN +IRISH R.M. With 35 Illustrations by E. Œ. SOMERVILLE. Crown 8vo. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +SOME IRISH YESTERDAYS. With 51 +Illustrations by E. Œ. SOMERVILLE. Crown 8vo. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +*** <I>In this volume is included a reprint of "Slipper's +ABC of Fox-hunting" with numerous illustrations.</I> +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +ALL ON THE IRISH SHORE: Irish +Sketches. With 10 Illustrations by E. Œ. SOMERVILLE. Crown 8vo. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +AN IRISH COUSIN. Crown 8vo. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +THE REAL CHARLOTTE. Crown 8vo. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +THE SILVER FOX. Crown 8vo. +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<P CLASS="t3b"> +BY E. Œ. SOMERVILLE +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +THE STORY OF THE DISCONTENTED +LITTLE ELEPHANT. Told in Pictures and +Rhyme. With 7 coloured, and many other +Illustrations. Oblong 4to. +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<P CLASS="t3"> +LONGMANS, GREEN AND CO. +</P> + +<P CLASS="t4"> +LONDON, NEW YORK, BOMBAY, CALCUTTA, AND MADRAS +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR><BR> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of In Mr. Knox's Country, by +E. OEnone Somerville and Martin Ross + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IN MR. KNOX'S COUNTRY *** + +***** This file should be named 38062-h.htm or 38062-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/8/0/6/38062/ + +Produced by Al Haines + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +https://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +https://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at https://pglaf.org + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit https://pglaf.org + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including including checks, online payments and credit card +donations. To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + https://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + + +</pre> + +</BODY> + +</HTML> + diff --git a/38062-h/images/img-003.jpg b/38062-h/images/img-003.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..c0ebe27 --- /dev/null +++ b/38062-h/images/img-003.jpg diff --git a/38062-h/images/img-049.jpg b/38062-h/images/img-049.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..ff248be --- /dev/null +++ b/38062-h/images/img-049.jpg diff --git a/38062-h/images/img-111.jpg b/38062-h/images/img-111.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..b6ca221 --- /dev/null +++ b/38062-h/images/img-111.jpg diff --git a/38062-h/images/img-139.jpg b/38062-h/images/img-139.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..dbbdcb2 --- /dev/null +++ b/38062-h/images/img-139.jpg diff --git a/38062-h/images/img-171.jpg b/38062-h/images/img-171.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..73d1af1 --- /dev/null +++ b/38062-h/images/img-171.jpg diff --git a/38062-h/images/img-214.jpg b/38062-h/images/img-214.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..fb1ce4d --- /dev/null +++ b/38062-h/images/img-214.jpg diff --git a/38062-h/images/img-259.jpg b/38062-h/images/img-259.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..7c7686f --- /dev/null +++ b/38062-h/images/img-259.jpg diff --git a/38062-h/images/img-cover.jpg b/38062-h/images/img-cover.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..3303af1 --- /dev/null +++ b/38062-h/images/img-cover.jpg diff --git a/38062-h/images/img-front.jpg b/38062-h/images/img-front.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..39f0f98 --- /dev/null +++ b/38062-h/images/img-front.jpg |
