The times., 1899-03-26
!. .1 heard he was at ciuin to see

aloud. II heard he was at Ciuin to see
you"
And if he was itself. it's little adwan-
tage anyone'd get out of that little whip
pershnapper of shnap-dhragon!" re-
sponded Mrs. Callaghan tartiy; "he was
with me for a half hour giving me every
big rock of English until had a reel in
me head. / declare to ye, Mr.. Flury, ffter
he had gone out o. the house, ye wouldn't
throw three farthings for mel"
The pocket handkerchief was here utii-
lied, after which, with heavy groan, MIS-
Callaghan again took up her parable.
Il towld him first and last I'd lose me
life If / had to go into the court. and II
did itself sure tn attorneys could rip no
more out o. me than what he did himself"
Did you tell him where was Bat?' in
quired FURRY casually.
At this Mrs. Callaghan Immediately dis
solved into tears.
rs it Bat?'' she howled "If tn angel
Gabriel came down from heaven asking me
where was Bat, could give him no satis-
| faction. The devil a know what's hap
| pened him. He came home with me sober
and good-natured from the regatta, and
| the next morning he axed fresh egg Tor
his breakfast, and God forgive me, L
wouldn't break the score ! was taking TO
the hotel and with that he slapped the
cup O. tay into the fire and went out the
door, and never got word of him since
good nor bad. God knows tbs ] got
throuble with that poor boy, and he the
only one / have to look to in the word!
/ cut the matter short by asking her
what she wanted me to do for her, and
sifted out from among much extraneous
detail the fact that she relied upon my re-
nowned wisdom and clemency to preserve
her from being called as witness at the
coming enquiry. The gift of the goose
served its intended purpose OF embarrass
ing my position, but in spite of it l broke
TO the Widow Callaghan my inability to
help her. She did not, of course, believe
me- but she was too well bred to say so.
In Ireland one becomes accustomed to this
attitude.
AS it turned out, however. Bat Gala
ghan's mother had nothing to fear from the
enquiry. She was by turns deaf, imbecile,
garrulously candid. and furiously abusive
of Murray's principal witness, a frightened
lad of seventeen, who had sworn to having
seen Callaghan and Jimmy Foley 'shap-
ing at one another to fight" at an hour
when, according to Mrs Callaghan, he was
Lying stretched on the beddeen with a
sick shtomach'' in consequence of the ma
! lignant character of the porter supplied by
the last witnesses father 1t all ended, as
4
plete moral certainty In the minds of all
concerned as to the guilt of the accused,
and entire impotence on the part of the
law to prove it. warrant was issued
for the arrest of Bartholomew Callaghan;
and the clans of Callaghan and Foley
fought rather more bloodily than usual, as
occasion served; and at intervals during
the next few months Murray used to ask
me how James Foley was getting on, and
m ic9
tions from the dead-letter office, to which
| was wont to reply with coincidence on the
failure of the R, /. c. to find the Widow
Callaghan's only son for her; and that was
about all that came of it,
w.
Events with which the present story has
no concern took me to England towards
the end of the following March. 1t so
happened that my old regiment. the tn
| Fusiliers, was quartered at Whincastle,
within a couple of hours by rail of Phil
! ippa's home, where ! was staying and,
! since my wedding was now within meas
urable distance, my former brothers-in-
arms invited me over to dine and sleep,
and to receive a valedictory silver claret-
/ jug that they were magnanimous enough
| to bestow upon a backslider. / enjoyed
1 the dinner as much as any man can en-
| joy his dinner when he knows he has to
make a speech at the end of 1t; through
much and varied conversation / strove,
| like nervous mother who cannot trust
her offspring out of her sight. TO keep be-
| fore my minds eye the opening sentences
that had composed in the train; felt that
| If | could only get away" satisfactorily
! l might trust the Ayala CS9) to do the
1 rest, and Of that fount of inspiration there
was no lack. As it turned out, got away
all right, though the sight of the double
| line of expectant faces and red mess
! jackets nearly scattered those precious
opening sentences, and l am afraid that
] so far as the various subsequent points
went that ] had intended to make / stay
| ed away; however, neither Demosthenes,
nor Nationalist member at Cork cleo
ton, could have been listened to with
more gratifying attention, and | sat down
hot and happy, to be confronted with my
own flushed visage, hideously reflected in
the glittering paunch of the claret-jug.
| Once safely over the presentation. the
evening mellowed into frivolity, and it was
PRETTY late before / found myself settled
down to whist, at sixpenny points, in the
! ancient familiar way, while most of the
| others fell to playing pool in the billiard
| room next door. / have played whist from
my youth up: with the preternatural seri-
| BUSINESS of a subaltern, with the self-as-
surance of a senior captain, with the priv
|
| eighteen months of abstinence at Shreelane
had only whetted my appetite for what l
consider the best of games. After the long
| lonely evenings there, with the rats for
company, and, for relaxation, a deck
of that specially demoniacal American va
riety of patience. known as "Fooly Ann. -
| IL was wondrous agreeable to sit again
| among my fellows, and "lay the longs
| on a severely scientific rubber of whist. as
though Mrs. Cadogan and the Skebawn
| Bench Of magistrates had never existed.
We were in the first game of the second
rubber, and was holding very nice play
| ing hand; / had early in the game moved
forth my trunps TO battle, and ] was now
in the ineffable position of scoring with
small cards of my long suit The cards
fell and fell in silence, and Ballantyne. my
partner, raked in the tricks like a ma
chine. The concentrated quiet of the game
was suddenly arrested by a sharp. unmis.
taxable sound from the barrack-yard out
side, the snap of a -Metford rife
What was that?" exclaimed Moffat the
senior major
Before he had finished speaking ther,
was a second shot.
by Jove, those were rifles shots Per.
haps I'd better go and see what's up" sait
Ballantyne, who was captain of the week
throwing down his cards and making a Dol
for the door.
He had hardly got out of the room whel
the first long high note of the assembly
sang out, sudden and clear We all spran,
to our feet, and as the bugle call wen
shrilly on, the other men came pouring il
from the billiard-room, and stampeded Il
/ haf uTq n ct hpi pr1- . (. IA,