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diff --git a/75934-h/75934-h.htm b/75934-h/75934-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..38320c2 --- /dev/null +++ b/75934-h/75934-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,10555 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html> +<html lang="en"> + +<head> + +<link rel="icon" href="images/img-cover.jpg" type="image/x-cover"> + +<meta charset="utf-8"> + +<title> +The Project Gutenberg eBook of A Little Irish Girl, by J. M. Callwell +</title> + +<style> +body { color: black; + background: white; + margin-right: 10%; + margin-left: 10%; + font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; + text-align: justify } + +p {text-indent: 1.5em } + +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.t2b {text-indent: 0% ; + font-size: 150%; + font-weight: bold; + 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 } + +h1 { text-align: center } +h2 { text-align: center } +h3 { text-align: center } +h4 { text-align: center } +h5 { text-align: center } + +p.poem {text-indent: 0%; + margin-left: 10%; } + +p.thought {text-indent: 0% ; + letter-spacing: 2em ; + text-align: center } + +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% } + +.smcap { font-variant: small-caps } + +p.transnote {text-indent: 0% ; + margin-left: 10% ; + margin-right: 10% } + +p.quote {text-indent: 4% ; + margin-left: 0% ; + margin-right: 0% } + +p.finis { font-size: larger ; + text-align: center ; + text-indent: 0% ; + margin-left: 0% ; + margin-right: 0% } + +p.capcenter { margin-left: 0; + margin-right: 0 ; + margin-bottom: .5% ; + margin-top: 0; + font-weight: normal; + float: none ; + clear: both ; + text-indent: 0%; + text-align: center } + +img.imgcenter { margin-left: auto; + margin-bottom: 0; + margin-top: 1%; + margin-right: auto; } + +</style> + +</head> + +<body> +<div style='text-align:center'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 75934 ***</div> + +<p><br><br></p> + +<p class="capcenter"> +<a id="img-front"></a> +<br> +<img class="imgcenter" src="images/img-front.jpg" alt=""THERE'S THIM THAT'LL NOT FORGIT" <i>Page</i> 182"> +<br> +"THERE'S THIM THAT'LL NOT FORGIT" <a href="#p182"><i>Page</i> 182</a> +</p> + +<h1> +<br><br> + A Little Irish Girl +</h1> + +<p><br></p> + +<p class="t3"> + BY +</p> + +<p class="t2"> + J. M. CALLWELL +</p> + +<p class="t4"> + Author of "A Champion of the Faith" "Little Curiosity"<br> + "The Squire's Grandson" &c. +</p> + +<p><br><br></p> + +<p class="t3"> + BLACKIE & SON LIMITED<br> + LONDON AND GLASGOW +</p> + +<p><br><br><br></p> + +<p class="t4"> +Printed in Great Britain by Blackie & Son, Ltd., Glasgow +</p> + +<p><br><br><br></p> + +<p class="t3b"> +CONTENTS +</p> + +<p><br></p> + +<p class="noindent"> +CHAP. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +I. <a href="#chap01">THE MISS CLARKSONS' EDUCATIONAL ESTABLISHMENT FOR YOUNG LADIES</a> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +II. <a href="#chap02">COUSIN ANSEY'S LEGACY</a> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +III. <a href="#chap03">NORAH'S FREAK</a> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +IV. <a href="#chap04">WITHIN SOUND OF THE SEA</a> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +V. <a href="#chap05">ENGLISH IDEAS AND IRISH WAYS</a> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +VI. <a href="#chap06">COUSINS</a> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +VII. <a href="#chap07">MOYROSS ABBEY</a> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +VIII. <a href="#chap08">BALLINTAGGART CAVE</a> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +IX. <a href="#chap09">THE GHOST IN THE MONK'S WALK</a> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +X. <a href="#chap10">CAPTAIN LESTER, R.M.</a> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +XI. <a href="#chap11">ON DRINANE HEAD</a> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +XII. <a href="#chap12">DISCOMFITED</a> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +XIII. <a href="#chap13">MALACHY'S ORATION</a> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +XIV. <a href="#chap14">MR. O'BRIEN SEES A VISION OF THE PAST</a> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +XV. <a href="#chap15">IT WAS ALL NORAH'S IDEA</a> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +XVI. <a href="#chap16">PEACE AND HARMONY</a> +</p> + +<p><br><br><br></p> + +<p><a id="chap01"></a></p> + +<p class="t2"> +A LITTLE IRISH GIRL +</p> + +<p><br><br></p> + +<h3> +CHAPTER I +<br><br> + THE MISS CLARKSONS' EDUCATIONAL ESTABLISHMENT<br> + FOR YOUNG LADIES<br> +</h3> + +<p> +A goodly number of years ago there stood +in one of the northern suburbs of London +a large, old-fashioned red-brick house. In +former days, somewhere about the middle of the +last century, it had been a stately family mansion. +A broad flight of stone steps led up to the hall-door, +and in the iron railings on either side there +still remained the extinguishers with which the +linkboys had been wont to put their torches out, +after escorting some fashionable lady home in her +sedan-chair from a gay rout or assembly. +</p> + +<p> +Within doors, too, the stone-flagged hall, the +wide staircase, and the lofty rooms with their +carved mantel-pieces and richly-decorated ceilings, +bore witness to the ancient glories of Treherne +House. Those glories, however, had long passed +away. The original owners, the Trehernes, had +sold it many years before, when fashionable people +moved to other parts of London; and though the +old house retained its high-sounding name, it had +known many vicissitudes and changed hands many +times since then. For some dozen years or so it +had been owned by three middle-aged sisters, the +Miss Clarksons, the principals of a large and +flourishing school, or—to quote the inscription on +the huge brass plate affixed to the hall-door—of an +educational establishment for young ladies. +</p> + +<p> +If anyone had chanced to stand in the entrance-hall +of Treherne House upon a certain sunny +spring morning, he could not have failed to +perceive that this work of education was being +carried on even more vigorously than usual. A +busy hum of voices pervaded the whole house, +and burst forth more loudly every now and again +with the opening of a class-room door, while +somewhere far aloft indefatigable fingers raced up and +down the piano over sharps and flats in persevering +efforts to master a difficult passage. +</p> + +<p> +Both pupils and teachers, indeed, were working +at full pressure, for the Easter holidays were barely +three weeks off, and the examinations which marked +the conclusion of each school-term were to begin the +following week. +</p> + +<p> +To Miss Euphemia, the youngest of the three +Miss Clarksons, the care of the juniors of the school +was specially confided. She was at present giving +a geography lesson to her class, which numbered +fourteen or fifteen girls of ages ranging from +eleven to thirteen, in a large and dingy room +on the ground-floor. +</p> + +<p> +"Turkey in Asia lies between latitudes 30° and +41° North, longitudes 26° and 48° East," a +flabby-looking, flaxen-haired girl was drawling out. "It +is bounded on the north by the Dardanelles, the +Sea of Marmora, the Bosphorus, the Black Sea, +and the Caucasus; upon the east by Persia, upon +the south by the Persian Gulf and Arabia, and on +the west by the Mediterranean." +</p> + +<p> +"Very correctly answered indeed, Louisa, my +dear. Constance Lane, which are the principal +rivers of Turkey in Asia?" +</p> + +<p> +"The Euphrates and Tigris, falling into the +Persian Gulf; the Kizil Irmak, into the Black +Sea; the Sihoon, Jihon, and Orontes, into the +Mediterranean; and the Jordan into the Dead Sea." +</p> + +<p> +"Quite right also. Norah O'Brien, name the +chief towns in the order of their relative +importance." +</p> + +<p> +This time there was not the same ready response. +Miss Euphemia rapped her desk sharply with her +pencil and spoke again. +</p> + +<p> +"Norah O'Brien, be good enough to attend to the +lesson instead of staring out of the window! What +have I just asked you?" +</p> + +<p> +A well-meant nudge from a neighbour's elbow +helped to bring the little girl addressed to herself +with a sudden start. She was the youngest in the +class, but sat nearly two-thirds up the row of girls; +and her eyes, as Miss Euphemia had said, had +wandered away from the dismal class-room, with +its well-worn school furniture and walls hung with +smoke-stained maps, out through the window opposite +to her. There was not much to be seen there, +only a wilderness of roofs and walls, with the +spring sunshine lying bright and hot upon them, +and three smutty sparrows chirping with might +and main on the solitary plane-tree that grew +in the back-garden, and which, notwithstanding +London smoke and soot, was sending out fresh +green buds all along its grimy branches. +</p> + +<p> +"Chief towns," good-naturedly whispered a big +girl who sat beside Norah, the one who had +already given her that friendly midge. But +Norah, whose thoughts had strayed away far +beyond the back-garden and its sparrows, and +who had only been brought back to stern reality +by the rapping of Miss Euphemia's pencil and +the sudden, sharp question fired off at her like a +pistol-shot, was too confused and bewildered to profit +by the kindly hint. The silence of the class made +her aware that a reply of some sort was expected +from her, and answering, not Miss Euphemia's +question, but the train of thought in which she +had herself been engaged, she stammered out: +</p> + +<p> +"Tuesday fortnight, Miss Euphemia." +</p> + +<p> +There was a general titter from all the girls. +Tuesday fortnight was the day on which the school +was to break up for the Easter holidays, so no +one had any difficulty in guessing where Norah's +thoughts had drifted to. A frown from Miss +Euphemia and another tap of her pencil brought +instant silence however. +</p> + +<p> +"Norah O'Brien, go to the bottom of the class! +You will not accompany the rest of the school upon +their walk this afternoon. You will remain +indoors and write out the geography lesson instead. +If I have to call you to order again for inattention +I shall be compelled to report you to Miss Clarkson." +</p> + +<p> +There was no penalty more dreaded by all the +girls in Treherne House than to be reported to +Miss Clarkson, the severe and stately ruler of the +educational establishment, and to be summoned to +appear in her special sanctum for reprimand and +admonition. It was with no little dismay, therefore, +that Norah gathered up her books and moved +down the class to the place assigned to her, seating +herself below a little girl with pretty pink cheeks +and long silky curls, who till then had occupied +the lowest place with all apparent contentment. +</p> + +<p> +Lily Allardyce was the next youngest girl in +the school to Norah, and they were close friends +and companions. She gave Norah's hand a little +consolatory squeeze as she moved up to make room +for her, and whispered: +</p> + +<p> +"Never mind, Norah, it's ever so much nicer +when we're together than when you're up near +the top of the class. It's Fräulein's turn to go out +with us to-day, and I'll coax her to let me buy +something to bring home to you." +</p> + +<p> +Lily was the little heiress of the school, and +always more abundantly provided with pocket-money +than anybody else. Her parents were +wealthy people, who delighted in heaping presents +of clothes, of books, of playthings, and of expensive +trifles of every kind upon their only child. It was +strange that she and Norah should have come to be +such allies, for not only in their appearance, but in +their tastes and dispositions, and in all other +respects, they were as great a contrast as two children +nearly of an age could possibly be. +</p> + +<p> +Lily, as already said, was a soft, fair, pink and +white little thing, always beautifully dressed in the +daintiest of frocks. No one had ever seen Lily +flushed, or tossed, or untidy. She was always +well-behaved too; a quiet, plodding little maiden +who was not brilliant in any way, but who learned +her lessons steadily and never got into scrapes, +except when she was led into them by her more +venturesome companion. +</p> + +<p> +One of her brothers had once teasingly, but not +at all inaptly, described Norah as "short and dark, +like a winter's day". She was so small as to +look much less than her eleven years, and she had +a thick shock of short black hair which resembled +a pony's shaggy mane more than anything else. +With her turned-up nose and rather wide mouth +Norah would have been undeniably plain, if not +absolutely ugly, if it had not been for her +dark-blue eyes—Irish eyes, Norah loved to have them +called. In general those eyes of Norah's were +brimful of fun and mischief, but on this particular +morning they looked as though tears were much +nearer to them than laughter, for together with +her Irish eyes Norah had inherited the quick +Irish temperament with all its April-day changes +of mood. Usually she was the ringleader in every +frolic and in every piece of mischief that was set +on foot, and at once the torment and the delight of +her teachers. She was so bright and intelligent +that when she gave her mind to her lessons she +could master them in half the time that it took the +rest of the class to plod through them, and girls +considerably her seniors were wont to consult her +about difficulties in their sums and exercises. +Unhappily, however, there were very frequent occasions +when Norah's mind was not given to her lessons, +but was running on all sorts of other things, so +that it was no uncommon experience to her to find +herself, as at present, sent to the bottom of the +class with a punishment in prospect. Not even +the strictest of her governesses, however, could +retain their displeasure against her very long, and +as for the girls, they one and all adored little +Norah. The elder ones petted and made much +of her, and amongst the juniors, youngest of all +though she was, she had constituted herself the +leading spirit, the originator of freaks and schemes +of daring which would never have occurred to any +of them except herself. +</p> + +<p> +"I'm Irish, you know, it all comes of that," Norah +would say modestly when complimented on her +fertility of invention. +</p> + +<p> +There was nothing indeed of which she was so +proud as of her Irish name and her Irish descent, +although she herself had never set foot in Ireland in +all her life. She did her best—not very successfully—to +cultivate an Irish brogue, and no one could +have displeased her more than by spelling her +Christian name without the concluding <i>h</i>, which +marked it as distinctively Irish. The shabby +black frock which Norah wore, adorned by more +than one unscientifically-cobbled rent, with cuffs +and collar of frayed-out crape, betokened that +she must be in mourning for someone near to +her, not long dead; and there were times, as all her +companions knew, when even in her wildest and +merriest moods some chance word carelessly uttered +would call up old memories and send Norah in +floods of tears into some dark corner to sob her +heart out in passionate grief and fruitless longings. +</p> + +<p> +Poor Norah's troubles were weighing very heavily +upon her on this first morning of our making +her acquaintance. It was her first term at school, +and as has been seen, the holidays were close at +hand. Already the forty girls at Treherne House +talked of little else but what each of them hoped +and intended to do during those happy weeks; +Norah alone, out of the whole forty, had no home +to go to, no plans or projects to make. Lily +Allardyce, however, had promised to ask leave to bring +her down with her to her home in Hampshire, and +Norah knew that Lily's parents were not the least +likely to refuse her anything which she might ask. +</p> + +<p> +On this very morning, however, Lily had had +a letter from her mother, to tell her that she and +her father were so pleased by Miss Clarkson's +report of her conduct and progress during the +term, that they had determined, as a reward for +her diligence, to take her to Paris in the holidays, +and to let her have her first glimpse of foreign life. +</p> + +<p> +"You shall come to us in summer instead, Norah," +Lily had said consolingly. "We shall have six +weeks' holidays then instead of three, and there +will be picnics and boating parties, and ever so +much more fun than we'd have had now." +</p> + +<p> +To poor Norah, however, the prospect of a longer +and pleasanter visit several months off seemed but +meagre compensation for three weeks of loneliness +and desertion in the immediate future. Even the +Miss Clarksons themselves were going to the +sea-side for the holidays, and she would be left to +inhabit the gaunt, empty rooms, with no other +company than Fräulein Glock, the German governess. +She had loyally done her best to conceal her +disappointment and to enter into Lily's delight at the +promised trip, but it was hardly to be wondered at +if her eyes strayed wistfully out of the prison-like +school-room to the sunshine outside, or if her +thoughts wandered away from Turkey in Asia and +its towns and rivers back to her old home on +Hampstead Heath, and to the joyous, untroubled home +life which had been interrupted so rudely by her +father's death six months before. +</p> + +<p> +It had been a very easy-going, harum-scarum +household in which Norah had grown up, almost as +Irish in its ways as if it had been situated amongst +the old ancestral possessions of the O'Briens on the +wild west coast of Ireland instead of in an +eminently orderly and respectable suburb of London. +Norah's father, Piers O'Brien, with his cheery, genial +manner, his unfailing spirits, and the soft Irish +accent which he had never lost, had been the life +and soul of the little home on the green heights of +Hampstead. He had been its mainstay and support +too, for it was the brilliant, racy articles for +newspapers and magazines, which flowed so freely +from his pen, that furnished the means for providing +for the wants of the household. But coming +out from London one wet night in the previous +autumn Piers O'Brien had caught a severe chill. +A sudden and serious illness followed. There were +a few days of agonized anxiety and distress, and +then all was over, and the young O'Briens found +themselves left, orphaned and well-nigh penniless, +to face the world as best they could. +</p> + +<p> +Their mother had died long before, quite beyond +Norah's memory; but Norah had never felt the +want of a mother's love, her elder sister Anstace, +with her sweet womanly ways, had filled the vacant +place so completely. Anstace was the second of +the family; the eldest was Roderick, the tall brother +of whom they were all so proud, who had just +finished his college career with honours and +distinction, and who was to have gone to the bar. +He was twenty-one, and Anstace was two years +younger, and after her there had been a stretch of +seven years before the next brother, Manus, the +special object of Norah's devotion, had made his +appearance. Norah herself, the fourth and youngest, +made the little family circle complete. +</p> + +<p> +Roderick and Anstace were both very young to +have such a heavy load of anxiety and responsibility +thrust suddenly upon them. Careless and +easy-going in money matters as in everything else, +their father had not troubled himself about laying +up any provision for the future, and when once the +expenses of his illness and the funeral had been +paid, there was but little left. The brother and +sister, however, set themselves to bear their burden +bravely. They decided with all promptitude that +what little money remained, together with all that +they could spare from their own scanty earnings, +must be devoted to the two children and to their +education, whilst they made shift to provide for +themselves as best they could. +</p> + +<p> +Anstace in former days had been a favourite +pupil in the Miss Clarksons' educational establishment, +and she had always kept up friendly relations +with its principals. They now offered to take Norah +into Treherne House on very much reduced terms, +an offer which Roderick and Anstace most gratefully +accepted. A cheap school, too, was, after some +trouble, found for Manus in Kent. Roderick, +relinquishing his hopes of the bar, accepted employment +as a lawyer's clerk with as much apparent cheerfulness +as if he had never looked forward to any +other career, while Anstace became governess in +the family of the doctor who had attended their +father in his last illness, who had come to know +their circumstances and was anxious to befriend +them. +</p> + +<p><br><br><br></p> + +<p><a id="chap02"></a></p> + +<h3> +CHAPTER II +<br><br> +COUSIN ANSEY'S LEGACY +</h3> + +<p> +Norah did not let her mind wander again during +the rest of the geography lesson. At its +conclusion Miss Euphemia gave three taps of her +pencil on her desk and said in her sharp, +determined tones, "Dictation!" +</p> + +<p> +In a moment, with the precision of an infantry +battalion going through its drill, each girl had her +exercise-book open before her and her pen dipped +in the ink, ready to begin to write at the first word +which should fall from Miss Euphemia's lips. Before +that word had been spoken, however, the door +opened and the neat parlour-maid appeared. +</p> + +<p> +"If you please, m'm, Miss O'Brien is in the +drawing-room, and she hopes you'll excuse her, but +she wishes to see Miss Norah most particular if +you'd kindly give her leave for a few minutes." +</p> + +<p> +Miss Euphemia hesitated. +</p> + +<p> +"Really, Norah, your conduct this morning has +not been such as to entitle you to any indulgence—" she +was beginning, when she caught the imploring +glance fixed on her by Norah, who had sprung +to her feet at the first words of the parlour-maid's +message. +</p> + +<p> +She paused involuntarily. There was something +pathetic about the little figure in its well-worn +mourning, and in the pleading blue eyes, and Miss +Euphemia, strict disciplinarian though she was, had +yet a kindly heart. +</p> + +<p> +"As, however, your sister wishes so very specially +to see you, I suppose you may be allowed to go +to her. I hope you will show your gratitude by +increased application to your studies afterwards," +was the manner in which, after a moment's +hesitation, she ended her speech. +</p> + +<p> +It was doubtful if Norah heard the concluding +words at all. She let her pen fall with a clatter +from her fingers, dropped a jerky little curtsey, and +gasping out "Thank you, Miss Euphemia, thank you +so much!" she whisked out of the room and raced +upstairs to the drawing-room, where Anstace stood +awaiting her, a slight graceful figure in her simple +black gown, with coils of shining hair wound +round beneath her hat. +</p> + +<p> +Norah crossed the room in one bound and flung +her arms round her sister. +</p> + +<p> +"Oh, Anstace, Anstace, darling!" with a hug +between each word. "It's such an age since I've +seen you, I began to think you weren't ever coming +again." +</p> + +<p> +"I couldn't get away last Sunday afternoon: two +of the children were not well, and so I did not like +to leave Mrs. Trafford alone," Anstace said, seating +herself in an arm-chair and lifting her little sister +on her knee, where she held her closely folded in +her arms. "Why, Norah, you are as wild a little +Irishwoman as ever; school has not tamed you in +the least. And oh, my dear child," as her eye fell +on the roughly-darned rents in the front of Norah's +frock, "look at the state your dress is in. How +could you have got it so torn?" +</p> + +<p> +"I can't help it, Anstace, I can't indeed; it will +hook on to things and tear. It's getting ever so +much too short for me, too. See!" and Norah +slipped off Anstace's knee and stood up before her +with her feet in the first position, to show what a +very little way the scanty black skirt reached below +her knees. +</p> + +<p> +"So it is indeed," Anstace said with a sigh, as +she turned up the hem and examined it critically +to see if any letting down was possible. "Norah +dear, I do wish you would try to be more careful +of your things; you know how difficult it is for +Roderick and me to buy new ones for you." +</p> + +<p> +"I do try my very best," Norah protested, with +a threatened return of the tears that had been so +near to her all morning, "but it's no use; I do think +nails and spikes stick themselves out on purpose +to catch me. There's Lily Allardyce, who might +have a new frock every week if she liked, and her +clothes never tear or have things spilt over them. +Oh dear, wouldn't it be nice if we were rich like +the Allardyces?—but I don't know either; they're +only city people, and her father made his money +selling chemicals or something of that sort, and +we're the old, old O'Briens, no matter how poor we +are. +</p> + +<p> +"And one of the old, old O'Briens is a goose to +talk such nonsense," said Anstace gravely; then, as +her quick eyes took in the signs of recent trouble +on the little girl's face, she asked solicitously, +drawing her close to her side: "What is the +matter, dearie? Have you been in difficulties over +your lessons this morning?" +</p> + +<p> +"Well, yes, but it wasn't that altogether," and +Norah hid her face against Anstace's shoulder. +"You know that Lily promised to ask leave for +me to go home with her to Heron's Court for the +holidays, but she's heard from her mother that +they're all going to Paris for Easter; and I do feel +horrid and mean, for of course it's splendid for Lily, +and I ought to be glad that she's going to have +such fun, but I can't. It's so miserable to think that +I'll have to spend all these weeks here alone with +Fräulein. And hearing all the others talk about +going home, and all that they're going to do in the +holidays, makes it worse." And the tears which +had been kept back with such difficulty hitherto +were coming in real earnest now. +</p> + +<p> +Anstace stroked the little rough head that lay +upon her shoulder tenderly. +</p> + +<p> +"Do you remember, Norah," she said, "when I +used to teach you at home, and you came to the +heading in your copy-book, 'Never cross a bridge +till you come to it', that you said it was the most +ridiculous nonsense you had ever heard, for no +one could possibly go over a bridge till they got +there?" +</p> + +<p> +"Yes," said Norah, dully, not understanding +where this was going to lead to. +</p> + +<p> +"Well, Norah, you have just been doing that +very thing to-day in fretting about something +that is not going to happen. You are not in the +least likely to spend the holidays at Treherne +House." +</p> + +<p> +"Anstace! why, what do you mean?" Norah +started upright and brushed the tumbled hair back +behind her ears, whilst the tears still hung from +her eyelashes. A strange light was shining in her +sister's eyes. +</p> + +<p> +"A very wonderful and unexpected thing has +happened. We have come into a fortune, Norah." +</p> + +<p> +Norah clapped her hands and whisked wildly +round the room. +</p> + +<p> +"Oh, I know, I know, Anstace! It's Uncle +Nicholas! He's forgiven us and made up the +feud, and we're all going over to live with him +at Moyross Abbey, and Roderick's to be the heir. +Is that it?" +</p> + +<p> +"No, dear," Anstace returned a little sadly, +"that is not it, nor is it at all likely to happen, as +far as I know. It is only a little property which +has been left to us—a very small one which I +dare say a great many people would despise, but +we are only too thankful for it. Did you ever +hear Father speak of his old relation Anstace +O'Brien, who was my godmother, and whom I +was called after—Cousin Ansey he used to call +her?" +</p> + +<p> +Norah was doubtful, but thought she remembered +having heard of such a personage. +</p> + +<p> +"She died last week. Poor old woman, she had +had a very sad life. Years ago, when she was +quite young, she was engaged to be married, and +her lover went out to America to make his fortune +and then come home and marry her. Perhaps he +died out there, or perhaps he forgot poor Cousin +Ansey and married someone else, but at any rate +no one ever heard of him again, and Cousin Ansey +kept waiting and watching for him for years and +years, till she had grown to be an old woman. +She lived on in the place that had been her +father's, and where her lover had known her, so +that when he came home he might have no difficulty +in finding her, but come there straight. Her +mind gave way at last, and they had to take her +away and shut her up in an asylum in Dublin, and +she lived twelve years there. I only saw her once; +she came to see us when I was quite a little girl, +but she would only stay a day or two. 'I must go +home, Piers,' I remember her saying to Father, 'I +cannot tell what day Hugh might walk in', and +so back she went. It was soon afterwards that +she went out of her mind." +</p> + +<p> +"And about the fortune; oh quick, quick, +Anstace!" Norah cried eagerly, and then hung her +head with some shamefacedness as she caught her +sister's reproving look. "Oh yes, I know, Anstace, +but you can't expect me to be sorry for someone +just because she was my cousin, when I never even +saw her, and she was mad before I was born. I +think if she was shut up all those years she must +have been rather glad to die." +</p> + +<p> +"Perhaps she was, poor thing!" said Anstace, +with feeling in her voice. "She certainly had not +much to live for. However, Norah, she had always +been very fond of our father, and so when her +will was opened—it had been made long ago when +she knew what she was doing—it was found that +she had left everything she had to him and to his +children, if Hugh Masters, the man she was to have +married, should not have been heard of before her +death." +</p> + +<p> +"And he hasn't been; so of course we get it," +said Norah promptly. +</p> + +<p> +"Yes, dear. The little property is only worth +about a hundred a year, but there is a small +old-fashioned house upon it with a garden and a few +fields belonging to it. It is called Kilshane, and +is about two miles from Moyross Abbey. It was +part of the O'Brien estate, and was sliced off to +be a younger son's portion for Cousin Ansey's +father." +</p> + +<p> +"And we're all going to live there in that little +old house, and be together again, and be done with +school, and London, and everything that's horrid?" +cried Norah, skipping gleefully about. +</p> + +<p> +Anstace could not help laughing. "I hope so, +Norah. Roderick came to have a long talk with +me last night. He has been over at Moyross +Abbey attending poor Cousin Ansey's funeral." +</p> + +<p> +"At Moyross Abbey? Oh, Anstace, why didn't +you tell me sooner? Did he see Uncle Nicholas? +And what is he like? And is he going to be +friends?" +</p> + +<p> +"My dear child, how could I possibly answer +so many questions all at once? He only went to +Moyross Abbey because all the O'Briens for +generations have been buried there; the old abbey is +close to the house. Don't you remember how +Father used to describe it all to us? He himself +is the only one not buried there." And Anstace's +eyes filled with tears as she thought of the crowded +cemetery where her father's last resting-place had +been made. "Uncle Nicholas was at the funeral; +he is an old gray-haired man, Roderick says. He +evidently noticed Roderick and asked who he was, +for he turned quite white when he was told, but +he never spoke to him, or took any notice of him. +Roderick felt it a good deal, I think; it was so sad +for him to be actually at Father's old home and not +to be asked even to come inside the door. If it +had not been for Mr. Lynch, the old clergyman, +who knew Father long ago, and who made Roderick +come to the rectory with him, Roderick would +have had to drive straight back to the railway +station. As it was, he walked over with Mr. and +Mrs. Lynch the next day to see Kilshane. He +says the house stands almost on the edge of the +cliffs, and looks out right over the Atlantic. It is +small, and rather out of repair, but that cannot +be wondered at, for no one has lived in it since +poor Cousin Ansey was taken away. Still, it is +quite habitable, and the furniture and everything +remains in it just as it was in her time. Roderick +thinks he could farm the land that belongs to it. +And he wants to know if we would be satisfied +to go over and live there with him." +</p> + +<p> +"Satisfied? I should think so! How can he +ask anything so silly, the dear old delightful +donkey? Why, Anstace, it's almost too wonderful +to believe;—we four all living together again in +a lovely old house of our own; no more London +streets, and school-rooms and lessons, and going out +two and two—" +</p> + +<p> +"Yes, Norah, but it is just about all that I want +to speak to you," Anstace interposed gravely. "If +we go over to live at Kilshane we shall not be +at all well off. As I told you already, the little +property is not worth much; and though Roderick +thinks he could make a little by writing—he +has had one or two articles accepted by magazines +lately—I don't suppose it would bring him in a +very large sum. We must try to keep Manus at +school whatever happens, but we could not possibly +pay for his schooling and yours too. We should +be obliged to take you away from this— +</p> + +<p> +"Oh, but I shouldn't mind that in the least," +Norah hastened to assure her sister. +</p> + +<p> +"I dare say not, dear, but Roderick and I would +mind your growing up a wild little ignoramus +very much indeed. However, I am quite willing +to teach you if you will only try to be steady and +attentive. Will you promise to do your best, +Norah?" +</p> + +<p> +"Oh yes, Anstace, I will, I will indeed! It's +so glorious to think of, and then to have heard +of it to-day just when I was so miserable!" And +Norah once more spun madly about the room in a +manner that argued none too well for the promised +steadiness, till she came into violent contact with +the grand piano, and subsided, panting, on to the sofa. +</p> + +<p> +"I cannot tell you what a weight it has lifted +off my mind, our coming in for this little property," +Anstace went on, speaking more to herself than +to her little sister. "I have been so anxious +about Roderick of late; he has grown so pale and +thin, poor fellow, and has had that nasty hacking +cough ever since the winter. Dr. Trafford examined +him two or three weeks ago, and told me afterwards +that it was the close confinement and long +hours of desk work which were telling upon him, +and that though his lungs were not actually affected, +there was an undoubted delicacy which might +develop into something serious if it were not checked. +But at the time it was impossible to see how he +could give up his employment, and I have been +so wretched and so worried about it! We shall +find it hard work, I dare say, to make both ends +meet over in Ireland, but that will be a trifle if +Roderick gets well and strong again; and Dr. Trafford +says that nothing could possibly be better +for him than the outdoor life that he will lead +there, on the very edge of the Atlantic." +</p> + +<p> +"Of course there couldn't; it would be enough +to make anyone ill to be shut up in an odious +poky office all day," said Norah, with as much +decision as if she were an authority on medical +matters. She sat silent for a minute or two, and +then asked suddenly, "Anstace, why does Uncle +Nicholas hate us all so? What did Father or any +of us ever do to him?" +</p> + +<p> +Anstace hesitated before she answered. "It's a +very old story, Norah, and Father never cared to +talk much about it, so I only know it in a vague +sort of way from things he once or twice said to +me. Uncle Nicholas was only Father's half-brother, +you know, and years older than he. They didn't +see very much of each other either, for Uncle +Nicholas lived at Moyross Abbey always, and Father +came to London and took to writing when he was +quite a young man. However, Uncle Nicholas +became engaged to a girl whom he met when he +was over in England once on some business. I +don't believe she cared much about him.—she was +quite young, and Uncle Nicholas must have been a +man of forty or more at the time. It was more to +please her father than for any other reason that +she promised to marry Uncle Nicholas. Her father +was very ill—dying, and he was anxious to see her +provided for, and of course Uncle Nicholas was a +rich man and a great match for her. So it was all +settled, and the day for the wedding fixed, and +Uncle Nicholas wrote to Father to come down and +make his future sister-in-law's acquaintance, and be +present at his marriage. I don't know how it all +came about after that, Norah, but Father and she +were thrown a good deal together, and they found +out that they loved each other. It was all very +wrong, no doubt, and not straightforward, but they +stole away together and came up to London, and +were married the very day before her wedding +with Uncle Nicholas was to have been." +</p> + +<p> +"Then that girl was our mother?" Norah cried, +with her eyes open to their widest. +</p> + +<p> +"Yes, dear; Marion Belthorpe her name was, and +that was the way in which she and Father were +married. It was a very unhappy business altogether, +for the shock killed her father—he was in +bad health, I told you,—and she never saw him +again. Uncle Nicholas never got over the blow +either; he had been really and truly fond of our +mother, and he was a changed man from that time +out, so everyone who knew him said. Father and +Mother tried more than once to make it up with +him, but he would take nothing to do with them. +Perhaps it was hardly to be expected that he +would." +</p> + +<p> +"He must be a horrid, mean, unforgiving old +thing!" Norah said indignantly. "And does he +live at Moyross Abbey all by himself?" +</p> + +<p> +"No; the children of a niece of his live there +with him. She and her husband died out in India +some years ago, and Uncle Nicholas brought the +children home and adopted them. There are two +of them, a boy and a girl; so Mr. Lynch told +Roderick. I don't quite know how old they are, +but I suppose that Harry Wyndham will be owner +of Moyross Abbey some day." +</p> + +<p> +Norah stared at her sister in angry amazement, +as if she could hardly believe that she had heard +aright. +</p> + +<p> +"But he has no right to it—he's not an O'Brien, +and Moyross Abbey has belonged to O'Briens for +hundreds and hundreds of years! Harry Wyndham! why, +he might as well be called Smith, or Robinson, +or anything else," she burst out vehemently. +</p> + +<p> +Anstace could not forbear smiling a little at her +impetuosity, but she sighed too. +</p> + +<p> +"It is hard upon Roderick that the old O'Brien +estate should pass away from him, for however our +father wronged Uncle Nicholas, Roderick had no +share in it. But then, Norah, you must remember +that the Wyndhams' mother was Uncle Nicholas' +own niece, while our father was only his half-brother; +so that though they are not O'Briens they +are really nearer to him than we are. Besides, I +am afraid that our father and Uncle Nicholas did +not get on very well together, even before that last +quarrel. Uncle Nicholas was always very prudent +and careful himself, and he thought Father reckless +and extravagant—it never was Father's way to be +careful of money." +</p> + +<p> +And Anstace gave another sigh. +</p> + +<p> +"I'm sure Uncle Nicholas is an old curmudgeon," +said Norah decisively. +</p> + +<p> +"If he is, he has something to show for it; and if +it had not been for him Moyross Abbey would most +likely have passed away from the O'Briens long +before this. The property was loaded with debt +when it came to him, and the house was falling to +ruin. Father has often told me so. Uncle Nicholas +was quite a young man then, but he set himself +steadily to redeem the estate, and worked hard and +economized, and denied himself in every way till +he had paid the mortgages off, bit by bit, and +rebuilt the house. Then a vein of copper was +discovered on the property, and he managed to raise +money enough to begin mining, and was his own +engineer and manager, and now that mine brings +him in a very large income. I don't wonder that +he looks upon Moyross Abbey as absolutely his own, +and considers that he has a right to leave it to +anyone he pleases." +</p> + +<p> +"He has not, then! He has no right to leave one +half-quarter of a yard of the O'Brien land to +anyone except an O'Brien. Oh, Anstace, how can you +sit there and talk of it all so quietly? One wouldn't +think that you cared the very least bit." +</p> + +<p> +The look of pain which crossed Anstace's face +might have told a keener observer than Norah that +her brother's exclusion from the old family inheritance, +which should have been his by rights, was by +no means a matter of indifference to her. She only +said, however, in her wonted quiet way, as she rose +to go: +</p> + +<p> +"It seems to me, Norah, that it is wisest for us +to make the best of things as they are, instead of +fretting over what they are not, and to be thankful +that at least one little bit of O'Brien land has come +to us. You had better run back to your lessons +now. I hope Miss Euphemia will not be annoyed +at my having kept you so long. I must speak to +Miss Clarkson and tell her of the change in our +plans, and that you will be leaving at the end of +the term." +</p> + +<p> +The sisters parted at the foot of the first flight +of stairs. A door upon the landing gave access to +the eldest Miss Clarkson's sanctum, a small room +where she transacted the general business of the +school and had interviews with the parents of +present or future pupils. No girl in Treherne +House, even if not summoned into that room to +receive reproof and admonition, ever approached it +without some trepidation, and Norah, as she +continued her way down to her class-room, felt a sort +of wondering admiration at the smiling unconcern +with which Anstace, having first tapped at the door +and received permission to enter, disappeared within +the dreaded precinct. +</p> + +<p><br><br><br></p> + +<p><a id="chap03"></a></p> + +<h3> +CHAPTER III +<br><br> +NORAH'S FREAK +</h3> + +<p> +Perhaps no little girl ever underwent punishment +with so light a heart as Norah did that +afternoon. She was quite cheerful as she watched +the long train of girls file out two and two through +the hall, Fräulein Glock and Miss Euphemia bringing +up the rear, and when they were gone she shut +herself up in the empty school-room, and whilst she +got out pen and copy-paper she hummed gaily: +</p> + +<p class="poem"> + "St. Patrick was a gentleman<br> + And come of decent people,<br> + He built a church in Dublin town<br> + And on it put a steeple".<br> +</p> + +<p><br></p> + +<p> +Miss Euphemia might not have approved very +highly of the song if she had heard it, but it is to +be feared that Norah did not trouble herself very +much about that. +</p> + +<p> +She did not make very rapid progress with Turkey +in Asia and its latitudes and longitudes. Her pen +was laid aside very frequently, and Norah either +sprang from her seat and capered round the room +as if the spirit of gladness had got into her very +feet, or else leaning back against the form she gave +herself up to long and delicious daydreams. She +pictured to herself the happy life which they would +all lead in that little old house of which Anstace +had spoken, and how she and Manus would wander +by the sea-shore and climb the rocks and crags of +that wild, western coast upon which her father's +boyhood had been spent, and of which he had told +them so many stories. +</p> + +<p> +The click of a latch-key in the lock of the hall-door +brought her back to sober reality again, and +warned her that the walking party had returned. +Worse and more dire disgrace would await her if +her allotted task were not accomplished. +</p> + +<p> +Scratch, scratch, scratch. Norah's pen absolutely +raced over the paper in her efforts to make up for +lost time, whilst she could hear the girls laughing +and chattering as they trooped upstairs to take off +their outdoor things. The blotting-paper had just +been passed over the last page of copy, and Norah +with a huge sigh of relief had laid down her pen, +when the door opened and Miss Euphemia sailed in. +She had laid aside her bonnet and mantle and +resumed the high white cap, which within doors lent +severity and classic dignity to her features. +</p> + +<p> +"Is the lesson written out, Norah?" she enquired. +</p> + +<p> +"Yes, Miss Euphemia," Norah replied, handing +over the written pages, though not without some +anxiety that in the haste with which the last +portion had been copied out, errors and omissions might +have crept in. Miss Euphemia's scrutiny seemed +to satisfy her, however, and she gave the paper back +to Norah, saying only: "Very well, my dear, put +everything away tidily before you go upstairs. +I trust I shall not be again driven to such a +painful necessity as keeping you indoors." +</p> + +<p> +Norah reddened and fidgeted uncomfortably. +</p> + +<p> +"I hope not, Miss Euphemia," she said awkwardly. +In the overflowing spirits which she was +in, it was not possible to her to speak in a tone of +proper penitence, and perhaps Miss Euphemia had +expected a greater appearance of contrition and was +disappointed. +</p> + +<p> +"If I had mentioned the matter to Miss Clarkson +she would have been very gravely displeased," she +began, as she moved towards the door, "and if you +should show yourself so inattentive again, I shall +feel obliged to do so; but I hope it will not occur +again, Norah." +</p> + +<p> +"I hope not, Miss Euphemia," once more responded +Norah; and Miss Euphemia quitted the room, closing +the door rather sharply behind her. +</p> + +<p> +It was opened again a minute later, and this time +it was Lily Allardyce who appeared, her pink +cheeks pinker than ever, after her walk in the +spring wind, holding something very closely clasped +in both her hands. +</p> + +<p> +"Poor Norah," she said, in her pretty, cooing way. +"I took my things off ever so fast, and ran down +before any of the others were ready. I kept +thinking of you, shut up here by yourself and writing +that horrid punishment lesson, all the time that we +were out. See what I've got for you! A woman +was selling a whole basketful of them in the street, +and Miss Euphemia let me stop and buy one." And +opening her hands, Lily disclosed a large +pincushion shaped like a sunflower, with rays of +yellow calico all round it, and the centre stuck, +hedgehog fashion, with pins. +</p> + +<p> +Norah rewarded her by a boisterous hug, more +perhaps as an outlet to her feelings than from any +special delight in the pin-cushion. +</p> + +<p> +"Lily, Lily! I'm the luckiest girl in the whole +world!" she cried. "I couldn't get a chance before +of telling you why Anstace—that's my sister, you +know—came to see me this morning." +</p> + +<p> +"Anstace, yes," said Lily meditatively. "It's such +a funny name, Norah. I never heard of anyone +called that before." +</p> + +<p> +"It's Irish; all our names are Irish," Norah +answered, with a touch of pride in her voice; +"there have always been Anstaces and Norahs +among the O'Briens. And we're all going over to +Ireland, Lily; going to live there for ever, and never +come back to London any more. What do you +think of that?" +</p> + +<p> +Lily's eyes grew big with wonder and dismay. +</p> + +<p> +"Going away for ever, and we're never to see each +other again? And you're glad?" This last with +much reproach and a sound as of gathering tears. +</p> + +<p> +Norah bestowed another hug by way of comfort. +</p> + +<p> +"I wish you could come and live in Ireland too, +but you can't; and you're going to Paris, that's +luck enough for you; though I wouldn't take fifty +thousand Parises for Kilshane, that's what our own +place that we are going to live in is called;" and +Norah drew her small stature up to its tallest. +"Come along now," as she flung geography-book +and paper into her locker with a reckless air; "I +shall only just have time to get ready for tea." +</p> + +<p> +As the two children crossed the hall, hand in +hand, Norah's attention was arrested by the large +wooden tray, in which the cups and saucers for the +school tea had been carried up from below stairs. +It stood empty now on its trestles outside the +dining-room door, and from within could be heard +the clatter of china as the servants moved about, +laying the table. Norah, in her present mood, was +ready for any freak, no matter how daring. +</p> + +<p> +"Lily," she exclaimed under her breath, "did you +ever toboggan down the stairs upon a tea-tray?" +</p> + +<p> +"Did I ever do what?" questioned Lily in perplexity. +</p> + +<p> +"Toboggan down the stairs—slide down, you +know. It's the most awful fun. Manus and I +used to do it at home sometimes, but it was such +a poky little staircase it wasn't much good. The +stairs here would be splendid, and that tray would +hold us both most beautifully." +</p> + +<p> +"Oh, Norah, just think how angry the Miss +Clarksons would be!" gasped Lily. +</p> + +<p> +"They won't know anything about it. Everybody +is upstairs in the dormitories, and it always +takes the other girls half an hour to take their +boots off and wash their hands. We'll just have +one go, not down this flight, the one above. No +one will see us there, and if Jane and Ellen miss +the tray they won't know where it's gone, so they +can't tell tales." +</p> + +<p> +Grasping the heavy tray in both hands, Norah +was already half-way up the stairs. Lily followed +in much alarm, but too timid to resist Norah's +stronger will. As Norah had said, the fine +staircase in Treherne House, with its broad shallow +steps and long flights of stairs, was eminently +suited for a toboggan slide, though it was hardly +likely that it had ever been put to that use +before. +</p> + +<p> +She set her burden down with a triumphant air +at the top of the flight which led down from the +drawing-room. "Get in quick, Lily, while I hold +the tray to prevent it slipping down," she whispered +imperatively. +</p> + +<p> +"Oh, Norah, I couldn't," faltered poor Lily +nervously. "Just think if Miss Clarkson happened to +be in her sitting-room and heard us!" And Lily +cast a terrified glance at the closed door on the +landing below. +</p> + +<p> +"You little goose! Did you ever know Miss +Clarkson to be down here at this hour? The tea-bell +will ring directly, and she'll come sailing from +upstairs with her evening cap on and her handkerchief +in her hand." And Norah lowered her eyelids +in imitation of the air of serene self-importance +with which the head of Treherne House was wont +to lead the procession into the dining-room. Then, +breaking into her brusque tone once more, "Now, +Lily, pack yourself in, and sit tight." +</p> + +<p> +"I couldn't, Norah, I couldn't indeed; I'd be too +frightened," protested Lily more tremulously than +before. +</p> + +<p> +"Nonsense, you've no idea how jolly it is! I'll +go in front, and then if we do get spilt you can't be +hurt, you'll only fall on the top of me. Now then, +are you in? Hold on by the bannisters till I get in +too, and then catch me by the shoulders." +</p> + +<p> +Lily obeyed trembling, her powers of resistance +as usual not being proof against Norah's +determination. +</p> + +<p> +"Tally ho!" cried Norah joyously, as the +improvised sledge flew downwards on its mad career. +</p> + +<p> +At that very moment, however, the door upon +the landing opened, and out came Miss Clarkson +with evening cap and handkerchief, just as Norah +had described her. She stopped, absolutely rigid +with amazement, as she beheld the two youngest of +her pupils seated in the tea-tray and shooting down +the stairs. The sudden appearance of her +school-mistress was too much for Lily, whose nerves were +already overstrained by the headlong speed with +which they were rushing through the air. She +uttered a piercing shriek, and clutched desperately +at the bannisters. The sledge, thus suddenly +arrested on its downward course, slewed to one +side and tilted over. Both its occupants rolled out, +bumped down the remaining steps, and fell in a +heap upon the landing, the big wooden tray +tumbling over on the top of them. +</p> + +<p> +The crash of their fall reverberated through the +house, doors opened above stairs, exclamations and +questioning voices were heard, and the whole school +came trooping down to find out what had happened, +while the servants left their work and ran up from +below. Norah had fallen undermost, but she was +on her feet again in a moment, her hands clenched, +and her small white teeth set tight. Her head had +come in violent contact with the floor of the +landing, and a bump had already started out upon her +forehead, which was swelling visibly and promised +before long to display a variety of shades of blue +and green. She was conscious besides of a bruised +knee and sundry smaller injuries, but Norah was a +heroic little soul, and she deemed it beneath her to +cry merely for pain; so whilst poor Lily, after +struggling out from under the tray, could only sit +in a forlorn little heap and sob pitifully, Norah +boldly faced Miss Clarkson, who had not yet +recovered sufficiently from the shock she had received +to utter a syllable. +</p> + +<p> +"It was my fault, Miss Clarkson, it was indeed. +I made Lily come with me, and she didn't want to. +I knew it was naughty, but the tray was standing +in the hall as we came out, and I couldn't help it. +I haven't known what to do all day, I've been so +glad since Anstace told me that we were all going +over to live in Ireland. I've been very happy here," +she added with sudden recollection, for Norah +possessed a share of Irish politeness with all her other +Irish qualities, "but it's school, you know, it's not +home; and if you had thought that you weren't +ever going to have a home of your own again, or +at least not for years and years, and then heard all +at once that you had got the dearest, most delightful +old house in Ireland to live in—oh, Miss Clarkson, +if you'd been me, and you had seen that tray +standing in the hall, you'd have wanted to toboggan +down-stairs too!" +</p> + +<p> +The whole of the school had flocked down-stairs +by this time. Miss Susan, the second Miss Clarkson, +had been foremost to reach the scene of the +disaster. She had picked poor disconsolate Lily +up, and was examining into the extent of her +injuries, whilst Miss Euphemia stood with the fallen +tray in her hand, and the girls and the French and +German teachers crowded upon each other on the +stairs in their efforts to get a view of what was +passing. +</p> + +<p> +An absolute shiver went through the close-pressed +ranks at Norah's audacious speech, which called up +a vision of Miss Clarkson seated in the tea-tray +and careering madly down-stairs with her cap ends +streaming behind her. In awe-struck silence the +whole throng waited for the thunder of Miss +Clarkson's wrath to fall on the daring offender's head. +There was a momentary pause, and then Miss +Clarkson, as if prompted by some overmastering +impulse, stooped and kissed, yes, actually—a thing +which, in the memory of the oldest girl present, +she had never been known to do before—she kissed +the little upturned face that gazed so earnestly at +her. +</p> + +<p> +"I scarcely think that, my dear," she said in +answer to Norah's venturesome suggestion, "but I +was truly rejoiced to hear of your good fortune +from Anstace this morning, even though it means +that we shall lose you from amongst us very soon. +Under such exceptional circumstances I can make +a certain allowance for your feelings having carried +you beyond yourself, especially considering what a +little wild Irishwoman you are. Your behaviour +was of course most reprehensible," she went on, +straightening herself and resuming her wonted +scholastic manner, as she remembered her audience +and the effect that might be produced upon them +by such unexampled lenity. "Nothing would induce +me to pass over a repetition of it, but for this +once, considering the circumstances as I have said, +and that you and Lily have already suffered from +the consequences of your very silly and unladylike +freak, I will take no further notice of it. Jane, +carry the tray back to the pantry at once. Euphemia, +be good enough to take Lily upstairs and put some +sticking plaster on her face. We will now proceed +to the dining-room, girls. When Norah and Lily +have made themselves tidy and fit to appear at +table, they will join us there." +</p> + +<p> +And Miss Clarkson swept down-stairs with her +most stately air, the girls exchanging wondering +glances and whispered comments as they followed, +two and two, to take their places at the long table +in the dining-room. +</p> + +<p><br><br><br></p> + +<p><a id="chap04"></a></p> + +<h3> +CHAPTER IV +<br><br> +WITHIN SOUND OF THE SEA +</h3> + +<p> +The remainder of the school term passed quickly +over. To Norah's credit it must be recorded +that she bore in mind what pleasure it would give +Roderick and Anstace if she were proved to have +made good progress during her stay at Treherne +House, and notwithstanding the intoxication of +delight that she was in, she worked away assiduously +at her lessons during the time which still remained +to her. Accordingly, when the examinations were +over, she was found to have won a place very near +the top of her class for herself. +</p> + +<p> +The great day of the breaking up of the school +arrived at length. The hall was filled with boxes, +and cabs drove away from the door with luggage +piled upon the roof and happy faces inside. From +earliest morning Norah had been the busiest of the +busy, helping to carry handbags, and rugs, and +parcels of all kinds down-stairs, and receiving the +affectionate farewells of the girls as they departed. +It was quite wonderful how sorry they all seemed +to say good-bye to her, and innumerable parting +tokens in the shape of pencil-cases, purses, and +such small articles were showered upon her. As +for Lily Allardyce, whose parents arrived early in +a brougham to carry their darling off to the station +from which they were to start for Paris, her joy at +seeing them again was quite swallowed up by her +grief at parting from Norah. Her eyes were swelled +almost past recognition, and her little frame was +shaken by sobs when she was at last induced, most +unwillingly, to quit her hold of Norah, and to follow +her parents to the carriage which waited for them. +</p> + +<p> +Norah was after all to remain at Treherne House +and to share Fräulein Glock's solitude for a week, as +Roderick and Anstace had been unable to complete +their preparations for leaving London any sooner. +This appeared a very trifling hardship to her now, +however, and in the evening, when she had seen +the three Miss Clarksons, who had been the last to +leave, drive away in their turn, she settled herself +down quite cheerfully by the fire in the empty +school-room to keep Fräulein company till bed-time. +</p> + +<p> +Fräulein Glock, for her part, seemed amply +contented whilst she had her days to herself and was +not required to give her usual dreary round of +lessons in German grammar and translation. She +was engaged upon a crochet antimacassar of most +intricate design, which required an incessant counting +of stitches. She had, besides, a friend, a German +teacher like herself, who was also spending her +holidays in solitude in another school a few streets +away, and the two were wont to pass many hours +together, exchanging low-voiced confidences with +each other. They were very kind to the little girl, +who had perforce to make a third in their party, +and strove spasmodically to entertain and amuse +her. Norah could not but feel, however, that she +was more or less an encumbrance to them, and she +generally preferred to steal away to a sunny +window on the stairs, where she curled herself up on +the wide window seat, and let her imagination run +riot in happy visions of the future. +</p> + +<p> +Norah had counted on her fingers the number of +days that she would have to remain at Treherne +House. Beginning with the little finger of her right +hand, they reached as far as the forefinger of her +left; and each morning when she woke she dug +the finger representing the day just begun into her +pillow, saying to herself, "We've got as far as you +now". And each evening when she went to bed +she made another dig with the same finger, saying +triumphantly, "There, you're over". Thus the days +went by till the forefinger of her left hand was ticked +off like the rest; and in the evening Roderick, her +tall, dark-haired, dark-eyed brother, arrived to carry +her off to Euston station, where Anstace was to meet +them. And so the doors of Treherne House closed +behind little Norah for good and all. +</p> + +<p> +She was so wild with glee and in such boisterous +spirits that Anstace had some difficulty in keeping +her within the bounds of due decorum during the +quarter of an hour that they had to wait for the +departure of their train. More than once indeed Anstace +had occasion to remind her of the ancient nursery +adage, that "too much laughing ends in crying". +The saying was to prove true enough, for a few +hours later poor Norah, tossed to and fro in her +berth, and enduring all the agonies of sea-sickness, +was in truth a vast deal nearer to tears than to +laughter, and both she and Anstace presented a +very limp and woebegone appearance when they +landed next morning in a drizzling rain upon the +wharf in Dublin. +</p> + +<p> +Their surroundings were not calculated to raise +their spirits. A raw wind blew cheerlessly in +their faces, and the tall dark buildings that lined +the quays, the forest of masts on either hand, and +the air, all seemed dripping with moisture. Roderick +alone maintained a cheerful demeanour; the rough +crossing appeared to have had rather an exhilarating +effect upon him. He had been on deck since daylight, +pacing up and down with his cap drawn over +his eyes and the skirts of his ulster flapping about +his legs, quite regardless how the steamer lurched and +rolled under him, whilst he watched the Irish coast +coming gradually into view. He exerted himself to +the utmost for his sisters' comfort, and carried them +off to an hotel, where, however, neither Anstace nor +Norah was able to taste the breakfast set before +them. Then came long hours of railway travelling, +diversified by wearisome delays at junction stations, +and at last, in the dusk, they alighted at Ballyfin, +the terminus of the railway, and its nearest approach +to the wild coast region where their future home +was situated. +</p> + +<p> +The drizzle of the morning had developed by this +time into a heavy and continuous downpour, and +poor Norah, cold, hungry, and tired out, felt more +wretched than she had ever done in all her life +before, and in her secret soul, I believe, would have +been rejoiced could she have found herself back in +the deserted school-room of Treherne House, where +Fräulein Glock counted her interminable crochet +patterns. At any other time she would have been +in transports of delight at the novel sights and +sounds which greeted her on every side—at the +strange, guttural utterances of a group of +frieze-coated men and blue-cloaked women, who, +regardless of the rain, were talking volubly in Irish; at +the scent of peat-smoke, which hung in the air; +above all, at the outside-car which, on issuing from +the station, they found waiting to carry them the +twelve Irish miles which had still to be traversed. +Now, however, Norah could only rouse herself to a +very faint interest in all these things, and in silence +she allowed Roderick to lift her on to the seat +beside Anstace. +</p> + +<p> +The little town of Ballyfin, with its market-place +and its one long, straggling street, was soon +left behind, and they emerged upon a level tract of +dreary bog-land, the monotony of which was only +broken here and there by a squalid cabin streaked +green with damp, or by a few fields fenced in from +the road and from each other by walls of loosely-piled +gray stones. The leaden sky hung low above +their heads, and the mountains were wrapped in mist +down to their very base. It was impossible to hold +up an umbrella, so fierce and wild were the gusts +that swept across the bog. Anstace and Norah sat +close to each other, a shawl drawn over their heads +and held together in front, while Roderick, on the +other side of the car, with the collar of his ulster +turned up about his ears and a travelling-rug +wrapped round his knees, shielded himself from the +weather as best he could. On and on the car sped +through the seemingly interminable waste, till at +last Norah, who had hardly spoken since they had +started on their drive, said, with something that +sounded suspiciously like a sob: +</p> + +<p> +"Anstace, I didn't think Ireland was one bit like +this. I thought it was the nicest place to live in in +the whole world; and ugh! it is so ugly and so +miserable." +</p> + +<p> +"You could not expect any place to look well +on such a night as this, dear. If it were a beautiful +sunny evening it would all have seemed quite +different to us," Anstace returned as cheerfully as +she could, though her own heart sank within her +as she looked out from under the fringe of the +shawl at the sodden, treeless plain stretching away +till it was lost in the fast-gathering twilight, and +wondered if it was indeed in this desolate region +that their future home was to be made. +</p> + +<p> +Nine miles were laid behind them thus, and it had +become wholly dark, when the car made a sudden +bend, branching off apparently upon a cross-road, +and a sound which hitherto had mingled indistinctly +with the wind and rain—a hoarse, deep murmur, +now falling, now swelling out louder—seemed of +a sudden to fill all the air. Even Norah roused +herself to ask what it was. +</p> + +<p> +"You'll never have that noise out of your ears, +little one, while you live here," Roderick answered +good-naturedly from the other side of the car. +"That's the Atlantic, Norah, two hundred feet +below us, singing a song to itself. If it were +daylight you would see that the road comes out here +just above the cliffs. Another mile will bring us +home now." +</p> + +<p> +"Troth, an' if 'twasn't that the wind is off ov +the shore, it's not sing-songin' that fashion the say +wud be, 'twud be thundher and fury wid it, and +dashin' agin the racks as if 'twud swape the +whole mortial airth away," the driver struck in. +"Whin yer honours has been a winter at Kilshane +ye'll have no need to be axin' what sort the roar +of th' Atlantic is." +</p> + +<p> +A few minutes more, as Roderick had said, and +they turned in at a gate left open in evident +anticipation of their coming. With a "Hurroo! stir +yerself now!" and a cracking of his whip, the +driver urged his steed on to its utmost pace, and +they tore up the avenue at such a frantic gallop +that Norah, desirous though she was to prove +herself a true Irishwoman, and therefore able to sit +upon an outside-car as to the manner born, could +not refrain from clutching the iron rail beside her +with all her might. The trees and shrubs on either +hand flitted past like shapeless black phantoms. +One long straggling branch which stretched itself +out into the roadway struck Anstace and Norah +a sudden stinging blow in their faces, sending a +shower of cold spray over them from its rain-laden +leaves. Before they had recovered themselves +and had had time to dash the water out of their +eyes, the car rounded a corner and pulled up with +a jerk before the house, of which only a vague +outline could be distinguished in the darkness. +</p> + +<p> +At the same instant the hall-door was flung wide +open, letting a flood of light stream out into the +night, and two black figures came hurrying out. +One held a sod of blazing turf aloft in a pair of +tongs, to light the travellers, and waved it in wild +whirls of welcome, regardless how the primitive +torch hissed and sputtered as the rain-drops fell +on it, while the other, springing forward with an +uncouth yell, caught Norah in his arms and bore +her in triumph into the hall, exclaiming as he set +her down: +</p> + +<p> +"Begorra, an' it's meself that'll carry one of the +O'Briens in over the thrashel of their own dure. +'Tis the great day that sees the ould shtock back +in Kilshane, an' God an' His saints give them luck +an' prosperity, an' blessin's airly an' late—" +</p> + +<p> +"Arrah, whisht wid ye, Tom," commanded the +torch-bearer, whom Norah now perceived to be +an elderly woman clad in the rough red skirt +and cotton bodice common to the country, with a +wisp of gray hair coiled up closely at the back of +her head; "there's no ind to ye, so there isn't, an' +it's frightenin' the little darlint ye'll be wid yer +goin's on." +</p> + +<p> +"Not a bit of him, Biddy; only delighting her +heart with such a right Irish welcome," said +Roderick, as he came into the hall and shook +Biddy and Tom heartily by the hand. "And here's +a new Miss Anstace for you," he added, drawing +forward his sister, who had been so encumbered +with wraps and mufflings, and so stiff with cold +and the long drive, that she had found some +difficulty in descending from the car. +</p> + +<p> +"An' wudn't I have known it widout the tellin'," +declared Biddy, as she caught the hand which +Anstace held out to her and kissed it fervently. +"Sure 'tis the very moral of ould Miss Ansey she +is, the darlin' jool. An' who wud she take after, if +twasn't her own godmother that she's called for?" +</p> + +<p> +"I'm glad Miss Anstace was so alive to her duties +as to have a proper resemblance to her namesake," +said Roderick merrily. "And now, Biddy, I hope +you're prepared to give us something to eat, for +I'm pretty ready for it after travelling all the way +from London, and I've no doubt the others are too." +</p> + +<p> +"Yis sure, Masther Roderick, an' I've a fire in +the parlour anyway that'll do yer heart good to +see. If yer honours'll warm yerselves a weeny +minute I'll have the tay wet an' all ready. Musha, +go long wid ye, Tom, an' help to carry the luggidge +upstairs, i'stead o' stannin' there, not able to take +yer eyes out of Miss Norah!" +</p> + +<p> +And with this last authoritative utterance Biddy +flung the parlour door open, revealing a cozy +interior, heavy curtains closely drawn, a snowy-covered +table laid for supper, and at the end of the +room the blazing turf fire of which she had spoken. +Biddy herself disappeared down the passage leading +to the kitchen, where a vigorous hissing and +spluttering was presently heard, betokening that +preparations for the meal were being pushed +forward with all possible speed. +</p> + +<p> +Norah retained but a very confused recollection +of the after-events of that evening. The warmth +of the parlour made her drowsy; there was a +buzzing in her head as if she were still in the train, +and at times the floor seemed to heave and stagger +under her feet as the steamer had done. She +roused herself in some degree when Biddy +reappeared with tea and a smoking dish of eggs and +bacon, but even during supper her head was +nodding forward, and it was with difficulty that +she kept her eyes from closing. She was only too +glad, as soon as the meal was over, to let Anstace +lead her upstairs and help her to undress. And +almost before she had stretched her weary little +limbs out in the huge four-post bedstead, with +faded chintz curtains, which filled half the room, +she had sunk into the oblivion of a deep and +dreamless sleep. +</p> + +<p><br><br><br></p> + +<p><a id="chap05"></a></p> + +<h3> +CHAPTER V +<br><br> +ENGLISH IDEAS AND IRISH WAYS +</h3> + +<p> +It was broad daylight when Norah woke next +morning, and she sat up and stared about her, +bewildered for a moment by finding herself in the +strange, old-fashioned room, with its low ceiling +crossed by heavy beams, and its dark mahogany +furniture. The next instant, however, she +remembered that this was Kilshane, and that they were +really at home in Ireland at last. Soft regular +breathing by her side made her aware that Anstace +was still wrapped in soundest sleep, but Norah +was fully awake now, and quite too much on fire +with excitement and curiosity to yield herself to +slumber again. +</p> + +<p> +The room had only one lattice-paned window, +opening in casement fashion, and even that was +darkened and encroached on by the luxuriant +growth of clematis and climbing roses which +mantled the walls outside and flung their long +trails across the narrow window space, so that but +a comparatively small amount of cool, greenish +light could find its way in. +</p> + +<p> +Norah slipped down out of the lofty bed, and +pattered across the floor in her bare feet. Pushing +the casement open, she leant far out, regardless of +the shower of dewdrops which she shook down +upon herself, drinking in in one gasp of delight +the freshness of the early morning, the salt +sea-breeze that blew in her face, and the undreamt-of +beauty of the prospect that lay outstretched before +her. +</p> + +<p> +Immediately below her the green lawn sloped +down to the cliffs, though from the window at +which she stood nothing could be seen of the dizzy +precipice; the low wall that bounded their little +domain stood out against the mid-sea, as though +one could have stepped from it far out upon that +shining blue plain which stretched away to the far +misty horizon, its solitude unbroken by even a +single sail. Upon the left rose the great purple +mountains which had been invisible the night +before, and beneath them lay a wide tract of +heathery moor, of gorse-clad hills and green pasture +land. Lower still was a long range of woods, and +below them the bold coast line, with its lofty +headlands, its sheer black cliffs and jagged rocks, over +which even on that calm and sunny morning the +long Atlantic surges broke in foam. +</p> + +<p> +Anstace's voice behind her recalled Norah to herself. +</p> + +<p> +"You will catch your death of cold, child, hanging +out of the window in your night-gown. Come +in and dress yourself. You will have plenty of +time to look at the view afterwards." +</p> + +<p> +Norah reluctantly drew her head in. +</p> + +<p> +"Oh, Anstace, it's the loveliest place in the whole +wide world, and we are the very luckiest people to +have got it all for our own." +</p> + +<p> +Anstace laughed. +</p> + +<p> +"Well, that sounds more cheerful than your +remark when we were driving: here last night. Do +you remember how dismal you were then?" +</p> + +<p> +Norah gave her shoulders an unwilling shake. +</p> + +<p> +"As if one could know what anything was like, +sitting in pouring rain with a shawl over one's +head. And you haven't half looked at the view, +only given it a sort of glance out of the corner of +your eye." +</p> + +<p> +"My dear, the view won't run away," said practical +Anstace, "and we shall be late for breakfast +if we don't hurry on. Do begin to dress yourself!" +</p> + +<p> +The dressing operations partook something of the +nature of the famous race between the hare and the +tortoise. Norah's toilet should have occupied far +less time than Anstace's, seeing that she had no +long tresses of hair to brush out, to plait and coil +up; but there was so much to attract her attention +in the room, that she was making dives hither and +thither to examine some fresh object of interest +between each garment that she put on. Now she +was perched on a chair peering at one of the +discoloured prints in black frames which hung upon +the wall, now exploring the drawers and pigeon-holes +of the tall old mahogany bureau which stood +in one corner, and now she was scrutinizing her +face in the little clouded mirror above the chimney-piece; +so that Anstace, proceeding steadily all the +while with her dressing, had put in the last hair-pin, +and stood faultlessly neat from her smoothly-parted +hair to the tie of her shoes, in the same moment +that Norah, wriggling into her frock after a fashion +peculiarly her own, and dragging the buttons and +button-holes together in haste, proclaimed herself +ready. Just then, too, Roderick's door was heard +to open, and his step and whistle sounded on the +stairs, so Anstace and Norah lost no time in following +him down to the little parlour where they had +had supper the night before. +</p> + +<p> +The window, which was embowered in green, like +that of their bedroom above, stood wide open, +letting in the fresh morning breeze and all the +sweet spring-tide scents, but there was no +appearance of breakfast, and Biddy, who came from the +kitchen in a state of morning deshabille, declared +"She'd niver had a thought their honours would be +that early, an' they desthroyed wid cowld an' +hardship the night before ". +</p> + +<p> +Seeing that there was likely to be some delay +before their morning meal was ready for them, +the new-comers strolled out of doors and down +by a moss-grown path which led to the edge of +the cliffs. Viewed from without, the house was +a rambling, irregular structure, two stories high in +some parts, only a single story in others, but +overgrown everywhere with the same luxuriant green +mantle of roses, jessamine, and ivy, all matted and +intertwined. +</p> + +<p> +Anstace's eyes soon wandered back from the +house to Roderick's face, on which they rested +anxiously. She was afraid he might have caught +a chill from the exposure of the previous evening, +but he laughed her fears away. +</p> + +<p> +"I feel another man already," he said, drawing +a deep draught, as he spoke, of the vigorous sea air; +"I shall write to Dr. Trafford and tell him I have +tossed all his tonics and physic bottles over the +cliffs. It was that stifling city den, and the +everlasting scribble, scribble from morning till night, +which were doing for me." +</p> + +<p> +Whilst toil had been needful, Roderick had +worked on bravely and uncomplainingly, but now +that those months of drudgery were laid behind +him, he could not conceal how irksome his life in +the lawyer's office had been to him. +</p> + +<p> +Norah interposed here to ask what the dark +woods were which stretched along the cliffs some +two miles away. +</p> + +<p> +"Those are the woods of Moyross Abbey, where +our father lived when he was a boy, and Uncle +Nicholas lives now," Roderick answered. "Do you +see how, on beyond, just this side of the +headland—Drinane Head it's called—the cliff is all scarped +and cut away, and the red earth thrown out upon +the hillside? That is the copper-mine which Uncle +Nicholas set going, and there is an iron pier down +below that he made, for ships to lie at to load the +ore." +</p> + +<p> +"It was a wonderful undertaking," said Anstace, +following the direction in which her brother +pointed. +</p> + +<p> +"It was, indeed, for one man to plan and carry +out. He deserves all the wealth which the mine +has brought him in. See, Norah, you can just make +out the chimneys of Moyross House above the trees. +The ruins of the abbey where the monks used to +live in old times are close to it, and behind the +abbey there is a little wooded glen, with a steep +path winding down through it to a little cove below, +one of the very few places along the coast where +a boat can find shelter in rough weather. I +suppose that was one of the reasons why the monks +chose that particular site for their abbey. Some of +the steps going down to the sea are the very ones, +I believe, that the monks put there, and the stones +have deep hollows worn in them by all the feet +that have gone up and down for hundreds of years." +</p> + +<p> +"But Roderick, when did you see it all?" cried +Norah. +</p> + +<p> +A cloud came over Roderick's face. +</p> + +<p> +"I walked down through the glen that one day +that I was at Moyross, the day of poor old Cousin +Ansey's funeral. I had heard our father talk so +often of that Monks' Walk, as it is called, and +I wanted to see as much as I could of his old +home." +</p> + +<p> +"And you'll take me to see it all some day, won't +you?—the old abbey and the Monks' Walk, and +all?" pleaded Norah, hanging coaxingly on his +arm. +</p> + +<p> +Roderick shook his head. +</p> + +<p> +"Not unless Uncle Nicholas invites us there, +and that, I think, is hardly likely. He has made it +plain that he has not forgiven our father, even in +his grave, for the wrong he did him, nor us, for +being our father's children." +</p> + +<p> +Roderick spoke with a bitterness very unusual +to him, but, after all, it was hard that whilst almost +all he could see around him—great mountains, wide +sweeps of moorland, woods and farms, and rocks +rich in minerals—had belonged to his ancestors, +he himself should be an alien and a stranger there. +Even that low creeper-covered house, with its two +or three fields stretching along the edge of the +cliffs, had only come to him by the bequest of a +distant relative, and in all probability, if the old +man who now held the great O'Brien estate in his +grasp had had the power to keep it from them, not +even that one small corner of the family domain +would have descended to his own kith and kin. +</p> + +<p> +"Uncle Nicholas is an old horror!" said Norah +with energy; "and if he doesn't want to have +anything to say to us, I'm sure we don't want him +either." +</p> + +<p> +And just then Biddy appeared in front of the +house, and by vehement waving of her arms gave +them to understand that the tardy breakfast was +at length ready. +</p> + +<p> +Their first morning repast in the quaint +old-fashioned parlour was a very gay and cheerful one, +though Anstace's housewifely eye detected many +things that did not please her: the little heaps of +dust in the corners which no intrusive broom could +have disturbed for a very considerable period, and +the long cobwebs that hung down from the ceiling +and swayed slowly to and fro as the fresh breeze +blew in at the open window. When breakfast was +ended, they started to explore the old house which +had come into their possession with all that it +contained. Opposite the parlour was the drawing-room, +a long, low-ceiled room, furnished with spindle-legged +tables and chairs, with tall old cabinets, +black with age, ranged against the walls. A glass +door opened out into what had once been the +garden but was now a wilderness, where evergreen +shrubs, tall weeds, and a few hardy flowers which +had survived years of neglect struggled with each +other for the mastery. Ragged fuchsia hedges +fenced in the little plot, and in the kitchen-garden +beyond, the old fruit-trees stretched out their +branches, laden with snowy blossom, over the sea +of tangled vegetation that grew about their roots. +</p> + +<p> +"There will be no lack of work there for some +time to come," said Roderick cheerily. +</p> + +<p> +After his months of drudgery at a desk and of +close confinement in a city office, occupation of any +sort in the open air was alluring, and he opened +the glass doors as he spoke and stepped out upon +the grass-grown walk, eager to commence the +herculean task of digging and uprooting without +even a moment's delay. Anstace turned down the +flagged passage which led towards the back of +the house, in quest of Biddy, and Norah followed +her. +</p> + +<p> +At the kitchen door Anstace stopped short and +gave a little exclamation of dismay, involuntarily +gathering her skirts about her, and undoubtedly +anyone accustomed to the neatness and cleanliness +of an English kitchen was likely to receive a shock +at the first sight of the premises presided over by +Biddy. A cavernous fireplace without a grate +occupied almost the whole of one wall. The turf fire +was built upon the hearthstone, and a huge +three-legged pot was suspended over it by a hook and +iron chain, whilst a low stone hob in front kept the +burning peats from falling on to the floor. The +walls had once been whitewashed, but time and +turf smoke had mellowed them to a warm yellowish +tint, which deepened near the hearth to a rich dark +brown, and it must have been long, very long indeed, +since the floor had made acquaintance with soap +and water or a scrubbing-brush. +</p> + +<p> +Biddy had not allowed herself to suffer from +loneliness, at least in so far as dumb companionship +went, for a large and motley family were lodged +within the kitchen. A mongrel collie, blind of an +eye, had been arrested on its way in from the yard +by Anstace and Norah's sudden appearance, and +stood regarding them mistrustfully out of its +remaining orb. A large black cat, snugly curled up +in front of the fire, was sleepily keeping watch out +of one eye on the gambols of two kittens as they +rolled each other over and over on the floor; and on +the top rail of a chair beside her, over the back of +which some articles from the wash-tub had been +hung to dry, a chicken was perched, shaking out its +feathers and pluming itself in evident enjoyment of +the warmth. It seemed to Anstace, in a rapid survey +of the kitchen furniture, that this was the only chair +possessed all at once of a back, a seat, and the full +complement of legs, all others being destitute of one +at least of these appurtenances. An old-fashioned +mahogany wine-cooler in one corner had been +turned to a use for which it had not originally been +intended, for at that moment a hen flew up out of +it, and with loud and long repeated cackles made +everyone within hearing aware that she had laid +an egg. Another hen, with a dozen yellow balls of +chickens running at her feet, was stalking about +the floor, pecking hither and thither in hope of +finding something to eat; and the door of a +cupboard which stood open revealed a turkey seated in +a basket within and engaged in the important business +of bringing out a clutch of eggs. +</p> + +<p> +Norah subsided on to the floor with a little cry +of delight, divided in her ecstasy between the soft, +furry kittens and the softer, downy chicks; but +Anstace remained standing, her skirts still gathered +up, gazing with a face of rueful disgust at the +kitchen and its denizens, and at the collection of +miscellaneous articles which were piled pell-mell +upon each other in the corners. There were old +fishing-nets and fishing-lines, chairs without seats +and jugs without handles, empty bottles and broken +plates—even odd boots and shoes were stored up +with the other lumber. +</p> + +<p> +Biddy came in just then from the yard, carrying +a pail of water, which she splashed freely round her +as she walked. She smiled broadly upon the girls, +quite unconscious that there was anything amiss +with herself and her surroundings, and with a +flourish of her disengaged arm drove out the hen, +which was still loudly and insistently proclaiming +its feat just achieved. +</p> + +<p> +"Quit out o' this, this minnit, the noisy crayther +that y' are! Who wants to be hearin' ye, d' ye +think?" +</p> + +<p> +Anstace's feelings had been too deeply stirred to +permit her to keep silence, and she broke out +impatiently: +</p> + +<p> +"Biddy, is there not a hen-house outside to keep +the fowl in, instead of having them in the kitchen?" +</p> + +<p> +"Och, yis sure, Miss Anstace, but the roof's bin +off it this long start; Tom tuk the rafthers away +for firin' one winther whin the turf was scarce. +An' what wud ail the craythers bein' in the kitchen? +'Tis warm an' snug for them, an' handy for me to +throw them a praty whin I'd be at me dinner." +</p> + +<p> +"But I cannot possibly have hens sitting and +laying in the kitchen," protested Anstace. "I will +ask Mr. Roderick to have the hen-house put to +rights, and then the fowl must go out there." +</p> + +<p> +"Well, plaze yerself, alannah," said Biddy +resignedly, "but 'tis kilt they'll be wid the cowld an' +the lonesomeness." +</p> + +<p> +"And Biddy," went on Anstace, with all the +zeal of a young reformer, not understanding that +it is sometimes well to introduce reforms gradually, +and one at a time, "there is surely no need to have +all this litter piled up here. Why, one can hardly +turn round with the quantity of things collected in +the kitchen." +</p> + +<p> +"Och, darlin' dear, 'tis just for convaniency, that +they'd be there for me to put me hand on whin I'd +be in a throng of a hurry." +</p> + +<p> +"But there are some things here which you could +never want to put your hand on, whether you were +in a hurry or not." +</p> + +<p> +And Anstace, still holding up her dress to keep +it from any possible contact with the grimy floor, +stepped daintily across the kitchen and lifted the +battered remnant of a basket without bottom or +handle out of the rubbish heap. +</p> + +<p> +"Now what use could that ever be to anyone?" +</p> + +<p> +"Trath, yis, Miss Anstace, 'twill be jist iligant +for lightin' the fires some marnin' whin the shticks +is wantin'." +</p> + +<p> +"Well then, Biddy, this won't light fires, and I +don't know what else it could be good for;" and +Anstace's next dive into the accumulated rubbish +produced a rusty, lidless kettle, which she held up +to view. +</p> + +<p> +"Well, maybe no, Miss Anstace," admitted Biddy, +"unless 'twud be for givin' the hens a dhrink out +ov, for 'tis treminjous the crockery thim fowl does +break. 'Twas but yisterday, whin I was runnin' +twinty ways at a time to git the clanin' done an' +all set to rights afore yous 'ud come, that I put +their mate for them in the vegetable dish that was +ould Miss Ansey's, an' I declare to ye, Miss Anstace, +I hadn't it but jist set down out ov me hand than +thim divils had it broke wid their fightin' an' their +carryin' on, an' it more years in the house nor ye +could count." +</p> + +<p> +And with a tragic gesture Biddy pointed to some +broken fragments lying amongst the ashes on the +hearth, the rich colouring and quaint design upon +them proclaiming that they were of rare old china. +Before Anstace could attempt any further remonstrance, +however, or suggest that in future the fowl +should be given their food in less costly feeding-vessels, +there was a shrill cry from Norah, who all +this while had been goading the kittens into frenzy +by trailing her handkerchief slowly before them, +and flicking it suddenly high out of their reach +just as they were in the very act of pouncing +upon it. +</p> + +<p> +"The dog! the dog!" she cried, with a shriek +of laughter. "Look at the dog!" +</p> + +<p> +The one-eyed collie, finding that no one was +paying him any attention, had crept across the +kitchen and in under the table, and was engaged +in licking up the tempting sediment of grease +which remained in the frying-pan in which the +breakfast bacon had been cooked. +</p> + +<p> +"Ye tory! ye thief o' the world!" screamed +Biddy, turning round quickly and hurling the first +missile which came to her hand—a battered tin +candlestick as it chanced—at the offender, with so +true an aim that he fled with a yelp of pain and +terror, his tail between his legs, and was seen no +more. +</p> + +<p> +The speckled hen, startled by the sudden clatter, +flew shrieking across the kitchen, her yellow brood +scuttling after her; the chicken which had been +pluming itself before the fire sought refuge upon +the chimney-piece; the two kittens bounded into +the recesses of the piled-up lumber, whence they +peeped out in much alarm; the old cat alone refused +to allow her sleepy dignity to be discomposed, and +merely opened her other eye for a moment to see +what the disturbance was about. Norah sat back +on the floor and laughed till the tears ran down her +face, and even Anstace, vexed though she was, could +not help joining in her merriment. Judging, however, +that no further remonstrances were likely to +prove of much effect just then, she drew the +reluctant Norah on to her feet and out of the kitchen, +declaring that it was time they should get their +boxes unpacked and the contents put away in their +bedroom upstairs. +</p> + +<p> +Anstace was a good deal disconcerted by the +laughter with which Roderick received her account +of her first visit to Biddy's domain. It was when +they met again at their early dinner that she gave +it to him, and it was chiefly the horror-stricken air +with which she told of the discoveries she had +made, and the condition of things which prevailed +there, which diverted Roderick, but Anstace was +provoked none the less. And when Norah, looking +up from her mutton chop, said: "I suppose all Irish +people keep their kitchens like that, Anstace, and +the best we can do is to get used to Irish ways as +fast as we can, then it will seem quite natural to +us too;" she answered, with a sharpness very +unusual to her: "My dear, you and Roderick can do as +you please, but I must remind you that our mother +was an Englishwoman, and we are as much English +as Irish. For my own part I trust I shall +always remain sufficiently English in my ideas +not to find it natural that hens should lay in +wine-coolers, and dogs lick the frying-pans clean." +</p> + +<p> +And in her own mind the young mistress of +Kilshane determined that her first act after taking +over the reins of government should be to institute +such a cleaning-down and clearing-out of the old +house as it had probably never known since it was +built. +</p> + +<p> +In the afternoon the two girls started to make +further explorations, and went through the long +unused rooms upstairs, where the furniture was +still standing exactly as it had stood in the days +when the elder Anstace O'Brien had dwelt in the +little lonely house upon the cliffs. The family +lawyer had furnished Roderick with a huge bunch +of rusty keys, and Norah and Anstace went about +fitting them to the doors of cupboards and presses. +The locks and hinges that had grown stiff with +years of disuse creaked dismally as they yielded +and disclosed to view long-hidden services of +quaint old china, old-fashioned silver that bore the +O'Brien crest and was worn by the handling of +generations of dead and gone O'Briens, antiquated +jewels in faded velvet-lined cases,—all covered +thickly with dust that had filtered slowly in on +them through cracks and crevices. There were +filmy laces too, and embroideries, and richly-coloured +Indian shawls, all carefully laid away in +the bedroom that had been old Miss Anstace's, and +smelling still of the lavender and sandal-wood that +had been put amongst them to preserve them. It +seemed almost like sacrilege to the two girls to be +going about thus letting in the light of day on +these hoards, the cherished possessions of the poor +old woman whose life had been a living death for +twelve years before she died. +</p> + +<p> +Biddy had invited herself to assist in the +researches, and each fresh store-place that was opened +produced a torrent of exclamations and recollections +from her. +</p> + +<p> +"Troth, I mind them well, ivery fork and ivery +spoon that's in it. Many's the time I've seen all +the quality in the county sittin' down-stairs aitin' +their dinner wid that silver an' off that chaney, an' +Miss Ansey herself sittin' at the top of the table in +her silks an' her lace, as grand as ye plaze, while +me an' the other girls wud be peepin' in at the +door to get a sight of the ladies' fine dresses. 'Twas +always Miss Ansey we called her, for all that she'd +the right to be Miss O'Brien, an' carriage an' +demanour she had enough to fit a duchess. To see +her sweepin' along wid her head in the air an' her +silk gown a yard on the ground behind her! 'I +must keep up my poseetion, Biddy,' says she to me +times an' agin; 'sure any wan as marries an O'Brien +looks to marry into wan o' the first families o' Clare, +nor they'll not be disappinted by me,' says she. An' +all the while her heart was aitin' itself oot wid +sorra an' lonesomeness, an' miny's the hour I've +seen her stannin' where ye're stannin' this minnit, +Miss Anstace, starin' oot over the say as if that 'ud +dhraw the man she was waitin' for back to her. +But he niver come for all her watchin', an' at the +last she tuk to goin' bansheein' about the cliffs, +ballyowrin' and wringin' her hands till we was +feared 'twud be throwin' herself over she'd be." +</p> + +<p> +"Poor Cousin Ansey!" sighed Anstace; "and so +they had to take her away from here and shut her +up where she would be safe?" +</p> + +<p> +"Yis indade, Miss Anstace. 'Twas yer own uncle, +Mr. O'Brien of Moyross beyant, that fetched a +gran' gintleman a' the way from Dublin to see her; +an' between them they tuk an' carried her away, +an' sure that was the last that any of us here iver +seed of her. Thin yer uncle he come down, an' +locked all up, an' give me the charge, an' not a +key's bin turned nor a ha'porth stirred till this +blessed day that yer own hands has done it—an' +who'd have the betther right?" +</p> + +<p> +"And have you and your husband lived here in +Kilshane ever since old Cousin Ansey went mad +and was taken away to Dublin?" asked Norah. +</p> + +<p> +Biddy turned to regard her with amazement. +</p> + +<p> +"Musha, what's come to the child? Husband, +says she! Sorra wan o' me iver was married, Miss +Norah, or iver will be nayther." +</p> + +<p> +"But the man who lifted me off the car and +carried me into the house last night, I thought he +must be your husband. Who was he, then?" +</p> + +<p> +"Och, that's jist Tom, me brither Tom, that was +coachman to Miss Ansey, an' dhruv her in her own +carriage—more be token the carriage is in the +coach-house yit, only the mice—bad scran to thim!—has +th' inside of it ate out an' desthroyed. He's +livin' noo in his own house, that yez passed upon +the road, if there'd been light to ha' seen it, an' +his sivin orphins wid him—herself's been dead this +twal'month past. Sorra tak ye, Lanty! What +d'ye come stalin' into people's hooses, an' frightenin' +the sinses out o' them, an' me spakin' about ye this +very minnit?" +</p> + +<p> +They had descended by this time from the upper +regions to the pantry beside the kitchen, and +Anstace had been opening the presses in the wall and +bringing to view dusty hoards of glasses and +decanters of the fashion of fifty years before. A +slight noise behind them had made them turn to +behold a red-headed, loutish-looking lad standing +in the doorway, a string of fine rock-codling in his +hand. With an awkward bow to the young ladies, +he muttered something about having been at the +fishing with his father, and thinking their honours +might like a few fresh fish; and having deposited +the codling on the flagstone at his feet, he lost no +time in making off, without awaiting Anstace's +thanks. +</p> + +<p> +"Yis, that's Lanty, that's the ouldest of the sivin, +an' not his ekal in the counthry for divvlement an' +mischeeviousness," said Biddy, looking dispassionately +after her nephew's retreating form. "He's +for iver sthreelin' an' sthravagin' aboot i'stead o' +doin' an honest day's work. Theer, if it's not foive +o'clock as I'm a livin' woman, an' the hins, the +craythers, niver fed yit!" +</p> + +<p> +And away Biddy hurried. +</p> + +<p> +Two or three days passed over very busily and +very happily. Anstace was hard at work within +doors and Roderick no less hard at work without, +digging, pruning, clearing away the tangled +overgrowth in the neglected garden, or else walking +about the two or three fields which comprised the +little domain of Kilshane, deep in consultation on +farming matters with Tom Hogan, Biddy's brother, +who, since those bygone days of state when he had +driven Miss Ansey in her own carriage, had acted +as steward, gardener, shepherd, and farm-labourer +all in one to the little property. +</p> + +<p> +They were halcyon days for Norah. No one had +much leisure to attend to her, there were no lessons, +no irksome school-room restraints; she was free to +wander where she pleased, Roderick's prohibition +against going near the cliffs being the only restriction +laid upon her. From time to time she proffered +her valuable services to her elder brother or sister, +but her efforts to assist them in their labours were +somewhat spasmodic, and in general she proved +fully as much a hindrance as a help, so that Roderick +and Anstace were generally glad to dismiss her to +amuse herself as she could. +</p> + +<p> +She had speedily made acquaintance with most +of the dwellers in the cabins near at hand, welcomed +wherever she went with Irish heartiness and +good-will. She was on a specially friendly footing, +however, with the Hogan family, and had soon +come to know all the seven "orphins", from +red-haired Lanty down to Kat, the two-year-old +bare-legged baby, which spent its time for the most part +seated on the door-step scooping water in a broken +cup from the stagnant pool in front of the door. A +very few days had demonstrated the impossibility +of retaining Biddy as servant, indeed she herself +had no wish to remain, declaring "she'd be kilt wid +the clanin'" which Miss Anstace seemed to consider +indispensable. She had departed, therefore, to the +family residence of the Hogans, to keep house for +her brother, carrying her cats, her hens, and her +other belongings with her, and the orphan next in +age to Lanty, a bashful, rosy-cheeked girl of whom +Anstace hoped in time to make a neat little +hand-maiden, had come to Kilshane in her stead. +</p> + +<p> +It was quite wonderful, even by the end of the +first week, how much had been effected towards +making the little house upon the cliffs more +home-like. Open windows and well-polished window-panes, +fresh air and light let in everywhere, had +done much; Anstace's taste and skill even more. +Heavy and dusty hangings had been taken down +and fresh muslin curtains put up in their place, +bright chintz covers fashioned by Anstace's deft +fingers concealed the faded upholstery of the chairs +and couches in the little drawing-room. Some +rare old china jars and bowls which had been +discovered amongst Miss Ansey's belongings had +been brought down from the hiding-places where +they had been stowed away so long, and were +disposed upon the old-fashioned cabinets and +whatnots; and such books and photographs and other +knick-knacks as they had brought from London +were scattered here and there. Norah had borne +her part in the decoration of the drawing-room, for +it was she who had brought in all the spring-tide +spoils—the purple violets and pale primroses, +the delicate wood anemones, the silvery catkins +and branches of larch just breaking into their first +vivid green—which were set everywhere, on the +tables, the chimney-piece, the window-sills, and +gave grace and beauty to the little room. +</p> + +<p> +It was perhaps no wonder that Anstace, lying +back in her chair when Saturday evening came, +said in a voice that was tired but triumphant: +</p> + +<p> +"Well, I do think we may feel proud of our little +home." +</p> + +<p><br><br><br></p> + +<p><a id="chap06"></a></p> + +<h3> +CHAPTER VI +<br><br> +COUSINS +</h3> + +<p> +Another week or two sped by, very happily +and very busily. Most of the neighbouring +families, though they all lived at considerable +distances, had come to visit the O'Briens and to +express their pleasure at seeing them established +at Kilshane. But by those who were nearest to +them both in kinship and propinquity no notice +of their existence had been taken—no sign +had come from Moyross Abbey of any desire for +truce or reconciliation, and it seemed only too +clear that Roderick had been right when he said +that Nicholas O'Brien could not forgive his brother +even in his grave for the wrong that he had done +him. +</p> + +<p> +The old rector of the church which stood on the +cliff's midway between Moyross Abbey and Kilshane—a +weather-beaten, gray building which seemed +as though it had been specially built to withstand +the wild Atlantic winds—Mr. Lynch, and his wife, +had been the first to call, and they remained the +O'Briens' chiefest friends. From them the +new-comers learned that matters were not running +altogether smoothly upon the Moyross property. +New machinery had recently been introduced at +the mine, the great undertaking which Mr. O'Brien +had built up from its first commencement, and of +which he was justly proud, and with the machinery +had came a Scotch manager to assume the control, +which Mr. O'Brien had hitherto kept in his own +hands, but which was beginning to prove too +heavy a burden to him. The new functionary had +loudly expressed his scorn of the easy-going fashion +of working which had prevailed hitherto, and his +intention of introducing an entirely new system. +The ire of the whole country side had been roused, +and reprisals of a sort but too common in Ireland +had followed: the new machinery had been broken, +and a skull and cross-bones painted on the +manager's hall-door. +</p> + +<p> +"If Nicholas O'Brien were the man he was ten +years ago, it would not have happened," Mr. Lynch +said, with a shake of his head. "He understood the +people and how to deal with them, but they've +put his back up now, and he'll uphold M'Bain +through thick and thin. A thoroughly determined +man Nicholas O'Brien always was—there's no +turning him aside when once his mind is made +up—and M'Bain is another of the same sort. +But if they're as tough as steel, the people are +like tinder, and between them I shouldn't wonder +if there was a big flare-up one of these days." +</p> + +<p> +"Oh, Mr. Lynch, do tell us something about the +Wyndhams who live at Moyross Abbey!" called out +Norah, who was perched on the window sill, and +had not understood much of the previous conversation. +"They are a kind of cousins of ours, you know, +and we have never even seen them; it is so funny." +</p> + +<p> +"Cousins of yours? Of course they are," said +the old clergyman briskly. "Their grandmother +was Jess O'Brien, the eldest of the family. She +married and went out to India while your father +was in petticoats. I knew your father before he +was the height of that," holding up his walking-stick +for Norah's inspection, "and I'd have known +you for his child anywhere: you've just got his +eyes and the cock of his nose. As to the +Wyndhams, Harry and Ella, why, they are a nice, +pleasant-mannered pair of young people. I +shouldn't wonder but there might be trouble in +that quarter too. Your uncle has been drawing +the rein too tight with the boy—just the mistake +he made long ago with your father, Roderick. He +thinks no will but his is to prevail, and he has +made up his mind that Master Harry is to +undertake the management of the mine some day; but +I've a notion that that young gentleman has +different views of life for himself. However, he's +been sent off to some Austrian mining works to be +trained for a couple of years, and we'll see what +comes of it." +</p> + +<p> +"It must be very lonely for Ella, poor child, +living in that big house at Moyross with no other +society than old Mr. O'Brien, and that good soul +they call Brownie," said Mrs. Lynch, a very trim +little old lady in the neatest of black silk mantles +and bonnets. "She was the children's governess +years ago, and came home with them from India +after their mother died. She manages the servants +and the housekeeping, and is quite wrapped up in +Ella." +</p> + +<p> +"She's as little like a brownie as anyone I ever +saw," laughed the old rector. "Come along, my +dear, it's time for old folks like us to be getting +home. Miss Anstace, you and your brother and +sister are to dine with us to-morrow after +church—nonsense, we'll take no excuse! We're not new +acquaintances to be paying calls and leaving our +pasteboards on each other. Bless me, we're old +friends! I boxed your father's ears over his Latin +grammar forty years ago!" +</p> + +<p> +And the kindly old pair trotted off together. +</p> + +<p> +Anstace and Norah, and indeed Roderick too, +had a great curiosity to see the relatives of whom +they had heard so much and who were so closely +connected with themselves, but there did not seem +much likelihood of their desire being gratified. In +the church the Moyross family occupied a pew in a +recess of the chancel, where they were invisible to +most of the congregation, and passed in and out by +a side-door, and nowhere else was there much chance +of their meeting. +</p> + +<p> +The trio at Kilshane were at breakfast one morning +when the post brought a letter to Roderick addressed +in Manus's round schoolboy hand. Roderick +opened it, and a look of some vexation gathered +on his face. +</p> + +<p> +"There is nothing wrong with Manus, I hope?" +asked Anstace, pausing in her occupation of pouring +out the tea. +</p> + +<p> +"Not with Manus himself, but it is a most +unfortunate business, and worse for other people than +ourselves. Diphtheria has broken out at the school, +and the doctor has ordered all the boys to be sent +home at once." +</p> + +<p> +Norah let her bread and butter fall, and jumped +to her feet, clapping her hands. +</p> + +<p> +"Then Manus will be coming home, coming here +at once! How splendid!" she cried. "Oh, Roderick, +don't sit with that terrible long face, as if it was a +misfortune." +</p> + +<p> +"It is certainly a misfortune for poor Dr. and +Mrs. Ford, and for the boys who are ill," said +Anstace. "Does Manus say whether any of the cases +are serious?" +</p> + +<p> +"No; the young rascal is so taken up with the +idea of coming over here that he does not seem to +have been able to think of anything else." +</p> + +<p> +Roderick picked up Manus's letter, and read it +through again with a frown. +</p> + +<p> +"Really, Manus's writing is disgraceful, the lines +are all up and down the paper. Surely a boy of +twelve ought to know better than to spell 'diftheria' +with an <i>f</i>, and 'hollidays' with two <i>ll</i>'s. I must try +and find time to give him some teaching while he is +here, for I suppose we shall have him on our hands +for three months at least." +</p> + +<p> +"Oh, but Manus need not begin lessons at once. +I'm sure after all the hard work he's had at school +a little rest will be good for him," said Norah, with +the funny old-fashioned manner she put on at +times. +</p> + +<p> +"I don't think Manus is likely to have worked +hard enough to injure himself," said Roderick +grimly; "it's about the last thing we need be +afraid of." +</p> + +<p> +"It is very unlucky this interruption coming just +after Dr. Ford had written to you that Manus was +beginning to settle down properly to his school +work. However, we can only be thankful that +he has not fallen ill himself," remarked Anstace. +"Does he say what day he will be over?" +</p> + +<p> +"He speaks of starting 'to-morrow', whatever +day that may be," said Roderick, turning over the +leaf. "I suppose as usual he has not dated his +letter, so that we might know what he meant. Yes, +he has though—'Monday!' Why, that's two days +ago. The letter hasn't been posted in time, of course. +Then in that case—" +</p> + +<p> +"He must have started yesterday, and he'll be +here to-day, this very, very day!" cried Norah, +jumping from her seat and skipping round the +table, almost beside herself with joy. +</p> + +<p> +"My dear Norah, do sit down and finish your +breakfast like a reasonable mortal," said Anstace. +"I suppose she is right, Roderick, and Manus will +arrive this evening. Someone must drive into +Ballyfin to meet him. Will you go?" +</p> + +<p> +Roderick shook his head. +</p> + +<p> +"I have to go off with Tom after breakfast to +arrange about letting the grazing of a couple of the +fields for the summer, and there's that article for +the <i>Piccadilly</i> besides, which must be finished +to-night." +</p> + +<p> +Roderick had inherited a considerable share of +his father's talent as a writer, and his contributions +to newspapers and periodicals promised in time to +bring in material aid to the slender resources of the +family. +</p> + +<p> +"I don't think I can go either," said Anstace. +"Mrs. Lynch is bringing Lady Louisa Butler over +to tea this afternoon. She knew Father in old times, +and wants to make our acquaintance." +</p> + +<p> +"But there's not the least necessity for anyone to +go to Ballyfin. I'll tell Connor, who drove us here +the night we came, to meet Manus at the station; +that's all that's needful." +</p> + +<p> +"But I can go. Oh, Roderick, do let me drive in +to meet Manus," cried Norah eagerly. +</p> + +<p> +"Well, I suppose there is no reason why you +should not," said her brother good-naturedly. "You +won't tumble off the outside-car, I suppose?" +</p> + +<p> +"Of course not. How can you be so silly?" +returned Norah, drawing her little self up with much +dignity. +</p> + +<p> +"All right, I didn't mean to offend your ladyship. +I'll tell Connor to be here with his car at three." +</p> + +<p> +And Roderick left the room laughing. +</p> + +<p> +Probably there was no prouder little girl in all +Connaught than Norah that afternoon, as she drove +from the door, sitting up very straight on one side +of the car, her hands folded on the rug which +Roderick had wrapped round her before starting. +She and Connor, who was sole occupant of the +other side, had become quite confidential before the +ten miles' drive was accomplished. Connor had +acquainted her with all his family affairs, and Norah +had promised to pay a visit on the earliest +opportunity, partly to his old mother, but more especially +to the litter of a dozen little pigs which had been +born only a few days before. +</p> + +<p> +Very important Norah felt, too, as she went in +and out of the two or three shops of which Ballyfin +boasted, executing various small commissions +with which Anstace had entrusted her. She had +more than an hour in which to wander about the +little country town, as Connor's horse required rest +and a feed before commencing the homeward journey. +And as Ballyfin did not possess very many +attractions and objects of interest, she found herself +at the station a full half-hour before there was any +possibility of the train's arrival. A porter pointed +it out obligingly to her at last, almost at vanishing +point upon the track that stretched away with +undeviating straightness through the flat bog-land. +Norah watched its gradual approach, a prey to +fears that after all it might not contain Manus, +that he might have arrived late at Euston or been +left behind somewhere on the journey. Her mind +was relieved of this anxiety, however, long before +the train reached the station, by seeing Manus's +close-cropped, bullet head protruding from one of +the windows. Norah ran to the end of the platform +to meet the train, and then had to run back +for her pains, keeping up with the carriage at the +door of which Manus was standing. Almost before +Manus had time to alight she had thrown her arms +round his neck and was kissing him with all the +fervour that was possible, seeing that she had to +stand on tiptoe even to reach the point of his +chin. +</p> + +<p> +"There, hold on, don't squeeze the breath out of +a fellow!" said Manus, striving to disengage himself +from Norah's embraces, and looking round rather +sheepishly to see if anyone was observing their +meeting. +</p> + +<p> +"Oh, Manus, and I haven't seen you for such an +age, not since Christmas!" said Norah reproachfully, +withdrawing her arms, but continuing to devour +her brother with her eyes. +</p> + +<p> +"You needn't make a gazabo of yourself all the +same!" retorted Manus. "Come along, and let's see +after my traps. I suppose you have some sort of +shandrydan outside?" +</p> + +<p> +And Manus sauntered towards the luggage-van +with an easy man-of-the-world air which filled +Norah with admiration, but accorded none too well, +if the truth be told, with his broad, sunburnt face +and squat schoolboy figure. As for Norah, she +danced along by his side, for in her present ecstasy +of delight it was quite impossible for her feet to +pace along at an ordinary walk. +</p> + +<p> +Once, however, that they were seated side by +side on the car and driving over the bog road, +Manus condescended to relax in some degree from +his new-born dignity and to become more like his +former self. He even permitted Norah to hold one +of his hands under cover of the rug, but rebelled +when in an outburst of affection she rubbed her +cheek against his sleeve. +</p> + +<p> +"The driver fellow is looking," he muttered +ungraciously, jerking her off with his shoulder. +</p> + +<p> +Connor, however, who occupied the other side +of the car conjointly with the carpet-bag and large +brown-paper parcel, which contained all Manus's +worldly goods, and were by him somewhat grandly +designated his "traps", kept his eyes stolidly fixed +upon his horse's ears, and seemed to take no heed +of the pair across the well. The drive home was +a very silent one for him, for Norah and Manus +had so much to tell each other that their tongues +never once ceased wagging during the whole of +the drive, and Connor did not seem called upon +to take any part in the conversation. It was after +dark when they drove up to Kilshane, and found +Roderick and Anstace at the door waiting to +welcome the traveller. +</p> + +<p> +"This is a long way jollier than school," +observed Manus half an hour later, when he was +seated at the supper-table with Anstace smiling +at him from behind the tea-urn, and Norah hovering +round, herself unable to eat in her excitement, +and her desire to pile his plate with dainties. +</p> + +<p> +That brief remark brought balm to his little +sister's heart, for Norah had been troubled by +terrible misgivings that the brother who had come +back to her would prove quite different from the +Manus of old. She had feared that after a term +of school-life and of the companionship of other +boys he would look down upon her as being "only +a girl"—an inferiority which Norah fully recognized +and the irremediableness of which she most deeply +deplored—and refuse her the place in his affections +and his confidence which she had hitherto enjoyed. +</p> + +<p> +The next day was wild and boisterous, with +fierce rain squalls sweeping in from the Atlantic +and beating on the window-panes. To venture +on any distant expedition was therefore out of the +question, and Norah had to content herself with +showing off the house and garden to Manus, and +taking him down to gaze over the cliffs into the +wonderful clearness of the green depths below, +where the great forests of sea-weed could be traced +lying like purple shadows far beneath the water. +Upon the following day, however, she proposed +that he should accompany her upon her promised +visit to old Mrs. Connor and the family of infant +pigs, and Manus was graciously pleased to accede +to the suggestion. +</p> + +<p> +The Connors' abode was situated at the end of +a long boreen or lane, very narrow and muddy, with +high furze-topped banks on either side. It had +originally been a tolerably well-built and +comfortable cabin, but was much impaired by dirt and +neglect. The thatched roof was fastened down +by ropes elaborately interlaced, and weighted with +stones to prevent its being swept bodily off in the +wild Atlantic gales, and the approach to the house +was by a causeway with a manure-heap on one +hand and a pool of stagnant filth upon the other. +Mrs. Connor, an old woman in a wondrously-quilled +night-cap, came to the door on hearing steps and +voices outside, and welcomed the children with +great heartiness and good-will. It was quite +unnecessary to express a wish to be taken to see the +interesting family of pigs, since on entering the +kitchen they and their grunting old mother were +found to be in possession of the most comfortable +place in front of the fire. Mrs. Connor, whilst +edging them to one side with her foot to enable +her to set chairs for the visitors, explained that +this was necessitated by the cannibalistic tastes +of the old sow, who had on one or two previous +occasions demolished some of her offspring soon +after their birth. +</p> + +<p> +"It takes Thady an' me, turn an' turn, day an' +night, to kape an eye on her, the ould villin; but +glory be to goodness the craythers is growin' that +fast they'll put it beyant her to ait them soon." +</p> + +<p> +Then, whilst Norali eyed the unnatural parent +with horror, Mrs. Connor proceeded to hang a +griddle—a round iron plate—above the turf fire, +and to arrange upon it a goodly supply of potato +scones, in the kneading of which she had been +engaged when interrupted by the children's arrival. +</p> + +<p> +"Thady—that's the boy that dhruv ye, Miss +Norah—'ull be fit to break his heart he wasn't +here, but he's away to the bog to cut turf since +cockshout, an' I was gettin' his tay ready agin +he'd come home. Yez'll take bite an' sup now afore +yez go." +</p> + +<p> +Looking at the table on which the cakes had +been prepared, and the smoky interior of the cabin, +Norah had some qualms about accepting the +proffered hospitality. She hardly saw her way to +refusing it with politeness, however, and Manus +manifestly was not troubled by any inconvenient +fastidiousness, for he was sniffing the fragrant +smell of the potato bread, as the old woman moved +it to and fro and turned it in the griddle, with +evident satisfaction. Norah thanked Mrs. Connor, +therefore, with the best grace that she could, and +having once overcome her scruples, was fain to +admit that she had never tasted anything more +delicious than potato scones buttered hot from the +fire, and accompanied by draughts of new milk, +the seasoning imparted by a previous walk in +the sea-breezes not being omitted. It was with +promises of paying another visit before long to see +the progress of the little pink porkers that Manus +and Norah took their leave at last. +</p> + +<p> +They had reached the confines of Kilshane, and +were discussing whether to go round in orderly +fashion by the gate, or to attempt a short cut by +scrambling through the hedge, when they heard +the sound of horse hoofs coming full gallop down +the road. +</p> + +<p> +"Whoever that is, they're going a stunning pace," +observed Manus. +</p> + +<p> +The next instant a black pony, stretched out like +a greyhound, came tearing round a bend in the +road. The girl who rode it was sitting back in the +saddle, pulling with all her might on the reins. +Her hat was gone, and her fair hair had become +loose and was flying in a cloud about her. As she +flashed past them, Manus and Norah had an instant's +glimpse of a white, set face and eyes wide with +terror. Even to their inexperience the peril of the +situation was manifest. A few hundred yards +farther on, the road ran steeply downhill, turning +sharply at the foot of the descent over a bridge +which spanned a little stream. Going at its present +pace, it would be little short of miraculous if the +pony took that turn in safety. +</p> + +<p> +"That girl will be killed, she will indeed!" +gasped Norah, clutching her brother by the arm. +"Oh, Manus, can't something be done?" +</p> + +<p> +"Nothing whatever," said Manus, from whose +ruddy face the colour had faded. "Cart ropes +wouldn't stop that pony." Then in a tone of +sudden relief: "Oh look, Norah, there's Roderick; +he's rushing across the field! Oh, I say, I do hope +he'll be in time." +</p> + +<p> +Norah said nothing, she only tightened her hold +on Manus's arm, and in silence both children strained +their eyes on their brother as he raced at top speed +towards the road. Would he reach it before the +pony in its frantic gallop had passed him by? +Another minute would bring it to the brow of the +hill. There was a second or two of sickening +suspense, then they saw Roderick vault over the gate +of the field and almost in the same instant catch +the pony by the bridle. He let himself be dragged +along by it for a few paces, then with a sudden +jerk brought it up short in its career. The terrified +animal made an attempt to rear, but Roderick's +hand was at its nostrils, squeezing them with an +iron grip, and feeling itself mastered it dropped +on its forefeet and stood still, panting and +quivering all over. +</p> + +<p> +"She's saved! Hooray! hooray, three cheers! +Well done, Roderick!" cried Manus, beginning to +run, and Norah ran too, keeping up with him as +well as she could. +</p> + +<p> +When they came up, the stranger was sitting in +her saddle, deadly pale and trembling from head to +foot. It was evidently only by a great effort that +she succeeded in keeping back her tears. Roderick, +somewhat out of breath, and hardly less pale, stood +at the pony's head. +</p> + +<p> +"You saved my life, I think," the girl said +tremulously, as soon as she had regained sufficient +self-control to speak; "I should have thrown myself +off in another minute if you had not caught Sheila, +I knew it was my only chance. I am very, very +grateful to you." +</p> + +<p> +"There is nothing to be grateful about," Roderick +returned lightly. "It was most fortunate I was +near enough to reach the road in time; anyone +who had been where I was would have done just +the same." +</p> + +<p> +"You saved me all the same," the girl repeated; +"and poor little Sheila, too, she must have been killed. +Even if I had escaped, she never would have got +over the bridge safely." And she leant forward to +pat the pony's mane. +</p> + +<p> +"The little brute hardly deserves so much +commiseration after running away with you," said +Roderick. +</p> + +<p> +"Oh, but it was not Sheila's fault," the girl cried +eagerly, "it was mine quite as much as hers. She +has not been out of the stable for two or three +days, and that made her fresh and fidgety; she is +generally as quiet as a mouse. I was riding +carelessly, not keeping a look-out as I ought to have +done. A wheel-barrow which someone had left +upside down on the road frightened her and made +her shy, and before I knew what I was about she +had got her head and was tearing down the road." +</p> + +<p> +She stopped short with a shiver she could not +repress. +</p> + +<p> +"Don't think any more about it," Roderick said +cheerily. "Our house is close by, and you must let +me lead the pony there and give you into my +sister's charge till you have recovered from the +shock you have had." +</p> + +<p> +"Oh, thank you, I must go home. Brownie—Miss +Browne, I mean—would be so frightened if I +did not come back at the right time; she is always +nervous when I am out by myself, and she would +be sure something dreadful had happened to me," +and the stranger laid her hands on the reins as if +she wished to take them into her own keeping +again. +</p> + +<p> +Roderick, however, held them fast. +</p> + +<p> +"Something dreadful very nearly did happen," he +said gravely, "and you are quite too much shaken +to attempt riding anywhere at present. I can send +a message to Miss Browne to assure her of your +safety, and meanwhile you must rest at Kilshane." +</p> + +<p> +"But—but," and the girl's eyes grew big with +alarm, "you must be Mr. Roderick O'Brien." +</p> + +<p> +This time Roderick could not forbear laughing. +</p> + +<p> +"So I am, but I am not a very formidable personage +notwithstanding." +</p> + +<p> +"Oh, indeed, it is not that," and confusion and +distress brought the colour back into her cheeks, +"but I ought to tell you who I am; my name is +Wyndham—Ella Wyndham—and I live at Moyross +Abbey." +</p> + +<p> +"In that case, Miss Wyndham," said Roderick +courteously, but making no attempt to claim +relationship, "the best arrangement will be to have a +carriage sent for you from Moyross Abbey. You are +really not fit to ride back, and I hope you will not +mind waiting at our house till it comes. Manus, +run up the road and see if you can find Miss +Wyndham's hat." +</p> + +<p> +Perhaps Ella was too shy to make any further +resistance, perhaps in her secret soul she was not +sorry that fate had willed that she should make +acquaintance under their own roof with the +kinsfolk from whom she had hitherto been kept apart. +At any rate she offered no opposition when Roderick +turned the pony's head towards Kilshane. He +kept a careful hand on the bridle all the way to +the house, though Mistress Sheila, who had had +the fire taken out of herself very effectively by her +wild race, walked along very soberly and evinced +no inclination for any further pranks. With a +thoughtfulness which Ella fully appreciated, he left +her to herself to recover her composure in some +degree, and chatted gaily with Norah as they +walked along, questioning that small personage +about her ramble and her visit to old Mrs. Connor. +</p> + +<p> +Anstace was nailing up a rose-tree on the porch +when the party arrived, but she took prompt +possession of Ella, and conveyed her upstairs to the +quiet of her own room, where she made her lie +down upon the bed. Ella submitted very docilely; +she was very young and evidently still accustomed +to be looked upon and treated as a child. When, +however, Anstace, having seen her comfortably +settled, was about to leave the room, she stretched +out imploring hands to detain her. +</p> + +<p> +"Do stay with me," she pleaded, "and don't call +me Miss Wyndham, it sounds so cold and distant. +We are cousins, you know, though we have never +seen each other before, and why should we not be +friends, you and I?" +</p> + +<p> +"Why not indeed?" said Anstace pleasantly; +"that is, if you will do as you are told, and not talk +or excite yourself, otherwise I shall have to be +angry and scold you, as I do Norah." +</p> + +<p> +"I don't think I should mind being scolded by +you," returned Ella, looking up into Anstace's face. +"Norah is your little sister, I suppose, and you are +Anstace. I heard your brother call you so +downstairs. It is such a pretty, quaint name, and it +suits you so well. No, I will not talk any more if +you will sit where I can see you." +</p> + +<p> +And with a sigh of contentment Ella lay back +amongst her pillows. +</p> + +<p> +Roderick meanwhile had written a hasty note to +Miss Browne at Moyross Abbey to tell her what +had occurred. Pride forbade his thrusting himself +in any way upon the notice of the uncle, who +hitherto had not deigned to take any notice of his +existence. A messenger to convey the note to +Moyross Abbey was found in the person of Lanty +Hogan, Biddy's red-headed nephew, who, since +Manus's arrival at Kilshane, was generally to be +found hanging about the back door or the +out-offices. +</p> + +<p> +Lanty had already fired Manus's imagination full +by the accounts he gave of the breeding-places of +the sea-birds upon the coast, well-nigh inaccessible +spots all of them, where the gannets, the gulls, and +the kittiwakes in thousands laid their eggs on +narrow ledges high above the boiling surf—fastnesses +which could only be scaled by the most +experienced and most daring climbers. +</p> + +<p> +Manus saw himself in fancy returning to school +the possessor of a collection of birds' eggs which +should make him the envy of every other boy +there. Lanty threw out other hints, too, that were +no less alluring, about the enormous trout which +peopled a trout stream a couple of miles away, real +"breedhauns" in Lanty's speech, who seemed +acquainted with the exact haunts of each of these +monsters of the finny tribe and with the fly +that would infallibly land him in the angler's +basket. +</p> + +<p> +"He knows a good deal more about it than he +has any business to do, I'll be bound, the poaching +young rascal!" was Roderick's comment when some +of these wondrous tales were repeated to him by +Manus; but that did not cause Manus to take any +less delight in Lanty's society. +</p> + +<p> +Half an hour's rest had so far composed Ella's +nerves that she would not allow Anstace to bring +tea up to her as she proposed, but insisted on +accompanying her down to the little drawing-room, +where she was received with general acclamation. +Roderick pulled the most luxurious chair which the +room boasted of forward beside the tea-table for +her, and Norah, who was always ready to strike up +friendships upon the briefest acquaintance, established +herself upon a footstool at her side, with her +small black head on a level with the arm of Ella's +chair and her eyes fixed admiringly upon her. +Manus had returned triumphant from his search +after Ella's hat, which he had found reposing in +a pool by the roadside. +</p> + +<p> +As he and Norah had already had their afternoon +repast at Mrs. Connor's, and as not even Manus's +powers, though prodigious in that direction, were +equal to commencing a second meal after so short +an interval, they were able to contribute even more +than their usual share to the conversation, and +their tongues ran on so persistently that Anstace +asked Ella, laughing, if she had ever heard so +much nonsense talked before, and Roderick +proposed to banish them both summarily from the +room. +</p> + +<p> +"Oh, don't stop them, please don't!" Ella said +earnestly, laying her arm round Norah's shoulders. +"I like to listen to them. I wish I had a little +sister like Norah to live with me at home. It's so +quiet and so silent at Moyross since Harry—that's +my brother—went away. Uncle Nicholas lives +almost entirely in his own rooms, and there +are only Brownie and I to sit together in the +evenings." +</p> + +<p> +She stopped short and flushed painfully, afraid +that she had betrayed more than she had intended +of her home life to these strangers. In truth, she +had been contrasting the cosy, home-like air of the +little drawing-room, shabby and faded though its +furniture might be, with the chill stateliness of the +great rooms at Moyross Abbey, where tables and +chairs and ornaments were set out with the +formality and precision which Miss Browne deemed +correct. +</p> + +<p> +Before another word could be said, the crunching +of wheels was heard outside, and an open carriage, +with a gray-haired lady as its solitary occupant, +drew up at the door. +</p> + +<p> +"That is Brownie; she has come for me herself. +Oh, I do hope she has not been frightened about +me!" exclaimed Ella, starting up anxiously. +</p> + +<p> +Miss Browne on her part had alighted almost +before the carriage had drawn up. She entered +the house without any of the ordinary formalities +of knocking or ringing, and came straight into the +drawing-room. She was a tall, thin woman with +a slight stoop, and light blue, near-sighted eyes +which compelled her to wear glasses. She would +have been a ludicrous figure had it not been for her +manifest anxiety and distress, for her bonnet was +put on backwards, and in her haste she had caught +up a table-cover to put about her in place of a +shawl. +</p> + +<p> +"Oh, Ella, my darling child, then you are not +so very badly hurt after all!" she exclaimed, seizing +her by both hands and peering nervously into her +face. "I was so afraid I had not been told the +worst, and that you were seriously injured—or +even killed." +</p> + +<p> +"Brownie, dear, why will you always worry +yourself for nothing?" Ella returned, smiling. "I +am not the very least bit hurt, and you have not +spoken to Miss O'Brien yet, and to Mr. O'Brien, +who caught Sheila and stopped her." +</p> + +<p> +"You must never ride her again, never. I should +not have an easy moment if I knew you were +on her back," declared poor Miss Browne vehemently. +</p> + +<p> +She drew a long breath of relief notwithstanding, +and her eye wandered round the room, taking in +the paraphernalia of the tea-table, and the family +group which her unceremonious entry had disturbed. +</p> + +<p> +"Dear me! I think I did allow myself to be +alarmed needlessly. I am always so nervous where +dear Ella is concerned. How do you do, Miss +O'Brien; we have not met before. How do you do, +Mr. O'Brien. I am most obliged to you for your +services to Ella." +</p> + +<p> +It was all said very jerkily and awkwardly, for +as poor Miss Browne's fears and anxieties subsided, +she became painfully aware of the eccentricities +of her attire, and of the open-eyed amazement +with which Norah was regarding her, while Manus +had only too evident difficulty in suppressing +his laughter. Ella, too, looked annoyed, and made +one or two furtive but vain attempts to pull the +unlucky bonnet right. Miss Browne prided herself +on her neatness and her habits of order, and to +have appeared in such guise before strangers was +therefore to her unspeakably mortifying. +</p> + +<p> +"No, thank you, we cannot stay," in answer to +Anstace's invitation to sit down and partake of tea. +"We must not keep the horses standing, and Ella's +uncle is coming from Dublin by the evening train, +and will expect to find us at home. If you have +finished your tea, dear, we had better start at once. +I must thank you once again, Mr. O'Brien, for the +assistance you rendered Ella this afternoon." +</p> + +<p> +"It is quite unnecessary, I assure you," Roderick +said rather loftily, as he escorted Miss Browne to +the carriage. "I am very glad to have been of +service to Miss Wyndham; my being at the spot +was a mere accident." +</p> + +<p> +Ella had lingered in the drawing-room to say +good-bye to Anstace and Norah. +</p> + +<p> +"Thank you so much for all your kindness to +me," she said, holding out both her hands to Anstace. +"It was so nice to be here with you all." +</p> + +<p> +"Then I hope you will come and pay us another +visit before very long," said Anstace cordially, as +she kissed her. "We shall always be very glad to +see you." +</p> + +<p> +"Oh yes, you must come back very soon!" chimed +in Norah, holding up her face in turn to be kissed; +"and when you do, I will show you the bantam +cock and hen which Mrs. Lynch gave me, and the +cliffs, and the garden—oh, and lots of things +besides!" +</p> + +<p> +"I should like dearly to come and see you again," +said Ella, but as she spoke she looked round the +little room into which the westering sun was +streaming, and wondered if she would be allowed +to enter it again. +</p> + +<p> +"Ella, my dear, make haste, I am waiting for +you," came from the carriage, in which Miss Browne +was already seated, and with a brief nod of farewell +the girl hurried out. +</p> + +<p><br><br><br></p> + +<p><a id="chap07"></a></p> + +<h3> +CHAPTER VII +<br><br> +MOYROSS ABBEY +</h3> + +<p> +Miss Browne's feelings, as she drove +homewards with Ella, were of a somewhat mixed +nature. Roderick in his note had made as light +of Ella's adventure, and of his own share in it, +as possible; he had not the least wish to glorify +himself, or to endeavour to pose as a hero in his +uncle's eyes. None the less, had he been anyone +else, Miss Browne would have been ready to fall at +his feet in her gratitude to him for having rescued +Ella from any position of peril. She had made up +her mind from the first, however, that the O'Briens +of Kilshane were an artful, designing family, who +had come over to the little lonely house upon the +cliffs specially to work their way into their uncle's +good graces, and to oust Ella and her brother from +the place which they held in his affections. Miss +Browne, ordinarily the most simple-minded and +unsuspicious of mortals, was almost inclined to imagine +that it must have been by some crafty and deeply-laid +plot that Ella's pony had been made to run +away just at the gate of Kilshane, thereby forcing +on an acquaintanceship between the two families. +</p> + +<p> +Poor Miss Browne had been left an orphan +without near relations, and had therefore become +a governess at a very early age. She had taken +charge of many children, and had been tossed to +and fro in many directions before fate drifted her +out to India to Mrs. Wyndham's bungalow at Dinapore +upon the Ganges. For the first time in her +lonely and unconsidered life she found herself +treated with real kindliness and thought, for it was +gentle Mrs. Wyndham's way to endeavour to make +everyone dependent on her happy. Miss Browne +repaid her employer's good-will by lavishing all her +starved affections on her, and on the two fair-haired +children who were in her charge. Before she had +been two years with Mrs. Wyndham, the dread +scourge cholera smote the cantonment. Captain +Wyndham was amongst the first of its victims, +and a few days later his young wife was stricken +too. Miss Browne nursed her with unbounded and +fearless devotion, and Mrs. Wyndham's last whisper +to her was: +</p> + +<p> +"You love the children, Brownie, and there is no +one else. Promise me to stay with them always—promise." +</p> + +<p> +Miss Browne had promised, and had kept her +promise faithfully; indeed it might be doubted if +their own mother could have devoted herself to the +two children, gentle dreamy Ella and her handsome +high-spirited brother, more unselfishly than she had +done. She had come home with the two little +orphans from India, and for their sakes she had +dwelt for the past dozen years in what was to her +a wilderness, shut in between the wild mountains +and the wilder sea. For the grandeur of the scenery +she had no appreciation, a trimly-kept suburban +road would have been a far more pleasing prospect +to her than the wide stretch of rugged coast that +Moyross House looked out upon; and the Irish +peasantry, with their guttural language, and their +disregard of dirt and disorder, repelled her almost more +than the dusky natives of India had done. +</p> + +<p> +If Miss Browne had ever had any hopes or aspirations +for herself, they were dead long ago. All her +aims and ambitious projects were for the charges +whom their dying mother had left to her care. +From her first coming to Moyross Abbey she had +made up her mind that Harry was to be his grand-uncle's +heir, and succeed to the old heritage of the +O'Briens. She was certain that Piers O'Brien had +been a very worthless and undeserving person, and +that his family were no better than himself. Indeed +Miss Browne entertained but a poor opinion of Irish +people in general, the only flattering exception she +made being in favour of old Mr. O'Brien himself, +and the commendation that she was wont to pass +upon him to Ella was: +</p> + +<p> +"Indeed, my dear, no one would ever imagine +that your uncle was an Irishman." +</p> + +<p> +During the past few months poor Miss Browne +had been painfully aware that the fair castle in the +air which she had built up was only too likely to +fall in ruin. There had been serious differences +between Harry Wyndham and his uncle, since the +former had left school and come to live permanently +at Moyross Abbey. The boy was hot-headed and +wilful, and not inclined for either the steady work +or the implicit obedience which Mr. O'Brien +expected from him. As an outcome he had been +despatched to Austria for a couple of years' training +in practical mining. +</p> + +<p> +"He's likely to come to his senses there," Mr. O'Brien +had remarked grimly. +</p> + +<p> +And now whilst Harry was absent, banished, and +more or less in disgrace, here were these formidable +rivals of the old name established close by, and +eagerly on the watch, no doubt, to seize every +advantage for themselves. Quite unconsciously to +herself, Miss Browne's prejudice against the +new-comers had been aggravated just a little by +the mortifying recollection of the laughable figure +she had cut in the drawing-room at Kilshane. +Nature certainly had never intended her for a +conspirator, but just as a timid moorhen will ruffle +up her feathers and peck fiercely at the enemy who +menaces her brood, so, for what she conceived to be +the interests of her charges, poor Miss Browne was +ready to plot and scheme, and accordingly, as the +carriage turned in at the entrance gates of Moyross +Abbey and bowled up the smoothly gravelled drive, +she said impressively to Ella, "My dear, I would +say as little as possible to your uncle of what took +place this afternoon. Of course you were not to +blame in any way; still, I am afraid he will not be +pleased to hear that you have made the acquaintance +of a family with whom he evidently wishes to +have nothing to do." +</p> + +<p> +"But that is such a pity," said Ella, looking at +her with wide, innocent eyes, "and if he could +only see them, and how nice they all are, I am sure +he would wish to be friends. Their father was his +own brother, and they are the only relations he has +of his own name—Oh, Brownie, wouldn't it be +delightful if we could persuade Uncle Nicholas to +make up that dreadful old feud, you and I?" +</p> + +<p> +Miss Browne gave an embarrassed cough; this was +hardly according to her mind. +</p> + +<p> +"One must be careful not to let one's self be +influenced too much by outward appearances, dear," she +said in judicial tones; "I am sure the young O'Briens +were very pleasant and polite to you this afternoon, +they would be anxious to make as good an impression +as possible. Their father was not Mr. O'Brien's +own brother, you must always remember, but only +his step-brother, which is quite a different thing, +and we all know how shamefully he behaved, after +your good, kind uncle had educated him, and done +everything for him. Indeed, he was a very +extravagant, good-for-nothing person, from all I have +ever heard; he wrote for magazines and newspapers +and things of that sort." Miss Browne brought this +forward as if it were an undoubted proof of an +idle, ill-regulated life. "I should doubt if his +children were much better than he," she went on; +"they have no sooner inherited that little property +of Kilshane than that young Mr. O'Brien throws up +whatever employment he had in London, and comes +over here, no doubt to set up as an Irish country +gentleman, and lead the same sort of spendthrift, +wasteful life that too many of his ancestors did." +</p> + +<p> +"I am very glad he was on the road to-day, and +not in London, or Sheila and I would have fared +very badly," Ella answered, rather more sharply +than was usual to her, and in her heart she thought +that whatever the sins and follies of bygone +generations of O'Briens might have been, Roderick +and Anstace did not look as if they were likely to +embark on any wild career of debt and dissipation. +</p> + +<p> +The carriage swept round the last bend of the +avenue and came in view of the house, a square +erection, solidly built of gray stone. On one side, +and separated only from the house by a stretch of +smoothly shaven greensward, rose the old abbey +from which Moyross had its name, with its broken +arches and cloisters—grand even in its desolation. +Behind it lay an old, old graveyard, with great +beech-trees stretching their long branches out over +moss-green tombstones. And at the back, where the +path wound down through the little glen to the +shore below, an opening in the trees allowed the +blue plain of the sea to be seen, tracked with +glistening streaks and wavy tide-marks. +</p> + +<p> +The butler, who came down the steps to open +the carriage door for the ladies, informed them +that Mr. O'Brien had arrived from Dublin half +an hour previously, and had asked for Miss Ella. +</p> + +<p> +"I will go to him at once then, before I change +my dress," Ella said, gathering up her riding habit. +"I am not very untidy, am I, Brownie?" +</p> + +<p> +"No, my love, you look very nice, as you always +do," said Miss Browne, gazing at her with fond +admiration. "But as I said before, be cautious, +Ella, and don't make too much of the little +occurrence this afternoon, or you may vex your +uncle." +</p> + +<p> +The poor lady would have liked to be more +explicit, but she shrank from instilling any of her +worldly motives, unselfish though they might be, +into Ella's pure mind. As for the girl herself, no +thought of the future, with its possibilities of gain +or loss, had ever entered her head, and as she went +swiftly towards the wing of the house in which +Mr. O'Brien's rooms were situated, she could only +marvel at Brownie's strange manner that day. +Why! one of her most frequent complaints had been +of the utter absence in the neighbourhood of +Moyross of any suitable companionship for Ella, and +Ella herself had often longed for a friend of her +own age. Could she have a more winning one than +Anstace O'Brien, with her sweet face and gentle +manner; her own kinswoman too? Then there was +her brother Roderick, who had saved her own life +that day, and those two merry children—how +delightful if they might all be on the easy, intimate +footing which their relationship warranted, and +why should these young O'Briens be held accountable +for their father's sins and misdoings? Ella could +only shake her head in perplexity, as she opened +the door of her uncle's study. +</p> + +<p> +Mr. O'Brien was sitting at his writing-table, +opening the letters that had come for him during +his three days' absence from home. He was a +handsome, high-bred looking old man, with keen dark +eyes, a hooked nose, and a firm, thin-lipped mouth. +His hair and his eyebrows were both snowy-white, +and his figure, that had been tall and erect, was +somewhat stooped. He looked tired and dejected, +too, as though the letters he was reading were not +altogether pleasant, but he roused himself with +eager anxiety as Ella came in. +</p> + +<p> +"My dear child, I am very glad to see you; they +told me something about an accident, but you seem +none the worse." +</p> + +<p> +"No more I am, Uncle Nicholas," Ella answered +brightly. "I was a little frightened and shaken at +the time, that was all. Sheila ran away with me +near the top of the long hill beyond Kilshane gate." +</p> + +<p> +Mr. O'Brien started; his superior knowledge +made him understand the peril of the situation +much more thoroughly than Miss Browne had +done. +</p> + +<p> +"And a nastier place for a runaway there is not +in the whole county. It was a most providential +escape. What stopped the pony?" +</p> + +<p> +"Young Mr. O'Brien—Roderick O'Brien—was in +the field close by, and he jumped out over the gate +and caught Sheila by the head." +</p> + +<p> +Mr. O'Brien did not speak for a moment or two. +</p> + +<p> +"He seems to have displayed great promptitude," +he said then, slowly. "The consequences might +have been very serious if he had not been there. +Well, what happened afterwards?" +</p> + +<p> +"He made me go back with him to Kilshane, +while he sent over here for the carriage, and I had +tea there with them all." +</p> + +<p> +Another pause, but Ella noticed how Mr. O'Brien's +fingers were closing and unclosing on the +paper-knife that lay before him. +</p> + +<p> +"Yes, I heard they had come over," he said at +length, speaking more to himself than to Ella. "They +were not long in taking possession of poor Ansey's +little place. And whom does the 'all' consist of?" +</p> + +<p> +"Not very many," Ella said, trying to speak +lightly, though she felt somewhat nervous, and +Mr. O'Brien still continued to toy with the +paper-knife without looking up at her as she stood +beside him. "There is one grown-up sister and +a boy and a little girl, besides Roderick O'Brien +himself. They were all very nice and kind to me, +but I liked Anstace, the elder sister, best. She is +quite unlike the others, one would not take her for +their sister at all; they are all dark, and the little +girl has such merry blue eyes, full of fun and +mischief. Miss O'Brien has very fair hair and +gray eyes; she is not pretty exactly, but she has +such a sweet face, and it lights up wonderfully +when she talks and smiles." +</p> + +<p> +She stopped abruptly as her eyes rested on a +little water-colour sketch that hung over +Mr. O'Brien's writing-table, the head of a young girl +with fair hair, very smoothly banded down on +either side of her face. It had often moved Ella's +childish curiosity in former days, and Mr. O'Brien +had always put her off with some evasive answer +when she questioned him about it, but now she +gave an eager exclamation. +</p> + +<p> +"Why, Uncle Nicholas, that might be Anstace +O'Brien herself, it is so like her! I knew her face +reminded me of something, but I could not +remember what it was. Is that a likeness of the +old Miss O'Brien who died the other day, who left +Kilshane to them?" +</p> + +<p> +"No, Ella," Mr. O'Brien said quietly, as he turned +back to his letters again. "That is not the portrait +of any O'Brien." +</p> + +<p> +Ella had no need to ask any more, she knew +that the little picture was the face of the one +woman whom Nicholas O'Brien had ever loved, +and whom—though she had been nearly ten years +in her grave—he had neither forgotten nor +forgiven. She had intended to make a timid request +that she might be allowed to keep up the +acquaintanceship with her cousins which she had +begun that day, but her courage failed her, as +her uncle went on imperturbably reading and +arranging his correspondence, and after a few +moments' hesitation she stole away. +</p> + +<p><br><br><br></p> + +<p><a id="chap08"></a></p> + +<h3> +CHAPTER VIII +<br><br> +BALLINTAGGART CAVE +</h3> + +<p> +Some weeks passed over uneventfully. May was +almost ended, and June was coming in with +its cloudless skies and long, clear twilights. Poor +Norah, during those days, had many secret pangs +of grief and jealousy as she watched the growing +friendship between Manus and Lanty Hogan. In +London she and Manus had been the closest +companions, sharing all each other's possessions and +amusements, but now Norah was reluctantly +driven to perceive that her company no longer +sufficed to content Manus, and that she could not +hope to compete against Lanty's greater attractions. +There were few mornings indeed on which Lanty's +shock head did not make its appearance at the +back door soon after breakfast, and then it would +be: +</p> + +<p> +"Sure now, 'tis a grand marnin' for the fishin', +Masther Manus, afther the rain, an' there'll be a +great rise on the trout intirely. 'Deed now, I +wudn't wondher but we'd be gettin' the full o' +the basket." +</p> + +<p> +Or else: +</p> + +<p> +"Glory be to goodness, Masther Manus, there's a +schull o' mackarel in the bay, the say's shtiff wid +'em, it's jostlin' one another out o' the wather they +is, an' whin we've had our divarsion wid thim theer +boys, we might have a thry for a few cormorants' +eggs, if yer honour had a mind for't. The say's +that calm, the coracle wud float us in amongst the +rocks as aisy as if 'twas a duck settin' on a horse-pond." +</p> + +<p> +Norah shed a few tears in secret sometimes when +she had watched her brother and his ally go off on +one of these expeditions, whilst she was left behind +to find what amusement she could for herself. She +took herself severely to task, like a loyal little soul +as she was, for grudging Manus any pleasure merely +because she could have no part in it; and when +Manus came home at night, bringing back his +trophies and brimming over with accounts of his +own and Lanty's adventures, Norah was nearly as +proud and delighted as he was himself. Yet that +did not hinder her from experiencing the same +feelings of loneliness and desertion the next time +Manus and Lanty went off fishing or sailing together. +</p> + +<p> +Anstace had her doubts as to whether Lanty's +constant companionship was likely to be of benefit +to Manus. She spoke to Roderick on the subject, +but he laughed her fears away. +</p> + +<p> +"You don't expect to keep a boy of Manus's age +about the house like a tame cat, do you? Nonsense, +let him go about with that red-headed young scamp +as much as he likes, and learn to row and fish and +climb the rocks. I only wish I'd had the same +chance when I was his age, I'd be twice the man +that I am now." +</p> + +<p> +A glance of loving admiration from Anstace said +plainly that in her estimation Roderick was already +perfect, and could not possibly have been improved +upon. Roderick was her special brother, as Manus +was Norah's. Concerning Lanty, however, she +remained of the same opinion as before, though she +attempted no further remonstrance. +</p> + +<p> +One bright, sunny afternoon Lanty appeared +at the kitchen door with an air of unusual +mystery. +</p> + +<p> +"Whisht, Masther Manus," he said, "there's bin +spring tides this couple o' days past, an' the say's +that smooth as ye'd not see't twiced in the twal' +month, no, nor maybe wanst. If you an' me was +to be havin' that little adventure wid the sales in +Ballintaggart Cave, that we've talked of, 'twud be +the day for't an' no mistake." +</p> + +<p> +Manus hesitated. "I told Mr. Roderick about it, +Lanty, and he said he'd come with us, whatever day +we went, with his gun and try a shot. He didn't +think it would be safe for you and me to tackle +the seals by ourselves, with nothing but clubs." +</p> + +<p> +"'Tis himself that knows, that niver was next +nor nigh a sale before," Lanty muttered under his +breath. Aloud he said, "An' wudn't his honour +come wid us this day, it's no finer one we'll be +gettin'?" +</p> + +<p> +"He and Miss Anstace have driven into Ballyfin, +you see, and they won't be home till evening." +</p> + +<p> +"Faix thin, that's the chanst for us," said Lanty, +with a knowing look. "We'll take the gun an' be +off wid ourselves, unbeknownst. His honour can't +say as we wasn't well armed, anyways, an' if we +get killin' of a sale, I'll be bound it's not displazed +he'll be, but quite contrary." +</p> + +<p> +Manus still hesitated; he had some qualms as to +whether he ought to venture on the enterprise in +Roderick's absence, and without his leave. But a +visit to Ballintaggart Cave, famed as the resort of +seals, had been one of the most alluring schemes +which Lanty had held out to him. Manus knew +that the cave could only be visited on rare +occasions—at extreme low tide, and only then when +the state of the weather permitted—so that few +even of the fishermen upon the coast had ever +entered it, and a chance once lost might not recur +again. +</p> + +<p> +"All right, I'll come," he said briefly, and Lanty +intimated his satisfaction by a nod. +</p> + +<p> +"We'll have no need to be burnin' daylight over +the job," he said. "Wanst the tide turns 'twill be +hurry out an' no mistake. If ye'll be at +Portkerin in half an hour, Masther Manus, wid the +gun, I'll meet ye there wid the oars an' all else +we'll be needin'." +</p> + +<p> +Neither Lanty nor Manus had any idea that there +had been a listener to their colloquy. The dairy +window was close to where they stood, screened +and overshadowed by a clump of tall shrubs that +grew outside it, and Norah had been standing just +within. She had had no intention of playing +eavesdropper, but it had never occurred to her +that Manus and Lanty could have anything to say +to each other which it was not open to all the rest +of the family to listen to. When they separated, +however, and she heard Lanty's footsteps dying +away outside, whilst Manus ran whistling into the +house and upstairs, a sudden wild desire took +possession of her. She too had heard of the +wondrous, seal-tenanted cave. Why should not +she be one of the party about to visit it? If she +were to beg Manus to take her with him she would +only meet with a contemptuous refusal, she knew +that well enough; but if she were down upon +the shore when they were starting, perhaps she +might prevail upon them to let her go too. Deep +down in Norah's heart, perhaps, besides her desire +to see the cave, there was the thought that, if she +were to prove herself a competent comrade upon +the present occasion, Manus might not disdain her +company occasionally in the future on his fishing +and boating excursions. Poor Norah's aspirations +were very humble; all she desired was to accompany +Manus, much as a faithful dog accompanies +his master, to watch him whilst he fished, or sit in +the boat which he rowed, and she hoped to be able +to convince him that the mere fact of being a girl +did not of necessity disqualify her from such lowly +participation in his pursuits. +</p> + +<p> +She knew that Lanty kept his boat at Portkerin, +a little cove about half a mile away, and having +made her escape out of the house unseen, Norah +raced thither at flying speed. A break-neck track, +hardly to be called a path, trodden only by the feet +of the fisherfolk, led down from the cliffs to the strip +of sandy beach below, on which two or three coracles +were lying, keel upwards, well above high-water +mark. +</p> + +<p> +When Manus and Lanty came down the track +together half an hour later—Manus walking first, +and feeling himself of no small consequence with +Roderick's gun over his shoulder and a well-filled +cartridge-pouch slung round him—their astonishment +was great at finding Norah in the cove before +them, a solitary little figure sitting on a block of +gray stone, where the sand and the bent—the +coarse sea-grass—met. +</p> + +<p> +"Hullo, Norah, whatever are you doing here, +sitting by yourself like a thingummy in the +wilderness?" was Manus's greeting. +</p> + +<p> +Norah sprang to her feet, breathlessly eager. +</p> + +<p> +"I want to go to Ballintaggart Cave with you," +she cried. "I heard you and Lanty settling to go, +Manus; I was behind you in the dairy, and I ran +all the way to be here before you. Do let me come!" +</p> + +<p> +"Rubbish!" said Manus loftily. "Do you suppose +you're fit to go after seals? A fine funk you'd +be in when it came to going into the cave, and +you'd scream if the gun were fired." +</p> + +<p> +"I should not," Norah retorted indignantly. "I +was standing close to Roderick when he shot a +magpie the other day, and I didn't scream; I didn't +even put my fingers in my ears, and I don't mind +going into dark places either." +</p> + +<p> +"An' why shouldn't she come if she's minded +for't, the darlin' young leddy?" broke in Lanty. +"Afeard? Troth, not she, an' her an O'Brien born! +Yis, come along, Miss Norah, an' I'll take care of +ye, niver fear." +</p> + +<p> +Norah repaid his championship of her cause by a +look of the most rapturous gratitude. Lanty hoisted +the coracle on to his back, and started off towards +the sea with it, looking to the two children, as +they followed him, very much like a gigantic black +beetle reared upon its hind-legs. Norah essayed to +make herself useful by bringing the oars, which +Lanty had been obliged to lay down, along with +her, but as she carried them awkwardly, crosswise +in her arms, not sailor-fashion over her shoulder, +she provoked some uncomplimentary remarks about +the "butter-fingeredness" of girls from Manus, who +stalked airily along, only carrying the gun. Manus, +to say the truth, was in a somewhat ungracious +mood, for it seemed to him that this visit to the +seals' cave would not appear at all as tremendous +a feat to have achieved if it became known that +his younger sister had accompanied him. However, +by the time the coracle was launched, and +they were floating out upon the deep, green water, +his ill-humour had evaporated, and he was laughing +and chatting gaily with Lanty. +</p> + +<p> +There were only seats for the two rowers in the +frail little craft. Norah had to sit down flat in +the stern, with her feet straight out in front of +her, and her head not far above the gunwale. At +first she could not help feeling some internal tremors +as the coracle skimmed the sea, its very buoyancy, +as it topped the waves and slid down into the +hollows between them, giving it a peculiar dancing +motion which was painfully suggestive of instability. +It was somewhat alarming, too, to look at +the tarred canvas stretched over the rude wooden +framework, and to reflect that it was all that +separated her from the deep sea all round, and that +the smallest injury, a pin-prick even, would bring +the salt water gurgling in. However, after a few +minutes, finding that the coracle, bob as it might +upon the waves, showed no inclination to upset, +Norah's fears subsided, and she even began to +enjoy the lapping of the wavelets so close beside +her, and to gaze up in awe at the black cliffs that +towered above their heads, and which looked so +much loftier from below than when they were +viewed from the top. +</p> + +<p> +They hed three miles to row to the cave of +Ballintaggart, and it took them the best part of +an hour to accomplish it. They passed Moyross +Abbey on the way, with its little glen wooded to +the water's edge, and the house standing high on +the cliff above. A little farther on Lanty pointed +out to Norah the ironwork pier which Mr. O'Brien +had constructed years before for the shipping of +the ore from his mine. It jutted out into the sea, +protected from the great Atlantic rollers by a long +wall of rock, which seemed as though it had been +specially designed by nature for a breakwater. A +zigzag track had been cut out of the face of the cliff, +and the trollies ran down it to discharge their loads +into the holds of the ships lying at the pier below. +</p> + +<p> +No ship was in waiting there now, and an ugly +scowl came upon Lanty's face as he looked over +at the scarped rocks and the slender framework +of the pier. +</p> + +<p> +"The curse o' the crows on M'Bain, an' the +notions he's puttin' in th' ould masther's head," +he muttered. "'Tis a cliver pair they thinks +themselves, but maybe the boys might larn them that +they was cliverer yet." +</p> + +<p> +Norah remembered that she had overheard +Roderick speaking very gravely to Anstace a few +days ago about the disagreement between Mr. O'Brien +and the miners, concerning the innovations +introduced by the new manager. "I fear there +will be bad work before all is over," he had said. +No questioning on her part or Manus's could elicit +anything more from Lanty, however. +</p> + +<p> +"'Twasn't manin' anythin' in partic'lar he was, +but just a manner o' spakin'!" he declared, and +relapsed into a dogged silence. +</p> + +<p> +Ballintaggart Cave, which they reached at +length, was situated at the end of a narrow inlet, +a fissure in the cliffs, guarded by a ridge of rocks +which showed above the water like a row of jagged +teeth, and round which the sea swirled and foamed. +It required extreme care to guide the coracle +through the narrow passage, for a touch from the +rocks on either hand would have ripped the canvas +open as with a knife. Once within the reef, however, +they floated in calm water in a tiny natural +harbour. Before them was a low, dark opening—the +entrance to the cave—which was generally +covered by the sea, preventing any access to the +interior. Now, however, the sea had receded +sufficiently to leave bare not only the mouth of the +cave, but also a narrow strip of firm, white sand, +which sloped to the water's edge. +</p> + +<p> +Lanty leaped overboard, and dragged the coracle +up this little strand by main force, lifting Norah +out carefully afterwards. He stooped and +examined the sand, and pointed with much exultation +to tracks that led upwards into the darkness of +the cave. +</p> + +<p> +"Thim theer boys is at home, sure enough," he +whispered. "'Twill be a poor thing an' we don't +give an account o' wan or two o' thim. The tide's +flowin' too," he went on, looking critically at the +margin of the sand. "We'll need to hurry +ourselves an' we wudn't be wantin' to swim out." +</p> + +<p> +The preparations for the adventure were speedily +made. Lanty produced a torch made of pieces of +split bog-wood tied together and saturated with +inflammable oil, and a few chips besides, similarly +soaked, which he stuck in his hat, and signed to +Manus to stick into his. Then, still in silence, he +placed two cartridges in the breech of Manus's gun +and handed it back to him. +</p> + +<p> +"Kape close to me, an' don't fire till I give the +word," he whispered. "Miss Norah, will ye shtop +out here an' wait for us while we go in?" +</p> + +<p> +But no, Norah was determined to prove her +courage and go through with the adventure to the +bitter end. Perhaps, if the truth had been told, +she was not very willing to be left alone on that +narrow strip of sand between the deep sea and +the lofty cliffs that towered sheer above her. She +preferred to face even the darkness of the cave, +and the possibility of a rush of angry seals, so +that she had at least living companionship. None +the less, however, her heart beat thick and fast +as she followed Lanty and Manus up to the low +archway which gave access to the seals' retreat. +</p> + +<p> +Lanty went first, the blazing torch in his left +hand, a short bludgeon, loaded at the end with +lead, in his right. There was a yard or two of +slimy passage and then the cave opened out into +an underground chamber of considerable extent, +floored with the same white sand that composed +the strand outside. Lanty stooped and examined +it closely with his torch. The tracks were still +visible, leading upwards into the innermost recesses +of the cave. Without speaking a word he pushed +Norah back till she stood in a sort of recess just +within the arch by which they had entered, and +lighting one of the bog-wood chips that adorned +his own hat, he stuck it in hers. +</p> + +<p> +"Stand ye theer, Miss Norah, an' don't stir a +ha'porth," lie whispered, with his mouth close to +her ear. "'Tis the doore they'll make for, an' ye're +safe out o' their road. Masther Manus an' me +we'll folly on." +</p> + +<p> +Norah stood still as she was bidden, and watched +the light of Lanty's torch growing gradually more +and more distant till it showed only like a +twinkling star far up within the cavern. A moment +later it was gone altogether, and Norah was left +alone, the strange candle in her hat throwing a +feeble radiance on the yellow sea-weed that clothed +the rock beside her, and on the sand at her feet. +She could have screamed aloud, merely for the +relief of hearing her own voice in the silence that +surrounded her, but the fear of incurring Manus's +contempt kept her from uttering a sound, and she +stood motionless, clutching the long tangles of +sea-weed in her hands as if even their cold and +clammy touch gave a certain sense of comfort +and support. +</p> + +<p> +Lanty and Manus meanwhile were making their +way slowly and with much difficulty up into the +interior of the cave. The firm, white sand with +which it was floored at its mouth soon gave place +to rocky debris and great boulders, over which +they had to clamber, as best they could, by the +uncertain light of the torch. As they proceeded, +the cave gradually narrowed till it formed a mere +passage a hundred yards or more in length, and so +low that they had to bend nearly double to avoid +striking their heads against the roof. It was +necessary to advance with extreme caution here, +since they might at any moment encounter a charge +of infuriated seals, for seals, though in general +most peaceful and inoffensive animals, yet become +savage if they are brought to bay. +</p> + +<p> +The passage opened out, as Lanty, who had +visited the cave once before, knew, into a circular +rocky chamber known as the "Seals' Parlour", and +here at last they found their quarry. A large male +seal, but fortunately for them only one, the rest of +the herd having made their way out again before +their visit, was lying at his ease upon a slab of +rock. He gazed for a moment with a calm, sage air +of wonderment at his unexpected and unwelcome +visitors, then with a heavy flop he slipped from his +couch and made, with an awkward, shuffling gait, +for the passage they had just come by, the only way +of escape to the sea. +</p> + +<p> +"Fire, Masther Manus, fire!" shouted Lanty, and +Manus, bringing his gun up to his shoulder and +aiming as well as his excitement would permit, +pulled the trigger. There was a flash, a deafening +bang and cloud of smoke, and before the noise had +died away the seal charged straight for Manus, +between whose legs it sought to pass. Manus was +swept off his feet by the rush, and fell right before +the seal, which gripped him fiercely by the arm as +he lay. +</p> + +<p> +So close were boy and animal together that it +was impossible to strike at one without risk of +injuring the other. Lanty, all the same, seeing the +extremity of Manus's danger, whirled his club round +his head and brought it down with such terrific +force that the seal rolled, over, dead, with its skull +shattered like an egg-shell. Manus scrambled to +his feet again, hugely frightened but unhurt; the +seal happily had only caught the sleeve of his +jacket, but the long rent which its tusks had +made showed plainly what the result would have +been if they had closed upon the flesh of his arm. +</p> + +<p> +"Glory be to goodness, Masther Manus, but that +might ha' been the mischief's own job!" panted +Lanty, breathless between terror and the exertion +that he had just made; "but sure what matther, so +that the ould ruffin hasn't ye desthroyed." +</p> + +<p> +"Oh, I'm all right!" said Manus proudly, +beginning to feel himself something of a hero as he +looked at his fallen foe. "All the same I should +have been in Queer Street only for you, Lanty. +And now, however are we going to get the brute +along?" +</p> + +<p> +This, indeed, seemed a task not very easy to +accomplish, for the seal was nearly as heavy as a +well-grown sheep, and considerably longer, whilst +its slippery, glossy hide made it extremely difficult +to catch hold of. Lanty, however, giving the torch +to Manus, went vigorously to work to convey it +back over the rough road by which they had come, +alternately dragging and shoving the heavy carcass +over the rocks which impeded their course. +</p> + +<p> +To Norah, meanwhile, the leaden moments had +seemed like hours as they crawled along, and she +waited vainly to hear the sound of voices or catch +a glimmer of the returning torch. All sorts of +horrible fancies began to crowd into her brain. +What if Manus and Lanty had encountered a whole +host of furious seals or even more ferocious +sea-monsters—for who could tell what terrible shapes +and creatures might dwell far up in the inmost +recesses of the cave? They might be lying wounded +or dying somewhere far underground, where no +one had ever penetrated before, or perhaps they +had lost their way in those subterranean windings +and passages, and were vainly trying to retrace +their steps. What if she were to be left there +whilst the tide came slowly creeping up over the +strip of sand outside, and closed the arch by which +they had entered, prisoning her and the others +within! +</p> + +<p> +With trembling hands Norah groped upwards. +The rock was covered with sea-weed far above her +head, as far as she could reach. To that height, +then, the tide must rise when it was at its fullest, +and Norah, in her terror at making this discovery, +would have screamed aloud, forgetful of Manus's +disdain, for already she pictured herself shut in in +the dark cave and drowning inch by inch as the +water rose slowly around her. +</p> + +<p> +An iron grip, however, seemed to be upon her +throat, compressing it and preventing her from +uttering a sound. It was an unreasoning panic +after all, begotten of the darkness and the solitude, +since the way of escape was at any rate still open, +and Lanty's coracle floated safely in the little basin +outside, and it was ended in another minute by +a sharp ringing sound, the shot fired by Manus +in the Seals' Parlour, which pealed and +reverberated from rock to rock till the cavern seemed +alive with echoes. +</p> + +<p> +A pause followed, during which Norah held her +breath to listen, and then there came a shout, very +faint and far away indeed, but none the less cheering +and reassuring, especially as it was followed by +another and another, for Manus, now that the +necessity for silence and caution was at an end, +was endeavouring, by a series of joyous halloos, to +apprise her of their whereabouts and the victory +which they had achieved. Manus and Lanty were +alive then, they were coming back to her, and +Norah all at once became ashamed of her foolish +fears of a minute or two before, and realized that +after all she could not have been left so very long +by herself. +</p> + +<p> +She had to wait a considerable time longer, however, +before the first gleam of the torch reappeared +in view; but when it did, rather than bear the +suspense any longer, she started off to meet her brother +and his companion, stumbling as best she could in +the darkness over the fallen rocks and boulders, +and guided by the lights which were growing larger +and more distinct every moment. +</p> + +<p> +"Hullo, so there you are!" cried Manus jubilantly. +"We've got something to show you that'll make you +open your eyes. Look here, what do you think of +that?" +</p> + +<p> +And he held the torch aloft to let its light fall +on the dead seal with its long tusks and dark velvety +hide. +</p> + +<p> +Norah instinctively shrank from contact with +the slimy carcass, which emitted a strong and by +no means agreeable odour, and contented herself +with gazing at it with awe and admiration from +a respectful distance. +</p> + +<p> +"Did you shoot it?" she enquired of her brother. +</p> + +<p> +"Well, no," Manus admitted. "I fired at him, +but I'm not sure that I hit him. I didn't kill him +at any rate, for he made for me and knocked me +over. I'd have been done for if Lanty hadn't come +down on him with his club. There, that's +something like a whack!" +</p> + +<p> +And Manus pointed to the seal's battered skull. +</p> + +<p> +"Oh, Manus, he might have killed you!" said +Norah, horror-stricken. +</p> + +<p> +"Well, he might, but you see he didn't; he only +tore my coat," Manus returned philosophically, +displaying the jagged rent which the seal's tusks had +made. +</p> + +<p> +In his secret soul he felt himself no small hero +at bearing off such traces of the conflict, and was +already figuring to himself with much pride how +high this adventure would raise him in the estimation +of the other boys on his return to school. +Bodkin Major, who came from Galway, and hunted +in the Christmas holidays, had hitherto been +regarded as the Nimrod of the school, and a fox's +brush, which had been presented to him for keeping +up with special gallantry during one most notable +run, had been the envy and admiration of all his +school-fellows. But Manus felt, with much inward +elation, that beside the slaughter of the seal deep +in the bowels of the rocks, even Bodkin Major's +fox-hunting exploits would fade into nothingness. +</p> + +<p> +The wavelets were lapping almost up to the +mouth of the cave when they emerged from under +the low arch, winking and blinking as their eyes +once more encountered the full light of day. +Manus, who had been torch-bearer on the return +journey, tossed the bog-wood torch, which had +burnt down almost to the handgrip, hissing into +the sea, whilst Lanty, not without considerable +difficulty, hoisted the seal into the coracle. +</p> + +<p> +"Bedad, Miss Norah," said the latter, when they +had taken their seats in the canvas-covered bark +once more, and he was shoving off with his oar, +"ye've bate the whoule world out. Sure ye're the +first leddy that iver wint sale-huntin' in +Ballintaggart Cave, an' 'tis like ye'll be the last." +</p> + +<p><br><br><br></p> + +<p><a id="chap09"></a></p> + +<h3> +CHAPTER IX +<br><br> +THE GHOST IN THE MONK'S WALK +</h3> + +<p> +The row home proved to be a long and toilsome +one. The dead seal in the bottom of the +coracle added no little to its weight, and the wind, +which had freshened considerably whilst they were +in the cave, was full in their teeth. Added to this, +both Lanty and Manus were tired after their +exertions, and Norah, who tried taking an oar once or +twice to relieve her brother, did not prove a very +efficient aid, as indeed could hardly be expected of +her, seeing that it was the first time that she had +handled that implement of navigation. Their +progress accordingly was but slow, and the sun had +sunk into the sea, leaving a wondrous rose-red glow +behind it, before they rounded Drinane Head, the +great black promontory which forms one of the +extremities of the bay within which both Moyross +and Kilshane lay. Norah was beginning to speculate +rather uncomfortably as to whether Roderick +and Anstace were likely to have got back from +Ballyfin yet, and what they would think of Manus's +and her own prolonged absence, when a sudden hail +came across the water from the shadows that were +beginning to gather under the cliffs, and the next +moment a large boat, pulled by four rowers, shot +out of the gloom and lay-to beside them. +</p> + +<p> +A most animated and voluble colloquy took place +between Lanty and its crew, but as it was carried +on wholly in Irish it was, of course, quite unintelligible +to the children. However, it was plain from +the manner in which Lanty pointed to the dead +seal and gesticulated, that he was giving them a +graphic account of the slaughter in the cave, and +the men, catching hold of the gunwale of the +coracle, peered over at the slain sea-monster and +evinced their astonishment and admiration by +uncouth and guttural exclamations. The steersman, +a wild-looking, red-bearded man, doffed his battered +head-gear to Norah and Manus, saying in English: +</p> + +<p> +"'Tis meself an' ivery mother's son here is proud +an' glad to see yer honours this day. No need to +be tellin' that ye come of the ould fightin' O'Briens, +for 'tis their sperrit that's in yez both, young +masther an' little darlin' miss. An' I say," and +here he raised his voice and waved his hat, "God's +blessin' on Moyross Abbey, an' on the blue sky +over it, an' on thim that should be in it an' will +be there yit some day, plaze God." +</p> + +<p> +After this, however, the conversation relapsed +into Irish, and now it was the men in the other +boat who were becoming vociferous, and were +apparently, as far as Norah and Manus could gather +from their gestures, urging something upon Lanty +which he, with a glance towards the children, +seemed to raise objection to. Further vehement +utterances on the part of the strangers followed +and became more rapid and excited as Lanty still +seemed to hold back; hands were pointed towards +the cave below Moyross Abbey and then back +towards the great headland that reared its +heather-covered summit behind them. +</p> + +<p> +"<i>Thau</i>," Lanty called out at last, in evident +consent, for "<i>thau</i>", as Norah and Manus had both +already learnt, signifies "Yes" in Irish, and the +strangers, satisfied as it would appear, dipped their +oars once more and speedily disappeared from sight. +</p> + +<p> +The glow had almost faded away by this time, +only a few gold and purple cloudlets still caught +the light of the sun and marked where it had gone +down. Norah shivered, everything seemed to have +become chilly and gray all of a sudden. +</p> + +<p> +"Sure 'twon't be long now till we have ye +ashore, Miss Norah," Lanty said encouragingly. +"I was thinkin', Masther Manus," he went on, +turning his head to address Manus, who was pulling +the bow oar, "that 'tis hard set we'd be to pull to +Portkerin an' the wind blowin' us back ivery +shtroke. If we was to put in at Moyross, it's just +there close forenenst, two good miles nearer, we +cud run the coracle in handy, an' you an' Miss +Norah wud be home in no time at all." +</p> + +<p> +Neither Manus nor Norah relished this suggestion. +They were both sure that Roderick would be +very seriously annoyed if he heard that they had +come home through the Moyross demesne, seeing +that their uncle had not so far condescended to take +the least notice of their existence, and the path +from the shore, as they had heard, led past the +abbey ruins and in front of the house. +</p> + +<p> +"And what matther for that?" returned Lanty. +"Hasn't ivery sowl that plazed gone up an' down +the Monk's Walk since there was monks in it, aye, +an' before too; an' who'd have the betther right to +set foot in Moyross nor yerself an' Miss Norah?" +</p> + +<p> +Manus attempted some further remonstrance, but +in vain. It was evident that Lanty was determined +to effect a landing in the little cove below +Moyross Abbey and nowhere else. +</p> + +<p> +"'Tisn't like that Miss Ella or ould Browne"—so +he disrespectfully termed the controller of the +Moyross household—"wud be trapezin' about in +the black night, an' if the masther's never set his +eyes on you nor on Miss Norah sure he wudn't +know ye if he was to meet ye itself." +</p> + +<p> +And in a few minutes more the sand was grating +beneath the keel of the coracle as it ran in upon +the beach. +</p> + +<p> +Lanty jumped overboard and hauled the coracle +up out of the water, lifting Norah out, and then +dislodging the seal by the summary method of +turning the boat over and shooting the slain +monster out upon the strand. Within the cove all +was shadow, but behind them the water still +reflected the clear light of the sky, and the little +waves, as they broke at their feet, were bright with +a strange phosphoric radiance. +</p> + +<p> +With Manus's aid Lanty dragged the body of +the seal up above high-water mark, wedging it in +securely among some stones. He said a few words +low and energetically to Manus, and before Norah +well understood what he was about, he had hurried +down to the water's edge again. Launching his +tiny craft once more he pushed off, and pulled +vigorously in the direction from which they had +just come, his track marked by phosphoric flashes +each time the oars were dipped in the sea. +</p> + +<p> +"Manus, he surely hasn't gone and left us here +alone!" exclaimed Norah, as she looked with alarm +at the dark wood which came down almost to the +shore, and up through which they had to make +their way. +</p> + +<p> +"Well, and what does it matter if he has? He +says the path is as plain as a pikestaff, we can't +possibly mistake it, and when we get up above +we'll come out upon the avenue." +</p> + +<p> +"It's so dark in there," faltered Norah, as she +reluctantly followed Manus towards the shade of +the overhanging trees, "and you know, Manus, +they say—at least Bride does" (Bride was Lanty's +sister, the little handmaiden who had been imported +into Kilshane to take Biddy's place)—"that the +Black Monk goes up and down here sometimes at +night. He was a wicked monk who lived long ago, +and he did such dreadful things that he can't stay +in his grave near the old abbey—people have seen +him, they have really, Manus." +</p> + +<p> +"And you believed all that stuff?" Manus returned +derisively. "Well, I've got my gun and a cartridge +in it, and if any Mr. Ghosts come bothering, they'll +get the worst of it, I can tell them." +</p> + +<p> +Perhaps, in spite of his bold words Manus did +feel a slight nervous tremor as he and Norah +plunged into the thick darkness under the trees, +and began slowly to mount the narrow path that +wound up through the little glen. Manus went first, +his gun over his shoulder, stumbling up the uneven +track as best he could, and Norah followed as close +to him as the steepness of the path would allow. +Upwards and upwards they went, Manus sometimes +feeling his way with his hand up the rocky steps +of which Roderick had spoken, or else edging +carefully, foot by foot, along the rough path. +</p> + +<p> +"I say, Norah, there hasn't been much to be +afraid of after all," observed Manus in his loud, +cheerful voice. "Your friend, the Black Monk, +doesn't seem to be on the prowl to-night, perhaps—" +</p> + +<p> +The words died upon his lips, for at that moment +they turned the corner of the last zigzag and came +in sight of the abbey ruins, their outline clearly +discernible against the pale sky. Before them on +the path, one arm uplifted threateningly, as if to +warn them back, stood a tall white figure, taller, as +it seemed to Norah and Manus, than any living man +could be. They both came to a dead halt, and stood +as though they had been rooted to the ground, +staring with dilated eyes at the motionless form which +barred their way. Norah's heart was sending the +blood up in suffocating thuds into her throat, she +caught Manus's jacket, and clung to it with the +grasp of despair. +</p> + +<p> +Manus's courage did not forsake him altogether; +perhaps the knowledge that there was no retreat, +and that the path behind them only led down to +the sea-shore, helped to brace his nerves. +</p> + +<p> +"Look here!" he called out in accents which +sounded strange and eerie in the darkness; "if you +think that we don't know that you're someone +dressed up, trying to frighten us, you're very much +mistaken. I've my gun with me, and it's loaded, +and if you don't clear out of that double-quick, I'll +shoot you." +</p> + +<p> +Manus's voice quavered a little towards the end, +as if, for all his bold words, his teeth had had a +certain inclination to chatter in his head. +</p> + +<p> +No answer was returned, only in the silence a +little breeze crept sobbing through the tree-tops, +and the figure seemed to lower its arm for an +instant and then to raise it again more +threateningly than before. +</p> + +<p> +Manus had his gun presented by this time, his +cheek against the stock, and his finger on the +trigger. +</p> + +<p> +"I give you fair warning, if you're not out of +that before I count three, I'll fire. Now then: One, +two—" +</p> + +<p> +Manus never could be quite sure in his own mind +afterwards whether he had really intended to carry +out his threat, or whether it had been that his hand +had trembled so, as he faced that white menacing +form, that he had jerked the trigger involuntarily. +Be that as it may, even as he said "Three!" there +was a crash and flare of light. Norah and Manus +both held their breath, for if what Manus had said +was true, and it was some practical joker who had +waylaid them, it was impossible at such close +quarters for Manus to have missed his aim. +</p> + +<p> +There was no cry, no sound, however, and as the +smoke cleared away, the white figure stood before +them for a moment, erect as ever, then seemed to +lean forward as though about to rush upon them, +and the children waited to see no more, but turned +and fled headlong down the path which they had +climbed with such difficulty. +</p> + +<p> +How they got to the bottom they never knew, +they scrambled and plunged down-wards, regardless +of their footing and unheeding how they bumped +and bruised themselves against stones and against +the trunks of the trees. They came to a halt at +last in a little clearing a hundred yards or so above +the shore, and there they stood, panting and +breathless, partly with the haste they had made and +partly with terror, as helpless and disconsolate a +pair as could have been found in the length and +breadth of the land. Manus had abandoned all +attempt at keeping up a show of bravery; he had +his arm round Norah, and Norah had hers round +him, and they clung to each other so close that they +could feel the beating of each other's hearts, and +each other's breath hot upon their cheeks. That +warm, close contact seemed to give them some little +sense of comfort and protection, but in truth their +position was a most pitiable one. Behind them +there was only the strip of lonely beach and the +sea, and they must either wait where they were all +the night through, till daylight came, or mount the +path again and face that dread white shape once +more; and even whilst they stood clinging to each +other, they were straining their eyes into the darkness, +terrified lest they should see it loom out as it +moved downwards in pursuit of them. +</p> + +<p> +Manus's shot, however, had not been without +effect. It had evidently been heard at the house, +for voices now became audible—eager, excited +voices, all speaking at once—and a light could be +seen moving up above amongst the trees. Manus's +spirits began to revive a little. +</p> + +<p> +"Come, Norah, come along," he whispered, though +his tongue was so dry that he could only form the +words with difficulty. "There are people up there +now, and they—those sort of things, you know,—don't +appear except when one's alone. And if we +did see anything we could call out. Come on, +quick! and let us get up through the wood before +whoever's up there goes away and leaves us alone +again." +</p> + +<p> +Norah was willing enough, and holding each +other's hands tight they climbed up the steep path +once more, not uttering a word, and treading softly, +as though they feared to disturb the ghostly +apparition which might be lurking somewhere still +amongst the trees. +</p> + +<p> +The windings of the track had brought them +immediately below the spot where the tall, spectral +form had barred their path, and where the search-party +with their lantern were now gathered. They +could hear a shrill voice scolding angrily above their +heads, and mingled with it the sound of crying. +Instinctively they stopped short to listen. +</p> + +<p> +"Don't tell me any such nonsense, you idle, good +for-nothing girl!" And though Manus and Norah +had only heard Miss Browne's voice once before, on +the occasion of her brief visit to Kilshane, neither +of them had any difficulty in recognizing the high, +thin tones as hers. "How would anyone have +known that the table-cloth was hanging up here if +you had not been in league with the vile, cowardly +wretches? One of the very best table-cloths, too; +you took good care of that!" +</p> + +<p> +"Och thin, ma'am, the saints in heaven knows +'twas niver a thought of harm was in me mind;" +broke in another voice, its utterance interrupted by +frequent sobs. "Run off of me feet I was this blessed +day to git the washin' done, an' that cloth, the wan +thing I kep' back to give it an exthry rinsin', seein' +'twas stained wid wine an' all sorts. An' I jist run +down a weeny minnit to the shore to see was me +feyther's boat in, an' him away to the fishin' before +cockshout, an' I thrown that cloth up on the three +as I wint by, the way 'twud dhry, an' be handy to +fetch in the marnin'. Och wirra, wirra, to think +'tis clane desthroyed, an' it the beautifullest +table-cloth iver was!" +</p> + +<p> +And the voice broke down in hopeless weeping. +</p> + +<p> +"And how often have I given orders that the +washing is not to be hung out anywhere except +upon the bleach-green that's intended for it?" Miss +Browne's voice was shrill with indignation. +"It is all of a piece with those hateful, slatternly +Irish ways that nothing will cure any of you of. +Of course you would rather hang the clothes up +here on the trees, you would spread them on the +rosebushes in the garden, or on the door-steps if +you only could, rather than take them where there +are clothes-lines and everything you require +provided for you!—Not so far away? Don't tell me +any such nonsense! I don't find that you're so +anxious to save your time in general." +</p> + +<p> +Stealthily and cautiously, whilst this dialogue +was proceeding, the children crept on up the path, +and by moving in amongst the trees and treading +with the utmost care, lest by chance the snapping +of a dry twig under their feet should betray their +whereabouts, they were able to gain a view of the +group gathered on the pathway, whilst they +themselves were completely shrouded in the darkness. +</p> + +<p> +Foremost, tall and erect, stood the English +coachman with a stable-lamp in his hand, which he +flashed about, here and there, letting the light fall +on the stems of the trees on either hand, and making +the spaces between them appear all the blacker by +contrast. He did not seem to relish his position +particularly, thinking, no doubt, that the light shed +on the party from his lantern made them an easy +mark for any miscreant who might still be lurking +in the wood; and a knot of frightened maids, who +were huddled together higher up on the path, their +white caps and aprons just making them visible in +the gloom, seemed to be of his opinion and to be +afraid of venturing further. Miss Browne's anger +and vexation were too great to let her give a thought +to possible danger, and with one corner of the table-cloth +in her hand, and the rest of it lying in folds +at her feet, she was scolding the luckless laundry-maid, +who stood before her holding her apron to +her eyes. Ella was standing beside Miss Browne, +and she interposed now, but in so low a tone that +Manus and Norah could not hear what she said. +</p> + +<p> +"Nonsense, my dear, you would find an excuse +for anyone, no matter what they did," Miss Browne +returned sharply. "I tell you, it was a plot, a vile +plot, got up to annoy me, no doubt, because I am +English and because I have persuaded Mr. O'Brien +only to have English servants in the house. +Perhaps it was intended as a hint that if I did not +take care I might be served in the same fashion as +the table-cloth." +</p> + +<p> +With a dramatic gesture Miss Browne spread +the luckless piece of damask out in full view, and +as the light of the stable-lamp fell on it, Manus and +Norah could see, even from the distance at which +they stood, sundry large circular holes where the +charge of Manus's gun had pierced, not the impalpable +form of a ghost, but the warp and woof of one +of their uncle's table-cloths! +</p> + +<p> +"But if they imagine that they will frighten me +by any such proceeding they are greatly mistaken," +Miss Browne went on, raising her voice with the +evident intention of being heard by anyone who +might be still within earshot. "I shall stand my +ground, and continue to do as I think right, without +paying the least attention to miserable creatures +who prowl about in the dark to shoot holes in +table-cloths." +</p> + +<p> +"Then, begging pardon, ma'am," interposed the +coachman, whose uneasiness had clearly not +decreased during Miss Browne's last words, and who +was peering apprehensively at the trunks and +branches of the trees as the yellow glare of the +lamp fell on them, "if standing your ground means +setting ourselves up as figgerheads, for parties as is +sitting behind bushes with guns to fire at, I says, +the sooner we're out of this the better. I don't +yield to no man with a hoss, let him kick his worst, +likewise rear or buck, but when it comes to these +Irish ways of taking shots from no one knows +where, then I ain't got no mind for it." +</p> + +<p> +And with a last twirl of his lantern he set off +determinedly up the path towards the house, leaving +nothing for Miss Browne and Ella and the maids +but to follow him. +</p> + +<p> +Manus and Norah were left behind in the darkness +of the wood. In honour, no doubt, they ought +to have come forward and acknowledged that they +were the culprits who, by mistake, had damaged +the Moyross table-linen. Shyness, however, and +a sense of the humiliation which it would be to +confess before the whole of the Moyross household +that they had mistaken a harmless table-cloth, +hanging upon a tree to dry, for a ghost, and had fired +at it, held them back, and so they waited till the +steps and voices had died away, and the last gleam +of the lantern had disappeared. Then only did +they venture on, silently and cautiously. All their +fears of supernatural appearances had melted +away, and the ruined arches of the old abbey +bore quite a friendly aspect as they skirted past +them, keeping as far from the house and its lawns +and gravel-walks as possible. They struck the +avenue some distance farther down, and walked +rapidly along it, in momentary dread of being called +upon to stand and answer who they were and what +had brought them there. Nothing of the sort +occurred, however. They passed unchallenged out +of the gates, and drew a long breath of relief when +they found themselves on the public road once +more. +</p> + +<p> +Then only did they venture to speak to each +other of their recent adventure, and they could not +but admit that they had cut somewhat ignominious +figures in the frantic terror with which they had +fled from that weird, white object which had loomed +up on them in the loneliness of the Monk's Walk. +Manus, in particular, felt himself getting hot all +over at the thought of how everyone would laugh +if the story of his firing at the table-cloth should +be known, and what, oh what! if any ill wind +should blow it to the ears of Bodkin Major over +in Galway! Would there be any end to the ridicule +he would have to endure at school? Even the +glory of having taken part in the slaughter of the +seal seemed but a trifling set-off in comparison. +Then, too, Roderick, who, as it was, would most +probably be annoyed by their staying out so late, +would certainly be extremely angry about the +whole business and at their having come home +through the Moyross demesne. These and other +considerations induced Manus to observe to his +sister as they were trudging homewards: +</p> + +<p> +"I say, Norah, there's no good in our telling +Roderick and Anstace anything about our coming +up by the Monk's Walk and all that affair. We'd +look such a pair of thundering idiots, and +Roderick's sure to be horribly angry at our having gone +that way at all. He'll pitch into us pretty well, I +expect, as it is, for staying out so late, but he'll +never think of asking what way we came back; +and we needn't say anything if he doesn't." +</p> + +<p> +"But why shouldn't we, Manus? There wasn't +any harm really in our landing down there when it +was blowing hard and we were so late; and I always +tell Anstace everything." +</p> + +<p> +"Oh yes, that's all right for a girl, of course," +said Manus loftily, "but when a fellow's been to +school it's different. He doesn't think it necessary +to run and tell everything as if he was a small kid. +And there's another thing, Norah; if we said +anything about it, Roderick and Anstace would begin +asking where Lanty was, and why he didn't come +back with us." +</p> + +<p> +"And why didn't he?" in tones which made it +clear that Norah still resented his desertion of them. +</p> + +<p> +"Oh, well, you see,"—Manus was becoming rather +embarrassed,—"he'd promised to meet those other +chaps in the boat up on Drinane Head, so he was +going to get ashore at the iron pier and go up past +the mine by the tramway that the trucks come +down by—he can get out upon the Head that way. +He'll be back ever so early in the morning, before +daybreak, and bring the seal round to Portkerin, +so we can take Roderick and Anstace down after +breakfast to-morrow to see him before he's cut up. +Lanty's going to get the oil out of him; he says +there's a whole winter's burning, as he calls it, in +him, and I'm going to have the head to keep." +</p> + +<p> +"But what are he and the other men going to do +up on Drinane Head in the dark? Are they going +to stay there all night?" asked Norah in not +unnatural amazement as she turned to look back +towards the great promontory, which could be +dimly descried rearing its rugged head against +the sky, and which certainly did not seem to hold +out much promise of comfortable quarters for the +night. +</p> + +<p> +"Oh, there's some sort of house up there, and +they've things to do," mysteriously. "Lanty's going +to take me there some day. He tells me almost +everything, because he knows I'm safe; no fear of +my blabbing or letting things out." +</p> + +<p> +And Manus drew himself erect with the proud +consciousness of being Lanty's confidant and the +trusted repository of his secrets. +</p> + +<p> +"I'm not going to blab either," said Norah in an +aggrieved tone, feeling Manus's remarks in some +sort a reflection on herself. +</p> + +<p> +The children were luckier than they expected, +and perhaps than they deserved. They found +the house empty when they got back, and no one +in it, upstairs or down. Roderick and Anstace +had not yet returned from Ballyfin, and Bride, +the little maid, had availed herself of the +absence of the whole family to slip over and spend +an evening at her father's fireside. The sight of +their supper laid out and waiting for them in the +parlour first brought to Manus and Norah's minds +how many hours it was past the usual time of their +evening meal, to which in the many and varied +excitements of the evening neither of them had +hitherto given a thought. Even now, when they +saw food laid ready for them, they did not feel any +very ravenous desire to partake of it. They sat +down, however, at the table, and Manus found his +appetite return to him in wondrous fashion when +once he began to attack the eatables; whilst Norah, +who had not yet recovered from the shock which +the apparition in the Monk's Walk had given her, +could make little more than a feint of eating. +</p> + +<p> +Their supper was just finished when the sound +of wheels upon the avenue proclaimed Roderick +and Anstace's return. The children rushed out to +the hall-door to meet them, and there were questions +and answers and explanations on both sides. +</p> + +<p> +Roderick and Anstace had been late leaving +Ballyfin, it seemed, and half-way home the horse +had cast a shoe. The nearest smithy was two +miles distant, and they had had to proceed thither +at a walk, Connor leading the horse. When the +forge was reached there was further delay, for the +smith had not expected any customers at that late +hour and had let his fire out, and they had to wait +till it was rekindled, so that nearly a couple of +hours had elapsed before they were able to resume +their journey. +</p> + +<p> +Then Manus, with a modest air of self-consciousness, +told of their afternoon's exploit and of the +killing of the seal in Ballintaggart Cave. +Roderick looked rather grave at first on hearing of +Manus having set off on such an expedition without +leave and with no other companion than +Lanty, and still graver on learning that Norah +had been of the party. However, his displeasure +was not of long duration, and though he gave +Manus an admonition against the repetition of +any such rash feats, he promised to accompany +him in the morning to inspect the trophy in +Portkerin, and, to Manus's great satisfaction, he +asked no awkward questions as to the hour or +manner of their return, taking it for granted that +they had all landed at the same place where they +had embarked. Norah's pale face did not escape +Anstace's solicitous gaze, but she supposed it to +be the result of excitement and over-fatigue, and +ordered her to bed without delay, to which refuge +indeed Norah was not sorry to betake herself. +</p> + +<p><br><br><br></p> + +<p><a id="chap10"></a></p> + +<h3> +CHAPTER X +<br><br> +CAPTAIN LESTER, R.M. +</h3> + +<p> +"Did you hear what happened last night?" said +Anstace when she came into the breakfast-room +next morning. "The whole neighbourhood +is in excitement, and Biddy has been up in the +kitchen to tell me about it. A table-cloth which +had been left hanging up on one of the trees in the +Monk's Walk had a charge of shot fired through it, +and it is all riddled with holes." +</p> + +<p> +"And what is the object of that piece of +marksmanship supposed to be?" enquired Roderick as he +took his seat at the table. +</p> + +<p> +"Well, no one seems exactly to know; but the +general impression is that it is a sort of warning to +Uncle Nicholas, in place of the usual threatening +letter with a skull and cross-bones on it—an intimation +that something worse may happen if he does +not dismiss M'Bain and give way to the men's +demands." +</p> + +<p> +"It looks as if a bad spirit was getting up in the +country," observed Roderick thoughtfully. +</p> + +<p> +"I am afraid it does; and I could see that +Biddy was secretly delighted, though she did not +want to betray it to me. 'Maybe the boys wud +sarve th' ould masther a worse turn yet if he +doesn't mind himself,' she said. Uncle Nicholas +was out last night, it seems, when the outrage +occurred, there were only Ella and Miss Browne +at home; but he is furious about it, and says that +if the people think he is to be frightened by tricks +of that sort they are very much mistaken, and that +if the offenders can be discovered he will show them +no mercy." +</p> + +<p> +Manus and Norah had not ventured to lift their +eyes from their plates during this conversation. +Fortunately for them neither Roderick nor Anstace +noticed this very unusual silence on their part, as +in general they were by no means backward in +giving their opinion on any topic that might be +under discussion. +</p> + +<p> +Norah had come down to breakfast listless and +heavy-eyed, and evinced a nervous tendency to start +at the least noise. Anstace, too, testified that she +had been awakened in the night by unaccountable +sounds proceeding from the little room of which +Norah had lately, at her own earnest request, been +put in possession, and going in to see what was the +matter, had found her little sister crying out and +struggling under the bed-clothes in the throes of +some unpleasantly vivid dream. Roderick declared +curtly that it was clear seal-hunting did not suit +Norah, and issued an absolute prohibition against +her accompanying Manus and Lanty upon any +other expedition unless he himself were of the +party. Poor Norah, who knew that her troubled +night was in no way owing to the seal-hunt but to +the fright of encountering the supposed ghost, had +perforce to submit to the mandate. +</p> + +<p> +"If you will be a goose what else can you +expect?" was all the consolation Manus had to give +her when she lamented herself to him after breakfast. +</p> + +<p> +Norah brisked up, however, considerably under +the effects of the bright sunshine and the strong +sea-wind, as a little later they all four walked across +the fields to Portkerin to inspect the seal. Manus +looked eagerly this way and that to descry the body +of his late adversary as they came down the narrow +track into the little horse-shoe-shaped bay. +</p> + +<p> +"Hallo, old chap, don't you know where you left +him last night?" was Roderick's enquiry. +</p> + +<p> +"Oh yes, but Lanty thought he'd have to haul +him over somewhere else—somewhere better suited +for cutting him up, you know," Manus muttered +confusedly, carefully avoiding meeting Norah's eye. +</p> + +<p> +It was Anstace who caught sight of the seal at +last, lying on a large flat rock in the shadow of the +cliff. He was indubitably a monster of his kind, +and his proportions could be better seen now than +when he had been lying in the bottom of the +coracle. Roderick paced the rock beside him +carefully, and pronounced him to be full five feet in +length. Manus's only and most poignant regret +was that he could not be stuffed whole as he was. +He consoled himself, however, with the reflection +that, even if this could have been done, it would +have been quite impossible for him to carry the +stuffed monster back amongst his baggage to +exhibit to the boys at school. +</p> + +<p> +Lanty came down the path at that moment +carrying a huge three-legged iron pot, a formidable +looking knife, and all the other implements necessary +for flaying the seal and depriving the carcass +of the thick coating of blubber which intervenes +between the skin and the flesh, and contains the +valuable seal-oil. Lanty's eyes were bloodshot, +and he looked pallid and dishevelled, as if his night +upon Drinane Head had not been beneficial to him. +</p> + +<p> +Anstace and Norah, who had no desire to witness +the skinning and boiling-down process, took their +leave, and Roderick, too, had soon had enough of +the operation. Manus, however, remained to the +last, and was able to report, when he came home to +dinner, that the yield of oil had been highly +satisfactory. He had brought the seal's head with him, +tied up in Lanty's red pocket-handkerchief, and in +answer to Anstace's enquiries as to what he intended +to do with it, explained that he was going to +preserve the skull by a method, much in vogue amongst +the boys at his school, for obtaining skeletons of +bats, field-mice, and other small animals, namely, +by placing it in a vessel of water and leaving it to +macerate there till the flesh dropped off the bones. +</p> + +<p> +As the process was not likely to be a very agreeable +one, Anstace begged that the vessel with the +seal's head might be placed at a considerable +distance from the house, but to this Manus objected +that wandering cats or dogs might find his treasure +and carry it off to devour it. Finally, on Roderick's +suggestion that the roof of the house offered a +secure and yet sufficiently remote repository, the +head was carried up thither, and left between the +chimney-stacks for the sun and winds to bleach +it. +</p> + +<p> +The affair of the table-cloth made a considerable +stir in the country, and an investigation was made +upon the spot in the hope of discovering some clue +to the perpetrators of the outrage. A force of +police were occupied for a day or two in beating +the underwood and examining every square inch of +ground near the Monk's Walk. They found nothing +to reward them for their labours, however, and +little by little interest in the matter died away. +Most people thought with Anstace that the outrage +was a consequence of the dispute between +Mr. O'Brien and the miners, and probably an attempt +to intimidate him into dismissing the unpopular +Scotch manager. There could be no doubt, however, +that it had failed of its effect. Age might +have enfeebled Mr. O'Brien's bodily powers, but it +had failed to rob him of his energy and determination. +To sullen threats that if the men were not +suffered to work in the old, easy-going fashion to +which they had been used they would not work at +all, he responded by closing down the mine and +summarily dismissing all hands. +</p> + +<p> +"If they don't know who is master of the Moyross +mine they had better learn," he was reported to +have said grimly. +</p> + +<p> +M'Bain, not less resolute, had hinted that, if a +few weeks' idling did not bring the miners to their +senses, there would be no difficulty in finding others +to take their places. Mr. Lynch shook his head +over it all in the drawing-room at Kilshane. +</p> + +<p> +"We've a bad winter before us, I fear," he said, +gloomily. +</p> + +<p> +Meanwhile, what remained of the summer was +passing over, and August was nearing its end. +Dr. Ford, the principal of Manus's school, wrote to +Roderick that all needful repairs and alterations +having been carried out to the satisfaction of a high +sanitary authority, he hoped to see his pupils +reassemble early in September. Manus groaned at +the thought of his glorious holiday-time being so +near its close, and of the boating and fishing and +other outdoor enjoyments having to be exchanged +for Latin and algebra, and the routine of school +life. Lanty had been much less about Kilshane of +late, but Manus seemed to understand his comings +and goings very well, and evinced no surprise +thereat. +</p> + +<p> +Manus's return to school was only a week off +when Lady Louisa Butler, who on a former occasion +had driven over to make the O'Briens' acquaintance, +sent a friendly invitation to Roderick and Anstace +to dine and sleep at her house upon a certain +evening when she hoped to have a few friends to meet +them. +</p> + +<p> +"My dear, you must on no account refuse," said +kindly Mrs. Lynch, whom Anstace had consulted; +"Lady Louisa's little parties are always delightful, +and she is sure to have people whom you would +like to know, and who will be interested in you for +your father's sake." +</p> + +<p> +So a note of acceptance was written, and then +the question of ways and means had to be +considered, as Dromore, Lady Louisa's place, was +fourteen Irish miles distant. Biddy, though +dismissed from active service with the O'Briens, kept +herself posted up in all the family affairs by +frequent visits to the kitchen, and was always +ready to tender advice on knotty points. She was +urgent that the old chariot in the coach-house, in +which Miss Ansey had been wont to take her drives +in state, should be brought out from its retirement +for the occasion. +</p> + +<p> +"An' what wud the O'Briens be dhrivin' in, to +mate all the quality o' the county, if 'twasn't their +own ekeepage?" she demanded indignantly. "Shure +it's not on a common jauntin' car, that any shoneen +wid a shillin' in his pocket could pay for as well +as yerself, that ye'd have Miss Anstace sottin', +Masther Roderick?" +</p> + +<p> +"I've no doubt that Miss Anstace and I would +create a sensation amongst the quality if we arrived +in the family equipage, Biddy," Roderick answered +with much gravity, though there was a twinkle in +his eyes, as he surveyed the crazy, antiquated chariot +which had been drawn out into the grass-grown +yard for inspection. +</p> + +<p> +Cobwebs festooned it inside and out, the +iron-work was red with rust, and the lining of the +interior mouldy with damp, and perforated by +moths. It was hung so high from the ground that +it had to be entered by a flight of steps, let down +and fastened up from the outside. Roderick shook +his head as he turned away with a laugh. +</p> + +<p> +"No, Biddy; I'm afraid that however humiliating +it may be to Miss Anstace and me, there is nothing +for it but for us to make our first appearance +amongst the aristocracy of Clare upon a hack +car." +</p> + +<p> +A ragged, shoeless boy came running into the +yard at that moment and thrust a note into +Roderick's hand. +</p> + +<p> +"Captin Lester's complimints, yer honour, an' +I was to give that to you at wanst." +</p> + +<p> +Roderick opened the note and then called to +Anstace, who, the carriage-parade being at an end, +was going back into the house. +</p> + +<p> +"Hullo, Anstace; what do you say to entertaining +a guest? Are your household resources up to the +mark?" +</p> + +<p> +"A guest! Roderick! who?" +</p> + +<p> +"Lester, the resident magistrate. You haven't +met him, but he's a capital fellow; you're sure to +like him. Here's what he says—I suppose it's no +harm for the children to hear it." +</p> + +<p> +For Norah and Manus, with eyes brimming with +curiosity, had drawn near to listen, leaving it to +Biddy and Bride, with the assistance of Captain +Lester's messenger, to push the ancestral chariot +back to slumber once more within the dilapidated +coach-house. +</p> + +<p><br></p> + +<p> +<i>Dear O'Brien</i>,—the note ran,—<i>Should I be taking +a great liberty if I asked you and Miss O'Brien +to give me a shake-down at Kilshane to-morrow +night? There is to be a seizure effected in your +neighbourhood the following day, and in the present +state of the country it would be idle to attempt it +except immediately after daybreak. I should, therefore, +be saved a long night-drive by sleeping at your +house, and this must be my excuse for troubling +you.</i> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> + <i>Yours, &c.<br> + CHARLES LESTER.</i><br> +</p> + +<p> +<i>P.S. I know I can trust you to keep the object +of my visit secret, otherwise its purpose would be +rendered nugatory.</i> +</p> + +<p><br></p> + +<p> +"Well, Anstace, what do you say?" looking at +her with the open note still in his hand. +</p> + +<p> +"I don't really know," Anstace returned dubiously. +"Bride is a good little girl, but she has not got +many ideas yet about cooking or attending at +table, or anything of that sort, and a man like +Captain Lester is accustomed to having everything +comfortable and well done." +</p> + +<p> +"Oh, nonsense! Lester's not that sort of fellow +at all. Give him a good plain dinner and he'll be +quite satisfied. I should think a man would +prefer any sort of dinner at all to having to drive +over from Ballyfin at one o'clock in the morning +You can get Biddy in to help, you know, if +necessary." +</p> + +<p> +Anstace smiled a little at the latter suggestion, +but she saw that Roderick was anxious for the +invitation to be given, and if Roderick wished for +anything it was certain that Anstace would gratify +him if it was within her power to do so. +</p> + +<p> +"Oh yes, ask him by all means," she said +pleasantly, "and we'll do the best we can for him. +He knows we're not millionaires, so he won't expect +too much." +</p> + +<p> +"It fits in first-rate, too," said Roderick, reading +the letter over again. "If he'd wanted to come the +next night we couldn't have had him, as that's the +evening we're going to Lady Louisa's. Now +remember, you two," to Norah and Manus, "not a +word of this to anyone." And he walked off into +the house to write his answer to the note. +</p> + +<p> +Manus and Norah were in quite a tumult of +expectation next evening. Captain Lester was the +first visitor who had passed a night under the roof +at Kilshane, and to their minds a resident +magistrate, to whom the peace of the district was +committed, and who could incarcerate offenders +and order the constabulary hither and thither, +was a very tremendous personage to be brought in +contact with. Captain Lester, on his arrival, did +not appear the least awe-inspiring however; he was +a big, sandy-haired, good-humoured looking man, +with a loud voice and cheery manner, and Anstace +owned to herself, with a sigh of relief, that she +would not mind so very much if Bride did commit +a few blunders during the course of the dinner. +</p> + +<p> +This was just as well, since Bride, although +Anstace had spent a good part of the day in +drilling her and rehearsing to her what she would +have to do, evinced a capacity for making mistakes +which was absolutely marvellous. Manus and +Norah were partaking of late dinner for the first +time in their lives, and Manus grew purple in the +face in his efforts to choke down his laughter, as +poor Bride, blushing to the roots of her hair in +her bashfulness, went floundering round the table, +setting down plates where dishes should have been, +and knocking over glasses. It was only by an +agonized frown, which Bride fortunately caught +just in time, that Anstace brought to her mind +that it was the mustard and not the powdered +sugar which was to be handed round with the +roast-beef. All her signals, however, failed to +prevent the cauliflower from being presented to +the guests as a course all by itself, while the dish +of <i>croquettes</i>, which Anstace had prepared herself, +with the expenditure of much time and trouble, +as an entrée, appeared later on in the company of +the potatoes. Besides which, Bride persistently left +the door open whenever she went out to the kitchen, +where Biddy was assisting to the best of her +ability, so that scraps of conversation, not intended +to be heard in the dining-room, were only too audible +to the party seated at table. +</p> + +<p> +"Bride, will I pull the tart out o' the oven yit, +'tis the beautifullest brown that iver ye see? Gorra, +but it's hot; it has the fingers burnt off of me!—Och, +but the captin's the fine lump of a man, an' I'll be +bound he's not takin' his two oyes out o' Miss +Anstace this minit. I'll jist shlip to the doore an' +have a look at her, the darlin', sottin' at the head +of her table, as swate as a flower, an' as shtately +as a queen." +</p> + +<p> +This was too much for Manus, who from his seat +opposite the door had a full sight of Biddy trying +to post herself where she could command the best +view of the room, and he winked knowingly at her. +Biddy, much discomfited at being detected, +retreated backwards on some crockery which Bride, +notwithstanding all Anstace's injunctions to the +contrary, had set down in her hurry on the floor +of the hall, and there arose a terrible outcry. +</p> + +<p> +"The saints 'twixt us an' harm! Bride, joo'l of +me sowl, if 'tisn't the mashed pitaties I've sot me +fut in, an' the dish gone clane in two undher me!" +</p> + +<p> +Everyone laughed; even Anstace could not prevent +herself from joining in the general merriment, +though for an instant she had flushed red with +mortification. Captain Lester, however, enjoyed +the joke so thoroughly, and told so many ludicrous +stories of what his own experiences had been when +he had first set up house in the west of Ireland, +that Anstace speedily forgot her annoyance. +</p> + +<p> +Manus elected to remain with the gentlemen +when Anstace and Norah withdrew after dinner. +Roderick and Captain Lester must have found +something very interesting to talk about, they +made such a prolonged stay in the dining-room, +and Norah, who had only been granted a scanty +half-hour beyond her usual bed-time, and who had +looked forward to hearing some more of Captain +Lester's stories, grudgingly watched the clock upon +the chimney-piece as it ticked on towards the +fateful half-past nine. +</p> + +<p> +"What an age they are in there, Anstace," she +grumbled, "why can't they come in and talk here? +I did want to ask Captain Lester to tell us the end +of that story about the old woman and her goose. +Don't you remember he was in the middle of it +when Biddy stood in the potato dish? It's twenty-five +minutes past nine, so I have only five minutes +more. Oh, they're coming at last!" as the +dining-room door was heard to open. +</p> + +<p> +The trio made their appearance. Captain Lester +first, with his broad expanse of shirt-front and jolly +red face; Roderick, taller and slighter, followed, +and Manus brought up the rear. To Norah's thinking +the last-named had become strangely quiet and +dispirited. He ensconced himself in a corner, and +hardly even laughed at the conclusion of the goose +story, which, lest Norah should be disappointed, +Anstace begged Captain Lester for. Immediately +afterwards, however, she contrived to make a sign +to her little sister to come to her where she sat at +a small table pouring out the coffee, and whispered +to her that it was a quarter to ten, and quite time +for her to go to bed. +</p> + +<p> +"You need not mind bidding good-night. Just +slip quietly out of the room and run upstairs. I'll +send Manus up after you, as soon as I get a chance +of speaking to him. He seems half-asleep as it is, +sitting over there in the corner." +</p> + +<p> +Norah stole off as she was bidden, the last thing +she heard was Captain Lester saying to Anstace, +as he took his cup of coffee from her: "I am going +to show your brother a little real Irish life, Miss +O'Brien. He is going to accompany me on the +raid I am making on some gentry who are distilling +illicit whisky near this. We shall have to be off +before five in the morning—" +</p> + +<p> +More Norah did not hear, as she was obliged +regretfully to close the door. It would be nice to +be grown-up, she reflected, as she went upstairs, +and to sit up just as long as one liked without an +elder sister to order one off to bed. +</p> + +<p> +Norah had been in that safe refuge for some +time, lying wide awake, with the door open so that +she could hear the murmur of voices downstairs, +and Captain Lester's loud, hilarious laugh ringing +out every now and again, when a light pattering +footfall came along the passage, and Manus +appeared in the doorway. A quaint figure he was, +as seen by the light of the lamp on the stairs, for +he was barefooted, and only attired in his nightshirt +with his flannel cricketing-jacket drawn over +it. +</p> + +<p> +He came over towards the bed, groping his way +in the dark. +</p> + +<p> +"Norah!" he whispered, "I say, Norah, are you +awake?" +</p> + +<p> +"Yes, as wide as anything. What's the matter?" +</p> + +<p> +"There's the most awful thing going to happen, +and I'm sure I don't know what's to be done. I've +been lying awake, thinking and thinking till my +head feels like splitting, and I thought at last I'd +come and tell you." +</p> + +<p> +"Gracious, Manus!" starting up in bed as she +spoke; "what on earth is it?" +</p> + +<p> +"Hush, don't speak so loud!" in an apprehensive +whisper. "That still which you heard the captain +speak about, that they're going to seize to-morrow +morning—well, it's Lanty's!" +</p> + +<p> +Manus paused to see what effect this tremendous +communication would produce, but as Norah had +never heard of a still before, and had not the least +idea what it was, she was not as much dismayed as +Manus had expected. +</p> + +<p> +"But if it's Lanty's," she said stupidly, "how can +anyone take it from him?" +</p> + +<p> +"You don't understand one little bit," Manus +returned impatiently. "A still is for making +whisky with—potheen,[<a id="chap10fn1text"></a><a href="#chap10fn1">1</a>] Lanty calls it—and all +whisky has got to pay tax to the government, why, +I'm sure I don't know. But Lanty says he's not +going to pay taxes to the English government any +way, so he and the fellows who work with him +have their place hidden away on Drinane Head, +where they thought no one was likely to find it." +</p> + +<p><br></p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a id="chap10fn1"></a> +[<a href="#chap10fn1text">1</a>] Pronounced putcheen. +</p> + +<p><br></p> + +<p> +"Oh, and it was up there Lanty was going the +night that he left us to come home by the Monk's +Walk?" exclaimed Norah, a sudden light breaking +in upon her. +</p> + +<p> +Manus, who had by this time established himself +on the side of her bed, nodded, forgetful that that +manner of signifying assent is not of much use in +the dark. +</p> + +<p> +"You remember that boat with a lot of men in +it which pulled out to us, just under the Head? +Those were the other fellows who help in the +business, and they wanted him up there for +something special that night. They have meetings up +in that place of theirs, and talk over all sorts of +things, as well as making the potheen. Lanty +didn't like leaving us, but they made him; he told +me about it while I was helping him to drag the +seal up over the rocks. Lanty knew I was safe to +trust, only of course I said nothing to you, as it was +such a tremendous secret." +</p> + +<p> +And Manus assumed an air of conscious rectitude +which was unfortunately also lost in the +darkness. +</p> + +<p> +"And have you ever been up where they make +the—whatever the stuff is called?" +</p> + +<p> +"No; Lanty's promised to take me up there ever +so often, and let me see it all, but we've never been +able to manage it somehow. But, Norah, the question +is, what's to be done? Captain Lester has got +wind of it somehow; he told Roderick after dinner, +when you and Anstace had gone, that he had +known there was this still working somewhere +hereabouts, and he had been trying to hunt it out for +ever so long, but now he had got certain information +of it's being up on Drinane Head, and right +enough he is, for he described it all to Roderick, +just as Lanty did to me. There's a tarn—that's +a sort of lake, you know—on the very top of +Drinane Head, and a little stream flows out of it +and falls right over the cliffs; that's the water they +make the potheen with—real mountain-dew, Lanty +calls it. They've built some kind of a hovel there, +up against a rock, and they work days and nights +together sometimes when there's a brewing going +on." +</p> + +<p> +"Hew did Captain Lester find out about it? Did +he go up there to see?" +</p> + +<p> +"I'm sure he did not; they'd have smelt a rat +fast enough if he'd been poking about anywhere +within miles of them. But he has found it out +somehow or other, and he's going to pounce down +on them at sunrise and capture the whole gang—that's +what he called them—a gang!" said Manus +in high indignation. "He has it all laid off pat, +how he's going to surround the place and all, and +he's so afraid of its leaking out that he hasn't told +a single soul what's brought him here,—even the +police who are coming won't know what they're +wanted for till he meets them at the cross-roads at +five to-morrow morning. Of course he knew he +was all safe in telling Roderick, and he didn't +think I was of any account at all. I went on +eating the dessert things and didn't pretend to be +listening much. And now, Norah, we've got to get +Lanty out of the mess somehow or other." +</p> + +<p> +"Perhaps he's not there at all; perhaps he's at +home," suggested Norah hopefully. +</p> + +<p> +"Oh yes, he is though, he's been up there for +days past," said Manus, who seemed extremely well +informed of his ally's movements. "He hasn't been +out fishing or boating with me once the whole of +this week." +</p> + +<p> +To both Manus and Norah it seemed that if +Lanty were only safe the capture of his confederates, +of the wild-looking crew whom they had +seen under Drinane Head, was of comparatively +little importance. +</p> + +<p> +Norah sat silent and reflected—in former childish +days it had always been her little brain which had +done the contriving necessary to get them out of +any scrape in which they happened to find +themselves. Manus of late had got into the way of +speaking of girls as of an inferior race of beings, +but now that he was in trouble he came to her as +of old for help and advice. +</p> + +<p> +"I wonder if Biddy has gone home yet," she said +at last. "I could slip down to the kitchen and tell +her, and she would tell Tom. He could go up to +Drinane Head and let Lanty know that Captain +Lester was coming." +</p> + +<p> +"No, that wouldn't do at all," said Manus. +"You see they none of them know anything about +it—about Lanty's being in with all those other +fellows, and making potheen and all that—and +Lanty doesn't want them to find out. He says +his father's 'raal ragin' mad' as it is, about his +'goings-on', as he calls them." +</p> + +<p> +"O—oh!" This was a new light on the matter +to Norah, whose code of right and wrong was +a very simple one. Breaking the law was a thing +quite outside any experience of hers, and which +she understood nothing about. There seemed +something absolutely heroic in Lanty's manufacturing +his whisky on the solitude of Drinane Head +that he might defy Captain Lester and the police +in their efforts to make him pay taxes to the +English government. But that he should be doing +something which his father and Biddy did not +know of, and which, if they did know, they would +not approve—that was another matter altogether +in Norah's eyes. +</p> + +<p> +"Making potheen must be wrong, Manus," she +said gravely, "if Lanty doesn't want anyone to +find out about it." +</p> + +<p> +"Well, if you come to that, I suppose it is," +Manus admitted. "But if Lanty and the rest of +them are caught to-morrow, they'll all be marched +off to Ennis jail—handcuffed, mind you—and +locked up there for months perhaps. Just think +of Lanty handcuffed and shut up in jail! I +declare I've half a mind to try and get up on +Drinane Head now and give them warning to clear +out, but it's as black as pitch, not a gleam of light +in the sky; and I don't believe I'd find the way." +</p> + +<p> +Then it was that Norah had a brilliant inspiration. +</p> + +<p> +"I'll tell you what, Manus," she cried; "Captain +Lester and Roderick won't start till five. I heard +Captain Lester tell Anstace so, and it's light—a +sort of light—hours before that. I know, because +when I was bad with toothache last week and +couldn't sleep, I saw everything in the room quite +plain before the clock struck three. If you stole +out then no one would hear you, they'd all be +sound asleep, and you could go to Drinane Head +and tell Lanty the police were coming." +</p> + +<p> +"Oh, but I say, Norah, if I go you'll have to +come too!" said Manus. +</p> + +<p> +"I'll come of course if you want me," Norah +rejoined promptly, trying not to let her voice +betray her satisfaction at Manus's sudden desire +for the feminine companionship at which he was +generally wont to rail. "I only hope we'll manage +to awake in proper time." +</p> + +<p> +"Oh, I'll wake, no fear! I've never any difficulty +in waking up any time that I want to, and I'll +come and call you," Manus said valiantly. "I +don't feel as if I could sleep a wink to-night, thinking +of it all; but I'd better be off, lest the others +should come up and catch me—they won't sit up +late, as Captain Lester and Roderick have to turn +out so early. Oh, I say! won't it be fun, their +going off solemnly all that way and drawing a +cordon round the place and all the rest of it, when +we've been there before them and given the fellows +warning. Be sure and jump up at once, Norah, +when I come to call you. I won't be able to make +a noise for fear of someone hearing me." +</p> + +<p> +And with this parting injunction Manus withdrew. +</p> + +<p><br><br><br></p> + +<p><a id="chap11"></a></p> + +<h3> +CHAPTER XI +<br><br> +ON DRINANE HEAD +</h3> + +<p> +Notwithstanding Manus's valorous undertaking +to come and call her in the morning, +Norah took the precaution of getting up after he +had gone and drawing back the curtains and pulling +up the blind, so that the first gleam of the gray +dawn might fall into her room and wake her. She +had but just huddled back into bed again when +she heard the drawing-room door open and +good-nights being exchanged. A minute later the +handle of her own door was softly turned and +Anstace came in, carefully shading her candle with +her hand to keep its light from falling on her little +sister's face. Norah closed her eyes tight and +feigned to be asleep. She was afraid of Anstace +questioning her about her unusual wakefulness, +but it gave her an uncomfortable sense of deceit +to feel Anstace with cautious touch drawing the +tumbled bed-clothes straight, and tucking them +in comfortably about her. Then she went away +as softly as she had come, and Norah fell asleep +and started up, as it seemed to herself, but a few +minutes afterwards, to find the window opposite +her bed a square of pale-grayish light, and the +different objects in the room becoming dimly +visible. +</p> + +<p> +It was only after a minute or two's partial +bewilderment that she could remember what it was +which impended that morning, and why she ought +to be awake. In a moment, however, it all came +back to her mind, and she slipped hastily out +upon the floor. Manus had not come to call +her as yet, but it would be well, all the same, +to know whether it were already three o'clock +or not. A strange, ghostly little figure Norah +looked as she stole along the passage and down +the stairs in her night-gown and bare feet to +where the tall old clock in the hall ticked +solemnly on, its ticking sounding ever so much +louder now in the silence of the house than it +did ordinarily during the day-time. +</p> + +<p> +Norah had to mount on a chair so as to bring +her face upon a level with that of the clock before +she could make out the position of the two hands, +and ascertain that it was as yet but half-past two. +Back to bed, therefore, she had to journey; but +she did not venture to lie down, lest sleep should +steal upon her unawares. She sat up straight +instead, with her knees drawn up to her chin and +the blankets pulled round her shoulders, waiting +till, after what seemed to her an interminable time, +the clock downstairs told out the hour with three +ringing metallic strokes. +</p> + +<p> +There was still no stir from Manus's side of the +house, and so she started off on her peregrinations +once more. She crept past the door of Roderick's +room, which was next to that of Manus, with bated +breath. The handle of the door made what seemed +an appallingly loud noise as she turned it. Within +all was darkness, and the deep, regular breathing, +which was the only sound to be heard, betokened +that Lanty's peril had not interfered with Manus's +slumbers as much as he himself had expected. +</p> + +<p> +"Manus, it has struck three!" whispered Norah +from the door. +</p> + +<p> +There was no answer. The breathing continued +as regularly as before, and Norah had to make +her way across the room in dread of tumbling over +some of the furniture and making a clatter, which +would arouse half the household. +</p> + +<p> +"Manus, wake up!" she whispered again as she +reached the bed. "It's time to dress." +</p> + +<p> +"Eh—ah—hi—what's the matter?" came in +indistinct gurglings from amongst the bed-clothes. +</p> + +<p> +"It's three o'clock, Manus—past it. And we're +to go up to warn Lanty; don't you remember?" +</p> + +<p> +"Lanty!" in very sleepy accents. "Oh, bother, +Norah, we'll leave Lanty alone!" +</p> + +<p> +It was quite evident that the enterprise bore +a very different aspect to Manus now, just roused +out of his warm sleep, from what it had done a few +hours before. +</p> + +<p> +"But the police and Captain Lester are going +up to look for him, and they'll take his still away, +and carry him and his friends off to prison." +</p> + +<p> +"Nonsense! Not they! Trust old Lanty to +look after himself. He'll show them a trick or +two if they come making trouble up there. I don't +believe they'll find the way, and very likely we +shouldn't either." +</p> + +<p> +"But we ought to try," urged Norah, not a little +taken aback at this unexpected change of front +on Manus's part. +</p> + +<p> +"Oh, it's too great a fag, and I'm tired. Go back +to bed, Norah, it'll be all right, you'll see." +</p> + +<p> +And a rustling of the bed-clothes betokened that +Manus, after giving this comfortable assurance, +had turned over and disposed himself to sleep once +more. +</p> + +<p> +Norah retired baffled from the room. It was +full daylight by this time, the cold, cheerless light +of dawn, and she stood in the lobby window, +looking at the gray world outside, and debating +with herself what she should do. Perhaps, as +Manus had said, it would be all right, and Lanty's +hiding-place would remain undiscovered, but on +the other hand Captain Lester, for all his jollity +and good-humour, did not look like a man who +would follow a wild-goose chase, and probably +he had made himself well acquainted with the +whereabouts of the still before starting on his +present enterprise. Norah thought of Lanty's +ugly, good-natured face, and of his kindness to +her the day of the seal-hunt. She was a little +girl who did not forget kindness very readily; and +then there were Biddy and Tom and Bride to be +thought of. What a disgrace and a sorrow it +would be to all of them if Lanty should be marched +along the road handcuffed on his way to Ennis +jail, as Manus had said he would be! No, the +police should not take Lanty if she could help +it—that was a determination to which Norah very +quickly came, and since Manus would not go with +her she would go alone out on Drinane Head, and +warn him of his danger. She thought that from +Manus's description of the place upon the previous +night she could hardly fail to find it. +</p> + +<p> +It must be confessed that it required all Norah's +self-command, when she went back to her own little +room, to keep her from plunging into bed again, it +looked so invitingly warm, and the raw chill of the +early morning had penetrated to her very bones. +She withstood the temptation bravely, however, +and by the time that she had deluged her face +abundantly with cold water, and scrubbed it into a +glow with a rough towel, and had huddled in all +haste into her clothes, the last remnant of sleepiness +had disappeared. +</p> + +<p> +It was a strange sensation to step out-of-doors +into the freshness of the day which had but just +begun. The birds were awake, and twittered loudly +in the trees as Norah walked down the avenue, +but they and she seemed the only things that were +astir as yet. The cattle were still lying down in +the fields, as they had lain during the night, and the +doors of the few cabins which she passed upon the +road were shut, and not even a curl of smoke rose +upwards from the chimneys. It was a longer walk +than Norah had expected, but she kept the lofty +frowning headland for which she was bound well in +view, and trudged steadily on. The road grew +rougher and steeper as she went, and dwindled +down at last into a mere cattle-track which led +out upon the open moorland and left her free to +make her way in what direction she pleased. +</p> + +<p> +Norah had never been so far from home by herself +before, but that did not trouble her much, any more +than did the heathery solitude on which she found +herself. She had grown used to lonely rambles +since they had come to live at Kilshane, and her +only fear was that she might miss the snug retreat +in which Lanty and his confederates carried on +their illegal practices, or that she might not reach +it in time to enable them to escape. She found that +walking through the deep heather, which reached +almost to her waist, was very hard and tiring +work, and here and there she came upon soft, +swampy places into which her feet sunk with, a +squelching sound, and threatened more than once to +stick fast altogether. All the same she struggled +onwards and upwards valiantly, sometimes helped +on her way by a bare slope of limestone which +cropped out above the heather, and sometimes +having to make a long step to cross a rift or crevice, +which seemed to go down into unknown depths, but +which was filled almost to the brim with little green +ferns and mosses, and trailing brambles, which +had established themselves in there out of reach of +cutting blasts. +</p> + +<p> +A yellow glow had been spreading gradually +higher into the sky, and the tops of the great +mountains to her left were bathed in sunlight. +Suddenly, as Norah walked along, she saw her own +shadow thrown before her on the rocks—the sun, +a red, rayless disc, had risen up over the mountains, +and in a moment the dull monotony of the landscape +broke into sudden life and colour. It was the first +sunrise which Norah had ever been out-of-doors to +witness, but its beauty awoke little response in her, +her only thought being that if the sun had risen it +must be getting late—late, that is, for what she had +to do, and that it behoved her to hurry on if her +expedition was not to fail of its purpose. Panting, +she struggled on up the steep heathery incline, till +she stopped all at once with a little gasp of wonder +and relief—she had reached the end of the long +ascent, and almost at her very feet the great cliff +sank sheer to the sea, five hundred feet below. +</p> + +<p> +For a brief moment the little girl stood still to +recover her breath, whilst the keen salt wind blew +her hair and her short skirts about. A sea-gull +circled close above her uttering its short, plaintive +cry, then with extended wings glided far out over +the abyss. No other living thing was in view on +all the wide waste of heather and sea, in the midst +of which she stood, a little solitary speck. +</p> + +<p> +She could walk faster now, for here, on the edge +of the cliffs, exposed to the fierce western gales, not +even the heather could grow; there were only a few +inches of black peaty soil covering the rocks. The +long, level rays of the early sun shone upon her as +she hurried along, and far beneath her the great +Atlantic surges broke in foam upon the rocks. She +had to make more than one detour to avoid yawning +clefts that ran far inland, another rise had to be +struggled up, and she stood at last on the very +summit of Drinane Head. +</p> + +<p> +Immediately below her was a hollow, a little +green oasis which seemed scooped out from the +surrounding wilderness, and with a great throb of +joy Norah recognized the description which Manus +had given her, and knew she had arrived at the +secluded retreat in which Lanty had deemed that +he might securely carry on his lawless trade. The +little mountain tarn lay in the centre of the circle of +green, its black sullen waters not brightened even by +the morning sunshine; a tiny stream flowed out of it +and fell over the edge of the cliffs, to be blown away +in mist and spray long before the sea was reached. +Facing her, midway between the lake and the cliffs, +was the thatched hovel of which Manus had spoken, +built against a rock, so that the wreaths of blue +peat-smoke which curled up from its roof seemed +to rise out of the very ground. +</p> + +<p> +No one, police-constable or anyone else, was in +sight, and by all appearances she was still in time +to accomplish her errand. Slipping, scrambling, +jumping from ledge to ledge of the rocks, Norah +descended from the height on which she stood into +the little dell below. She had to cross the streamlet +which purled and gurgled between banks of close +mountain turf in its short course to the sea. A +large stone, however, had been placed in its bed +to facilitate such crossings, and a moment later +Norah was knocking boldly at the door of the +hovel. +</p> + +<p> +A shuffling of feet was heard within, a subdued +muttering of voices, then the door was cautiously +opened a little way, and a fierce-looking man with +unkempt red hair and beard appeared. Norah +recognized him at once as the steersman of the +boat which they had encountered down below on +their return from Ballintaggart Cave. +</p> + +<p> +"Is Lanty Hogan here, please?" she enquired, +whilst he stared in speechless amazement at his +unlooked-for visitor. +</p> + +<p> +"An' what wud Lanty be doin' up here on the +bare mountain, an' him wid his father's good house +to shtop in?" the man returned in true Irish +fashion, answering one question by asking another. +</p> + +<p> +"But Lanty has been here, I know," Norah said +earnestly, "and if he's here still will you tell him, +please, that Norah O'Brien is here and wants to see +him about something very important?" +</p> + +<p> +"An' what ailed ye, Miss Norah, to be runnin' up +here afther me an' it scarce cockshout yit? Shure +there's nothin' gone amiss down in Kilshane?" +</p> + +<p> +And there was genuine anxiety in Lanty's face +as he unceremoniously thrust the first speaker to +one side and appeared in the doorway himself. He +was only in his shirt and trousers, and his face had +a sodden, smoke-bleared look. +</p> + +<p> +"There is nothing wrong at Kilshane, thank +you, Lanty," Norah began rather nervously, for two +or three other men in similar attire had clustered +at the door, all gazing at her and evidently curious +to learn her errand. "Captain Lester, the resident +magistrate, stayed at our house last night, and he +and Mr. Roderick are coming up here this morning +with a lot of policemen to search for your still. +Master Manus heard them talking about it after +dinner last night, so I came up to tell you." +</p> + +<p> +"Tare an' ages!" +</p> + +<p> +Lanty almost knocked Norah over as he dashed +out of the house, and in another minute was +bounding like a cat up the rocky knoll from which +she had just descended. Screening himself behind +a block of limestone which topped the summit, he +crouched for a moment, gazing about him, his eyes +shaded from the sun, then came springing down +again as actively as he had gone up. +</p> + +<p> +"The child's i' the right!" he ejaculated breathlessly, +as he got back, "an' sorra moment to lose! +The peelers is movin' up to take us back-ways an' +front-ways an' all sides at wanst, but wid the help +o' goodness we'll sarcumvint thim theer boys yit." +</p> + +<p> +The men drew away from the door into the +centre of the floor, speaking in hoarse, excited +murmurs; and Norah, impelled by curiosity, stepped +inside, where she could see the interior of the hovel +and what was going on there. +</p> + +<p> +A roaring turf-fire burnt at the farther end, +making the heat of the room almost unendurable, +and a skinny, wrinkled old woman, with locks of +grizzled hair escaping from under the red handkerchief +round her head, was engaged in tending it. +On a tripod above the fire stood a tall, strangely-shaped +vessel, closed at the top save for a pipe +that issued from it and wound in many spiral +coils round the inside of a large tub filled with +cold water and placed upon the hearth. The pipe +passed out again at the bottom of the tub, discharging +the freshly-distilled spirits which had been +condensed within it in its passage through the cold +water into a large earthenware pan which acted as +receiver. Norah had hardly had time, however, to +contemplate this strange and rude apparatus when, +at an order given in Irish by the red-bearded man +who had opened the door to her, two of the other +men lifted the still off the fire, and carrying it +outside the door, poured the boiling liquor within it +into the little stream; another caught up the +earthenware pan and emptied it in similar fashion. +</p> + +<p> +"A sin an' shame to be sendin' the good potheen +over the racks to the fishes," muttered the +red-bearded man, whom the others called Malachy, and +who seemed to exercise some sort of authority over +the lawless crew. "Stir yerselves, boys," he went +on louder, "or they'll be on ye afore all's done." +</p> + +<p> +The still itself, and the tripod on which it had +stood, the tub with the "worm" still coiled within +it, and all the other portions of the apparatus were +carried up to the tarn and sunk in its dark, +peat-stained water, so also were two kegs of whisky +which were brought out from the inner room of the +hovel. Malachy himself seized a broken spade, +which formed part of an accumulation of rubbish +in one corner, and carried spadeful after spadeful +of blazing peats out of the house, flinging them, +hissing and spluttering, into the stream, till the +furnace on the hearth had been reduced to the +limits of an ordinary domestic fire. A big black +pot was suspended over it, in the place where the +still had been; water and meal were hastily poured +in, and the old woman took her stand before it, an +iron spoon in her hand, stirring as composedly as if +she had never assisted in any more dubious enterprise +than preparing stirabout for the breakfast of +her son and his friends. +</p> + +<p> +"Now, thim theer boys may come as soon as +plazes thim, an' we'll be ready to bid thim the top +o' the marnin'," chuckled Malachy, when the +preparations indoors were completed and the men who +had gone to sink the still and the other appliances +in the tarn had straggled back to the hovel again. +Then, as his eye fell on Norah, whom in the bustle +everyone had forgotten, but who had remained +standing just within the door watching all these +proceedings with the keenest interest, he exclaimed, +"Murdher alive, what'll we do wid the child at all, +at all?" +</p> + +<p> +Strangely enough, this question had not occurred +to any of the band before, and at that moment four +black dots came into view upon the heathery skyline +above the little lake. They were the heads of +men moving steadily down upon the cabin. A +minute or two later two more dark figures appeared +high up on the rocky crest which Lanty had scaled +to get a view. Clearly the house was surrounded +and escape from it cut off. +</p> + +<p> +"Hoide her in theer, quick!" suggested one of +the men, pointing towards the inner room. +</p> + +<p> +"An' if it's minded to sarch the house they'd be," +retorted Malachy contemptuously, "sure the little +darlin' wud be desthroyed for comin' to bring us +warnin', an' us desthroyed along of her." +</p> + +<p> +"'Tis the born gomeral that y'are!" exclaimed +the old woman, who had hitherto continued to stir +the black pot assiduously, but who seemed now to +wake up suddenly to the emergency of the situation. +Still grasping the iron spoon in one hand, +she caught the terrified Norah by the other, and +dragged her unceremoniously towards the fire. +</p> + +<p> +"Tak' the cheer an' sit down," she said +authoritatively. +</p> + +<p> +Malachy obeyed his mother, as Norah took her +to be, by bringing forward the solitary wooden +chair of which the establishment boasted, and +seating himself upon it by the fire. With a sudden +grab the old woman pulled Norah's hat off and +flung it amongst the lumber in the corner, then +snatching up an old tartan shawl which lay on the +window-ledge, she put it over the little girl's head +and wrapped it hastily about her. +</p> + +<p> +"Stand her beside ye an' she'll pass for wan o' +yer own," she said, giving Norah a push towards +her son as she spoke. +</p> + +<p> +"Niver fear, 'cushla, nayther hurt nor harm shall +come to ye," whispered Malachy encouragingly, as +he drew her to stand at his knee. "Stand still an' +kape yer mouth shut, that's all that's for you to +do." +</p> + +<p><br><br><br></p> + +<p><a id="chap12"></a></p> + +<h3> +CHAPTER XII +<br><br> +DISCOMFITED +</h3> + +<p> +A couple of minutes of breathless silence +followed. Norah stood motionless, with Malachy's +arm round her, his bristling red beard close beside her +face, and the heavy shawl, saturated with the reek +of peat smoke, weighing her down and dragging +backwards off her head. Lanty and the other +men were endeavouring to stare out over each +other's shoulders through the square foot of +greenish glass which served as a window. The +brush of feet on the short grass outside became +audible, someone's iron-shod boot-heel struck with +a metallic click upon a stone, and the next moment +there came a loud, imperative knock against the +half-closed door. +</p> + +<p> +It was opened wide instantly. Captain Lester +stood outside, with Roderick beside him, and four +policemen closing in behind. The hot, red blood +mounted up into Norah's face as Roderick, stooping +his tall head to look under the low doorway, gazed +straight at her. It seemed impossible that he +should not recognize her, but she had forgotten +that to him, standing outside in the bright morning +sunshine, the interior of the cabin appeared to +be in almost total darkness, and if he was able to +distinguish her at all, it was only as a little country +girl, frightened by the sudden appearance of the +police, and keeping close to her father's side. +</p> + +<p> +"Malachy Flanagan," said Captain Lester, "I +have come up here with a search-warrant, having +received information that you are in the habit of +carrying on illicit distillation in these premises." +</p> + +<p> +"Innicint dissitation!" returned Malachy, scratching his +head in much apparent perplexity. "An' what +wud yer honour be manin' by that?" +</p> + +<p> +"Nonsense, my man!" Captain Lester answered +sharply. "You know what I mean well enough; +there is no use in pretending ignorance. You are +suspected of manufacturing whisky up here, or +potheen if you prefer to call it so." +</p> + +<p> +"Arrah, Mither, did iver ye hear the likes o' +that?" said Malachy, turning in well-feigned +astonishment to the old woman. "Mannifacterin' +potheen, an' up here on Drinane Head, av all places +on this mortial airth! But shtep in, yer honour, +an' mak' yer resarches." +</p> + +<p> +This last with a lofty air and a sweep of his arm, +which implied that there was nothing within the +four corners of his cabin which the forces of the +law were not entirely welcome to inspect. +</p> + +<p> +Captain Lester did not hesitate to avail himself +of the permission so magnificently given—at least +he stood without at the door with Roderick whilst +two of the policemen went in and ransacked the +house, searching everywhere, in the heap of rags +which was the nearest approach to a bed, amongst +the litter heaped up in the corner, even in the +thatch of the roof, but naturally without finding +anything to reward them for their labours. Norah +had another pang of apprehension when her hat +was tossed out with the rest of the lumber, and +rolled right across the floor almost to Roderick's +feet. She thought he could not fail to know it +again, but, fortunately for her and for those she +had come to warn, Roderick had the common +masculine lack of observation where articles of +female apparel were concerned. Often as he had +seen that hat with its bow of discoloured ribbon, +which bore witness to much battling with wind and +weather, upon his little sister's head, it woke no +recollection in his mind. Malachy had lighted his +pipe, and was puffing away with ostentatious +indifference as he watched the efforts of the +search-party; the other men looked on either with a +malicious grin, or with an expression of sullen +ill-will. +</p> + +<p> +"Wudn't yez tak' a look into the pot theer?" +enquired Malachy, with feigned politeness, as the +constables emerged baffled from the inner room of +the hovel, their investigations there having been +productive of no better result than in the outer +apartment. "Maybe 'tis potheen herself is stirrin' +to give us for our breakfast." +</p> + +<p> +Amidst the shout of laughter which this sally +evoked from the other occupants, the baffled +members of the constabulary made haste to +withdraw from the scene. Captain Lester, however, +lingered at the door before following his retreating +forces. +</p> + +<p> +"Listen to me, boys, and let me give you a word +of good advice before I go," he said gravely. "You +have been too many for me this time, I admit freely, +whether it was through getting warning of my +coming or not. But I know well enough that half +a dozen able-bodied fellows like yourselves are not +up on this desolate spot, where there is no work or +lawful trade of any sort, for nothing. And I warn +you that the way you are in is not a good way, +that whether you succeed in evading the law in +future or not, your present courses are certain to +bring ruin on yourselves and on everyone belonging +to you. Therefore my advice to you is to +abandon your way of life without delay and take +to some honest calling." +</p> + +<p> +"Sure, 'tis the great counsellor yer honour wud +make intirely," said one of the men; "and it's +much beholden we shud be for such gran' advice, +an' free an' for nothin', mirover." +</p> + +<p> +Captain Lester took no notice of the sneer, but +turned to Roderick. +</p> + +<p> +"Come along," he said, "we'd better follow those +fellows of mine." +</p> + +<p> +Norah watched them through the open door as +they went up over the short grass towards the +lake and disappeared round one of the folds of the +moorland. Ugly scowls and fierce execrations +followed them, clenched fists were shaken at +their retreating figures; and when they had +passed out of sight, Norah realized the strangeness +of her own position for the first time, and +felt just a little frightened as she remembered that +she was alone with that wild-looking crew of men +in the low, smoke-darkened hut, the sheer black +cliffs on one side of her, the dark mountain tarn +on the other, and that she had their secret in her +keeping. Lanty's presence, however, was an +assurance that not much harm could befall her, and +divesting herself of the shawl which had served +as disguise, she said politely: +</p> + +<p> +"I think, if you please, if I may have my hat, I +will go home now, or I shall be late for breakfast." +</p> + +<p> +"Thin, begor, alanna, ye'll not set fut to the +ground while meself's in it to carry ye!" Malachy +exclaimed, and before Norah well understood what +he was about to do, he had wrapped the shawl +round her once more and lifted her on to his +back, knotting the ends of the shawl round his +waist, so as to form a sort of hammock for her +to sit in, with her hands resting on his shoulders. +"Sit ye still, darlint, an' hould yer hoult, an' ye'll +have as iligant a roide home as if 'twas yer own +carriage ye was sottin' in." +</p> + +<p> +The other men crowded to the door and raised a +sort of cheer as Norah departed on her novel charger. +"Blessin's on the little lady that give us the +warnin', an' on the ould shtock she comes of!" +</p> + +<p> +Malachy did not take the roundabout course by +the cliffs by which Norah had come, nor follow the +search-party, who were making their way towards +the nearest point of the road, where their conveyances +waited for them. Instead, he struck straight +across the moorland, following a track which was +evidently well known to him. Swamps had to be +crossed here and there by the aid of stepping-stones, +and in one or two places white stones had been +bedded in the heather to serve as guiding marks +for those who might have to traverse Drinane Head +at night. Malachy travelled sometimes at a +jog-trot and sometimes at a long, swinging walk, which +covered the ground almost as rapidly, the burden +on his back scarcely seeming to incommode him +at all. Not a single word did he utter till the verge +of the moorland had been reached, where he set +Norah down, and pointed out the way to her by +which she was to reach Kilshane. +</p> + +<p> +"'Tis meself wud carry ye to the very doore, an' +proud to do it, but for the fear o' meetin' some wan +on the road that wud be axin' questions an' passin' +their remarks. But ye'll be home, mavourneen, +soon a'most as thim that's had their horses an' +ekeepages to dhraw them—bad cess to them for the +dirty work they wor afther!" +</p> + +<p> +He lifted his ragged old hat with the air of a +courtier, and turned to retrace his steps; then, +rushing back suddenly, he caught her small sunburnt +hand in his rough grasp and covered it with +passionate kisses. +</p> + +<p> +<a id="p182"></a> +"God's blessin' an' the blessin' of His saints be +on ye for what ye've done this day! It's wan of +the raal ould O'Briens ye've shown yerself, that +always had a heart for the poor. There's thim +that'll not forgit it to ye, an'll maybe do a good +turn to you and yours afore all's done. It's more +nor mannifacterin' potheen the boys talks of +betimes! Whisht, thin, what am I sayin'? But you're +wan as can kape saycrits for as young as y'are, so +niver let on what I've said to ye, nor don't ye be +feared for nothin' that happens. Nayther hurt nor +harm will come next or nigh you, an' them that's +belongin' to you, while Malachy Flanagan's to the +fore!" +</p> + +<p> +Norah was rather frightened by the vehemence +of this address, of which, to say the truth, she +understood very little. She only said, however: +</p> + +<p> +"Oh, I shall not tell anyone, Malachy! you may +be quite sure of that, except Manus, my brother. +He knows all about your place on Drinane Head +already, but he's quite as good at keeping secrets as +I am." +</p> + +<p> +Following the line which Malachy had pointed +out to her, Norah made her way across the fields +and struck the road not far from the gate of +Kilshane. She had just scrambled over the loose-built +stone wall which skirted the roadside, when she +heard the clatter of the whole cavalcade of horses +and cars coming down the road behind her. She +shrank back behind a bramble bush in the vain +hope of escaping being seen, and the next instant +they swept past her. First came Roderick and +Captain Lester in a dog-cart, and the police followed +on two cars. They had hoped to cover themselves +with glory by capturing the still and the whole +gang, who had succeeded hitherto in carrying on +their contraband trade in defiance of the law; but +instead, they were returning baffled and somewhat +crestfallen from their raid. +</p> + +<p> +Roderick looked rather surprised as he caught +sight of his little sister screening herself behind the +briar, but he smiled and nodded to her, as they tore +past at the full speed of Captain Lester's fast-trotting +mare. +</p> + +<p> +Norah had hoped to slip into the house without +being perceived, but when she came down the +avenue a few minutes later, she found Roderick and +Captain Lester standing outside the door enjoying +the fresh sea-breeze. Roderick caught hold of her +as she tried to pass him by and pulled her to him. +</p> + +<p> +"Hullo, little woman!" he said pleasantly. "Come +here and tell me what mischief you've been up to, +careering over the country at this hour of the +morning." +</p> + +<p> +For the first time in her life Norah could not +meet the gaze of those kindly dark eyes that were +looking down at her. She hung her head awkwardly, +and drew patterns on the gravel with the toe of +her boot. +</p> + +<p> +"It was such a fine morning," she began +confusedly, "and so—I thought I might as well—that +is, I wanted to go out." +</p> + +<p> +Anstace's voice interrupted her, speaking through +the open window of the dining-room close at hand. +</p> + +<p> +"Oh, Norah, dear! you have come back. I could +not think what had become of you. I suppose you +went up to old Mrs. Connor's about those fresh eggs +I wanted. Can she let me have them?" +</p> + +<p> +"Yes—that is, I think so—I'm not quite sure," +stammered Norah. +</p> + +<p> +"Well, you might have made certain when you +set off at such an unearthly hour, There was not +such a tremendous hurry; it would have done quite +well later in the day. And, my dear child," with +just a shade of annoyance in her tone, "what a +state you are in! Really, one would think your +clothes had been put on you with a pitchfork. And +look at your shoes and stockings! I don't know +how you found so much mud to walk through on +this fine dry morning." +</p> + +<p> +Norah glanced down at her footgear, on which +the bog mould had dried by this time, and could +not wonder at Anstace's remark. +</p> + +<p> +"Really, Norah, you are getting old enough to +be a little more careful," Anstace went on, but in +judiciously suppressed tones, so as not to put her +sister to shame by a scolding administered before +Captain Lester: "Run upstairs now, and make +yourself tidy as fast as you can. Breakfast will be +ready directly." +</p> + +<p> +Roderick, who had kept his arm round Norah all +this time, let her go. He had a suspicion that +something was wrong, more than could be accounted for +by that expedition in quest of fresh eggs. He +prudently refrained from asking questions, +however, and Norah lost no time in disappearing into +the house. +</p> + +<p> +When she came downstairs again the rest of the +party were already assembled at the breakfast-table, +and Captain Lester was entertaining them +with a humorous account of the fruitless descent he +and Roderick had made upon the potheen-brewers' +lair, and of the reception which Malachy Flanagan +had accorded them. +</p> + +<p> +"I do believe," he said with comic despair, "that +not only every man, woman, and child in the county +are on the side of lawlessness, but that in Ireland +the very winds of heaven are in league with +criminals, to carry them intimation of any efforts +that may be on foot against them. I declare to +you, Miss O'Brien, I did not breathe a word of my +object in coming here to anyone except your brother +and yourself; and neither of you, I suppose, +betrayed my confidence to those gentlemen on Drinane +Head. Yet I am as sure as that I am sitting here, +receiving this very excellent cup of tea from your +hands, that they had been engaged in brewing that +infernal stuff—which is the cause of half the crime +in the county—not half an hour before we turned +up, and that by some means or other, warning of +our coming had been conveyed to them." +</p> + +<p> +A sudden thought struck Roderick. +</p> + +<p> +"By the way, I am nearly sure that one of the +fellows inside that cabin was that idle young +scamp Lanty. I could not be absolutely certain, +as he kept as far back as possible, with his back to +me, but I think it was he. You were in the room +last night, Manus, when Captain Lester was talking +of his arrangements for capturing the still. Are +you sure that you did not say anything about them +to Lanty or to the servants?" +</p> + +<p> +"Not a word," Manus was able to assure him +with perfect truthfulness and a most unembarrassed +air. "I didn't mention it to a soul except Norah, +after she was in bed last night, and I haven't as +much as seen Lanty for a week." +</p> + +<p> +He tried to telegraph across the table with his +eyes to Norah, "There, wasn't that well done?" but +failed in the attempt, as Norah had her face down +over her plate, to conceal the burning crimson flush +which was surging up to her forehead, and +accordingly she did not see his signals. +</p> + +<p> +"Those illicit stills are the very curse of the +country," Captain Lester went on. "You saw those +men up there to-day, O'Brien, fine stalwart fellows +all of them, and the heavy sodden look they had all +got? They've been sitting up night after night in +that cabin, in a stifling atmosphere, for once the +grain is 'wet', as they call it, it has to be watched +incessantly till the process is finished, and as you +can imagine, a good deal of drinking goes on +during these vigils. Then every idle vagabond in the +country drops in without being invited, to gossip +and taste the brew. And when the stuff is finally +manufactured, half of it is generally expended +in drunken hospitality. I speak strongly, Miss +O'Brien, because I've seen so much of the ruin that +this demoralizing trade brings on everyone who +embarks in it. I spoke my mind to these fellows +on Drinane Head this morning, without getting +much thanks for my pains, but the best thing that +could have happened for themselves, quite as much +as for the Revenue, would have been if I had +succeeded in my raid this morning, and had marched the +whole lot off to jail. That would have put an end +to their distilling once and for all. There, O'Brien, +I'm due at the Ballyfin petty sessions, and I've no +time to lose. May I ring to have my trap brought +round? Good-bye, Miss O'Brien, many thanks for +your hospitality." +</p> + +<p> +And the good-humoured, chatty resident magistrate +took himself off. +</p> + +<p> +"You see it was a precious good thing you didn't +get me to go off on a wild-goose chase to Drinane +Head in the middle of the night," observed Manus, +when Norah and he found themselves alone in the +dining-room, Roderick having gone to see Captain +Lester off, and Anstace having departed to her +household duties. "I told you Lanty and the boys +up there knew how to take care of themselves, and +that they could show Captain Lester a trick or two. +And a pretty gaby you were at breakfast, turning +the colour of a boiled beet-root when they talked +of someone having warned those fellows. Why, if +anyone had happened to look at you, they'd have +twigged at once that you knew something or other +about it!" +</p> + +<p> +"I couldn't help it, Manus," pleaded Norah, +humbly. "I tried to stop getting red, but I couldn't, +and I was so frightened when you said you had +told no one but me. Because, you see, Roderick +and Captain Lester passed me on the road coming +back, and I thought they must guess." +</p> + +<p> +"Passed you on the road? Why, you don't mean +to say it was you who warned the fellows?" +</p> + +<p> +"Oh yes it was. I was awake and up, you know, +so I thought I might as well go; and it was awfully +lucky I did, for they'd only just had time to hide +their things away when Captain Lester and the +police came. I was inside the house the whole time +they were there, and I thought Roderick would be +sure to know me, for he stood just at the door, +staring straight in at me; but they'd put a shawl +over my head, and I stood beside Malachy Flanagan, +and pretended to be his little girl, and no one had +the least notion who I was." +</p> + +<p> +Manus looked put out and rather ashamed. +</p> + +<p> +"I say, Norah, you've no business to go skying +all over the country by yourself like a wild thing. +I wonder what all those men thought of your coming +up there alone. You ought to have kept pegging +on at me until I was really awake, I'd have gone +like a shot then. When a fellow's half asleep, as I +was, he doesn't know what he's saying, and you +oughtn't to have gone without me." +</p> + +<p> +Considering the reception which Manus had given +her when she went to wake him, Norah thought +that this was hardly fair. +</p> + +<p><br><br><br></p> + +<p><a id="chap13"></a></p> + +<h3> +CHAPTER XIII +<br><br> +MALACHY'S ORATION +</h3> + +<p> +Norah was very silent and thoughtful all the +rest of that day; so much so, indeed, that her +preoccupation could hardly have escaped Anstace's +notice if she had not been more than usually busy, +making all the needful arrangements for her brief +absence from home. In the afternoon she and +Roderick set out upon Connor's car for their long +drive to Dromore, Lady Louisa Butler's place, where, +according to invitation, they were to dine and sleep. +</p> + +<p> +"Do be good children, and don't get into any +mischief while we are away," was Anstace's parting +exhortation to Norah and Manus, as the car drew off. +</p> + +<p> +They turned back into the house with the +comfortable knowledge that they had a whole long +evening before them, in which to do exactly as they +pleased, and that even its termination, bed-time, +was a very indeterminate epoch, since there was +nothing but their own inclination to decide when it +should be. +</p> + +<p> +They tried and grew weary of various amusements +and occupations, till at last Manus, throwing +down the chisel with which he had been shaping +the keel of a toy boat, exclaimed: +</p> + +<p> +"Oh, I say, Norah, wouldn't it be fun to pay a +visit to the mine, Uncle Nicholas's mine, you know? +Roderick never would let me go there, because none +of the Moyross lot have taken any notice of us +since we came here; but now that Uncle Nicholas +has stopped the work, and turned off all the men, +there won't be a soul about the place, and no one +will know of our going there." +</p> + +<p> +"But it's rather late," objected Norah. "It's six +o'clock and past it." +</p> + +<p> +"Well, and what does that matter on a lovely +night like this? We'll tell Bride to leave our +supper ready for us, and then we can poke about +the place as long as we like. I'd like awfully to +see all the machinery, and the shaft, and everything." +</p> + +<p> +Norah offered no further objection; she was +always very ready to agree to any proposal of +Manus, and even more so than usual just now, when +his return to school loomed large upon the horizon. +</p> + +<p> +It was a lovely evening in late August, the corn +was ripening fast in the little weedy fields on +either side of the road—the same road off which +Norah had branched that morning on her expedition +to Drinane Head—and here and there the work of +harvesting had already begun. They got beyond +the verge of cultivation after a while; the small +oat and potato fields, separated from each other by +loose-built, lace-work walls, gave place to wild, open +pasturage, with gorse and bracken growing up +through it, and the heathery hillside rising above. +The sun was sinking down towards the sea, turning +the broad plain of the western ocean into a dazzling +flood of gold. +</p> + +<p> +"It will be quite dark before we get home," +Norah remarked presently. +</p> + +<p> +"What matter if it is? You're not afraid of +meeting another ghost on the road, are you?" +</p> + +<p> +Manus could afford to be quite jocular now about +the spectre of the Monk's Walk, though for days +and weeks after that episode he and Norah had +only ventured to speak to each other of it in +out-of-the-way corners, and with bated breath, so great +had been their dread lest their guilt should be +discovered, and they would be dragged forth publicly +as the destroyers of their uncle's table-cloth. +Everyone seemed to have forgotten the matter now, and +they felt themselves secure. +</p> + +<p> +The rough road, which was worn into deep ruts +by the passage of heavy carts over it, surmounted +a slight acclivity, and all at once they found +themselves close upon the buildings belonging to +the mine. There they stood, gaunt and ugly, the +tall, square chimney, the stamping-houses and +engine-house, and in their midst the quarried +opening in the mountain-side, from which the +galleries ran in far underground to reach the +rich metalliferous lodes. Great heaps of slag and +refuse lay on one side, and the whole seemed +strangely out of keeping with the rugged grandeur +of the spot, the great headland rising on one side, +the Atlantic rolling in far below on the other. +</p> + +<p> +The works were all silent and untenanted now, +without any of the busy life and bustle that +generally reigned there, and in the gathering +twilight there was something weird and solemn about +that grim range of deserted buildings that stood +almost upon the verge of the cliff, thrown out +sharp and clear against the background of sea. +Even Manus and Norah were impressed with a +sense of awe, and they hushed their steps +involuntarily and lowered their voices as they +approached. +</p> + +<p> +When they got quite close, however, they became +aware of a hoarse, suppressed murmur, a sound +quite different and distinct from that of the sea +chafing against the rocks—the sound as of a great +crowd close pressed together. The children paused +to listen, and then a voice became audible, speaking, +somewhere behind those very buildings, in what +seemed a torrent of wrath. +</p> + +<p> +Norah and Manus exchanged questioning glances—no +human being was in sight, but still that voice +went on, growing fiercer and more rapid in its +utterance as it proceeded. The children crept +onwards cautiously, and on tiptoe, till they had +reached a large shed, the door of which stood open. +Shovels, pickaxes, and upturned wheel-barrows lay +on the floor within, the implements of the industry +that was at a stand-still, and in the opposite wall +there was a window with dirt-encrusted panes +through which a view could yet be had. +</p> + +<p> +"Keep well back; don't let them see you. Who +knows who they are!" whispered Manus as he and +Norah stole towards the window. Tales which he +had heard of the secret gathering of Ribbonmen +and Whiteboys, and of the vengeance they had +taken on those who had surprised them unawares, +were floating in his brain. +</p> + +<p> +Standing on one of the overturned barrows, +some little distance within the shed, they were able +to peer out without much risk of being seen, and +then a strange spectacle presented itself to them. +</p> + +<p> +A great crowd was gathered in an open space at +the back of the mine buildings—wild, excited-looking +men and half-grown lads for the most part, though +the blue cloaks and red petticoats of a few women +mingled with the throng. A warm, orange light +which glowed in the west shone on the uplifted +faces that were all gazing at a man who stood +on an overturned trolly, one of the little trucks +employed for bringing the metal out of the depths +of the mine. To Norah's amazement it was none +other than Malachy Flanagan, her acquaintance of +that morning, who, with his arms raised above his +head, was addressing the crowd which pressed +round his extemporized platform with a vehemence +which at times made him almost incoherent. +</p> + +<p> +"I'd ax ye this, boys," cried the orator fiercely +and excitedly: "If 'twas Nich'las O'Brien's money +that dug that mine undherground into Drinane +Head, an' his cliverness an' his ingeenuity that +consaved it all, an' made the thrack down the racks +for the shtuff to thravel to the say, an' to the ships, +whose toilin' an' moilin' was't that cut into thim +racks for to bring the good ore out? Who crushed +it, an' riddled it, an' sint it down in the thrucks? +Wasn't it you an' me, boys, an' our childher, an' our +fathers afore us, since first a pick was shtruck into +the ground, here where we shtand? Nich'las O'Brien +says he'll have us larn who's the masther of the +Moyross mine, but if he's the masther we're the +men, an' maybe 'tis ourselves might larn him +somethin' too. We've worked the mine an' sarved him +well this thirty years, an' now he brings in his +manager from Scotland wid his new fashions, an' +his new notions, to dhrive us, an' grind us, an' rack +us, an' whin we renague an' say we'll work the mine +as 'twas always worked or we'll not work at all, +what's all the talk Misther M'Bain has for us? +'I'll bring over Scotchmin,' says he, 'ivery man o' +whom'll do as much work in a day as a lazy Irish +pisant wud do in three.' Aye, boys, that's the word +for us—lazy Irish pisants." +</p> + +<p> +A howl of hatred and of fury broke in upon his +speech; the faces of the men were contorted with +rage, and clenched fists were shaken over their +heads. +</p> + +<p> +"An' what'll yez do now, boys?" Malachy went +on in wheedling tones as soon as he could make +himself heard again. "Will yez kape tame, an' +quite, an' saft as silk, an' see the Scotchmin +brought in to take the wark out o' yer hands an' +the bread out of yer childher's mouths, or will yez +stand up like min an' show the ould masther, an' +M'Bain, an' the whoule of thim, what thim same +lazy Irish pisants is like whin the blood is hot +widin thim?" +</p> + +<p> +Another roar, wilder and fiercer than the last, +answered him. +</p> + +<p> +"Come on thin, come on, ivery mother's son of +yez! Come on till we go to Moyross an' spake to +the masther, to Nich'las O'Brien his own self. +We'll malivogue it into him that we'll sarve no +Scotchmin nor furriners. Isn't there thim of the +ould shtock, of his own name an' his own blood, in +the country? If he's ould an' wakely himself, why +isn't he for puttin' in his brother's son? It's young +Roderick O'Brien we'll have, an' the back of me +hand to M'Bain, an' to that young spalpeen that's +bein' larned in Jarmany for to tyrannize over us. +We'll have our rights, boys, an' if the masther's not +for givin' thim to us, or if he's not willin' to be +shpoke to, there's ways an' manes of makin' him +hear raison. There's arms in that house, boys, an' +there's hands here as can use thim—" +</p> + +<p> +His voice was drowned in an uproar of yells and +hootings. A hundred throats caught up the cry: +"To Moyross, boys! Come on to Moyross till we +shpake to the masther!" One voice, high and +strident above the others, shouted out: "An' whin +we've spoke to Nich'las O'Brien we'll have a +word for M'Bain that'll maybe not be plisant +hearin'." +</p> + +<p> +And the whole crowd swayed forward and made +one wild, tumultuous rush for the road. +</p> + +<p> +It had grown dark within the work-shed by this +time, Norah and Manus could just see each other's +white faces through the gloom, and Norah, without +a word, caught her brother's hand, and pulled him +away from the window, back into the darker +recesses of the shed. +</p> + +<p> +"Keep back, they mustn't see us," she whispered +imperatively. +</p> + +<p> +Manus had no inclination to disobey, and they +remained motionless, still holding each other's hands, +whilst with oaths and shouts and curses the human +torrent swept past their hiding-place. Norah drew +a long breath of relief when the voices and the +trampling of feet had died away. +</p> + +<p> +"Come now, quick, quick!" she cried, "we must +run as fast as ever we can." +</p> + +<p> +"Where to?" Manus asked stupidly. +</p> + +<p> +"To Moyross, of course, to tell Uncle Nicholas +and Ella that those men are coming." +</p> + +<p> +Manus positively gasped at the suggestion. +</p> + +<p> +"But I say, Norah, we've never been there before; +not up to the house at least, and Uncle Nicholas +hates us all like poison because of the family feud, +you know. He may be awfully angry with us +for coming, and we couldn't get there in time +either." +</p> + +<p> +"Oh yes, we can, they've all gone by the road, +and we'll run straight across the fields. I should +think Uncle Nicholas would be very much obliged +to us for coming to tell him that his house is going +to be attacked; if he isn't, we can't help it. You +wouldn't stand here doing nothing, would you?" +</p> + +<p> +It was a very unusual tone for Norah to adopt +towards the brother whom she idolized. Perhaps +her adventure of that morning had inclined her to +be more independent and self-reliant; at any rate, +without waiting for further parley, she darted out +of the shed and dashed away down the hillside. +Manus followed her after a minute's hesitation, and +overtook her before she had got clear of the rubbish +heaps and the rough, broken ground. +</p> + +<p> +Two or three old women, whom the crowd in +their stampede had left behind, came round the +corner of the shed just then. +</p> + +<p> +"Musha! saints in glory! Did iver ye see the +likes o' that?" they exclaimed to each other, as they +caught sight of the two flying figures racing down +the hill. +</p> + +<p> +The children, however, never paused or turned +their heads, on and on they ran, as if their lives +depended on their speed. +</p> + +<p><br><br><br></p> + +<p><a id="chap14"></a></p> + +<h3> +CHAPTER XIV +<br><br> +MR. O'BRIEN SEES A VISION OF THE PAST +</h3> + +<p> +Moyross Abbey bore its wonted peaceful +aspect upon that night. The broken arches +of the ruin stood out against the pale gray sky, in +which a star was beginning to twinkle here and +there, and the air of the summer evening was +heavy with the scent of flowers. The dining-room +windows were unshuttered, and the light of the +candles shone on the white table-cloth, and the +silver and flowers upon it, and on the faces of the +trio who sat round. Mr. O'Brien himself was not +there. Wearisome and unending business connected +with the troubles at the mine, and the proposal to +bring in labour from a distance, had taken him once +more to Dublin, and he was not expected home till +the following day. In his place at the head of the +table sat a handsome curly-haired lad, facing Ella +and Miss Browne with a look of smiling defiance. +The two latter were pale and tearful, and Miss +Browne shook her head and sighed to herself with +profoundest dejection every now and again. +</p> + +<p> +Whilst dinner was proceeding, conversation had +been impossible, but now that the dessert had been +placed on the table, and the servants had withdrawn, +Ella said apprehensively, as she had already said +twenty times at least since her scapegrace brother +had walked in, dusty and toil-worn, a couple of +hours before: +</p> + +<p> +"Oh, Harry, Uncle Nicholas will be so dreadfully, +dreadfully angry when he comes home to-morrow!" +</p> + +<p> +"No doubt, Nelly," said the culprit philosophically. +"There'll be a bit of a shine over it, I +expect. It's got to be faced, though, and you're not +to blame for it, so don't look so doleful, old lady." +</p> + +<p> +"But it's so ungrateful, Harry," sobbed Ella, +fairly breaking down, "and Uncle Nicholas has +done so much for us. He's let us live here all these +years since Father and Mother died, and sent you +to school, and—and—" +</p> + +<p> +"I know all that, Nell," interposed her brother +more gravely, "and I've tried my best to fall in +with Uncle Nicholas's ideas. Do you suppose if it +hadn't been for thinking of all we owe him that I'd +have let myself be banished off to the Carpathian +Mountains to live among a lot of Polish Jews and +learn their gibberish. But it's no good. The more +I've tried grubbing underground the more I hate +it, so I just showed them a clean pair of heels, +and made my way back here. I can't let Uncle +Nicholas shape my life for me, for all my gratitude +to him." +</p> + +<p> +"Oh, my dear boy, don't be hasty, and don't +anger your uncle!" pleaded Miss Browne in her thin, +reedy tones. "He's not used to be thwarted or +contradicted, Harry, and more depends on it than +you have any idea of. There are harpies here," +nodding her head mysteriously, "on the watch to +seize on any advantage. We have kept them at +a distance hitherto—" +</p> + +<p> +Miss Browne's speech was cut short by a violent +ring of the door-bell, which pealed and clanged far +away in the depths of the house. +</p> + +<p> +"My dears, what can that be at this hour, and +at the front door?" she exclaimed apprehensively. +"I am always so nervous in this dreadful country, +and with your uncle away too." +</p> + +<p> +"We'll hear what they have to say for themselves, +whoever it may be," said Harry, getting up +and opening the dining-room door a little way, so +as to be able to hear what passed outside. +</p> + +<p> +"If you please," said a voice, speaking in short +gasps, as Norah's panting breath enabled her to +find utterance. "We want to see Miss Ella at once; +it's very important." +</p> + +<p> +The dignified butler viewed the dishevelled pair +on the door-step with much disfavour. Evidently +he did not think that any communication they had +to import could be of much consequence. +</p> + +<p> +"Miss Ella is at dinner and can't be disturbed," +he said loftily. "You'd best give me your message, +unless you like to wait till dinner is over to see +her." +</p> + +<p> +"We can't do anything of the sort," said Manus +bluntly. "We've got to see Miss Ella at once, or +else Mr. O'Brien himself, and you'll please go in +and say so." +</p> + +<p> +What the butler would have replied to this bold +speech remained unknown, for Miss Browne, opening +the dining-room door a little wider, called out +sharply: +</p> + +<p> +"Who's that out there, Cartwright? Tell them +that Mr. O'Brien is not at home, and if they want +to see Miss Ella they must come at a proper +hour." +</p> + +<p> +"That's just what I was saying, ma'am," +returned the indignant butler. "I think it's young +Master and Miss O'Brien from Kilshane, and they +say they want to see Miss Ella very particular." +</p> + +<p> +"The O'Brien children? At this hour? How +extremely forward, and at the very instant when +I was speaking of them." +</p> + +<p> +And Miss Browne did not trouble herself to +lower her voice or conceal the annoyance of her +tones. +</p> + +<p> +Ella, however, had heard too, and she ran out +into the hall with a little eager cry. +</p> + +<p> +"Oh, Norah, dear, what is the matter? I hope +there is nothing wrong with any of you at Kilshane." +</p> + +<p> +As the light of the hall lamp fell on Manus and +Norah, it revealed very visible traces of their +scamper across country. They were both greatly +flushed and out of breath, and their faces and +hands were scratched and bleeding with forcing +their way through thickets and hedges. Norah's +hat had fallen off and hung behind by its strings, +and her frock exhibited innumerable rents. +</p> + +<p> +"Oh, please," she began, forgetting in her +excitement to answer Ella's question, or to go through +any usual preliminaries of hand-shaking, "we were +up at the mine, Manus and I, and there were a +lot of people there, the miners, and ever so many +besides, and a man was speaking to them about +the work being stopped and Mr. M'Bain threatening +to bring over Scotchmen!" Norah's instinctive +loyalty kept her from betraying who the orator +had been. "They're wild about it, and they're +all coming here to speak to Uncle Nicholas, and +make him promise that the mine shall be worked +in the old way. Manus and I ran across the fields +to tell you, and oh! we were so afraid we shouldn't +get here in time." +</p> + +<p> +Ella turned to her brother, who stood behind her. +</p> + +<p> +"Oh, Harry, do you hear that, and Uncle Nicholas +is away! Whatever are we to do?" +</p> + +<p> +"Give them beans if they come; but I'm afraid +they won't give us the chance. It was awfully +good of you two to take so much trouble," the +lad went on, rather patronizingly, to Manus and +Norah, "but I expect you've had your run for +nothing. Irishmen generally mean about half of +what they say, and the rest goes off in bluster and +shouting. I shouldn't wonder if the whole lot were +sitting in the public-house at the cross-roads at +this moment, airing their eloquence and abusing +us all very comfortably. I just wish they would +pay us a visit and we'll make it hot for them." +</p> + +<p> +"Well, you won't have long to wait," said Manus +shortly, "for they're on the avenue this minute; +I hear them." +</p> + +<p> +And indeed, as all bent forward to listen, there +was audible, in the stillness of the night, a low +ominous roll that came steadily nearer, the tramp +of many feet, the deep growl of angry voices. +Sharper, too, and nearer at hand, though no one +at the time paid it any heed, sounded a rattle as if +a conveyance were being driven in over the paving-stones +of the yard. At the same instant a troop +of terror-stricken maids burst into the hall. +</p> + +<p> +"Oh, lor', ma'am! oh, lor' Master Harry, there's +a mob of people coming up against us! Maria was +out on the avenue and she saw them and ran for +her life! They're screeching and hollering that +it would lift the hair off your head to hear them. +They'll murder us in cold blood! They'll burn the +house down over our heads! It's us English that +they're mad against." +</p> + +<p> +Miss Browne, ashy white and trembling like an +aspen leaf, was yet true to her wonted instincts. +She threw her shaking arms round Ella, putting +herself in front of her like a shield. +</p> + +<p> +"My darling! my heart!" she cried, "they shall +kill me before they touch a hair of your head." +</p> + +<p> +Harry Wyndham drew himself erect, the +half-unconscious air of bravado which he had worn all +evening was gone, and instead he was cool, prompt, +and collected, a typical English lad confronted +with danger and difficulty. +</p> + +<p> +"Bar every door and close the shutters of all +the ground-floor windows. This house is pretty +strong, and ought to be able to hold out for a bit. +Thanks to you, Brownie, all the indoor servants are +English, so there's no fear of anyone letting the +rabble in at the back door." +</p> + +<p> +Meanwhile the roar outside was growing louder +and more menacing, and now the crowd appeared +in view, rolling on up the avenue with shouts and +groans and discordant yells. Their numbers had +swelled considerably since the children had seen +them last, as all the dwellers along the line of +march had joined in as onlookers or sympathizers. +Harry turned round angrily to the frightened +maids, who were huddled in a corner, sending forth +scream upon scream. +</p> + +<p> +"What good do you expect to do yourselves +by hullabalooing like that?" he demanded. "Go +this instant and close all the windows as I desired +you. In spite of Uncle Nicholas, it strikes me +it was as well I happened to turn up to-night. +Where's Cartwright? You come and help me to +load the guns. You can shoot, I suppose?" +</p> + +<p> +"Well, sir, I 'ave fired a gun," said that +functionary modestly. +</p> + +<p> +Ella sprang forward, her face almost as white +as her evening dress. +</p> + +<p> +"Oh, Harry, you won't shoot the people?" she +gasped. +</p> + +<p> +"Not if I can help it, but they won't come into +this house while I can keep them out," her brother +answered determinedly. +</p> + +<p> +He closed the hall-door, which had been standing +open all this time, with a bang, and turned to +Manus. "See here, youngster. You slip out of +the house at the back, where you won't be seen, +and run for your life for the police. Most likely +the first volley will send the whole lot flying, but +if it doesn't we'll hold out all right for a couple +of hours." +</p> + +<p> +Norah caught him by the cuff of his coat sleeve. +</p> + +<p> +"Let me go out and speak to them," she cried. +"I know some of them—the man who was speaking +at the mine, and some of the others, and +perhaps I could make them go away." +</p> + +<p> +Harry shook himself free impatiently. "You +don't suppose a howling mob of madmen are going +to listen to a little chit like you! Go with Miss +Browne there, she'll look after you. Collect all +the women, Brownie, when they've done fastening +the doors and windows, and take them to the +kitchen; they'll be out of the way of harm, and +safer than they would be anywhere else. Ella, +bring down the guns over the chimney-piece in +Uncle Nicholas's bedroom; we shall need all we +have." +</p> + +<p> +He issued all his orders like a young commander-in-chief, +and was obeyed unhesitatingly. He locked +and double-locked the hall-door, fastened a heavy +iron bar across it, and drew two stout bolts besides. +Then with his own hands he shuttered the narrow +windows on either side of the door. Norah cast +one last look out before the shutters were closed. +The crowd were close up now, hooting, yelling, and +brandishing sticks. Behind them, where the last of +the daylight still lingered in the sky, rose the abbey +ruin, grand and peaceful, a strange contrast to the +wild tumult that raged so close to it. It was that +glimpse of the ruin which put a sudden idea into +Norah's head. +</p> + +<p> +"Wait for me, Manus," she cried breathlessly. +"I know how we'll frighten the people away better +than with guns." +</p> + +<p> +She tore up the wide staircase and opened the +first door that she came to. She dragged the white +quilt off the bed, rolling it up hastily into a bundle, +and seized a box of matches off a small table by +the bed-side. As she dashed out into the corridor +again, an old gentleman, white-haired and bent, +came up another stair at its farther end with a +lighted candle in his hand. +</p> + +<p> +"What's going on?" he cried angrily. "Has +Bedlam broken loose while I've been away? +What's all the noise outside about, and where +are all the servants? Why are the lamps not +lit? Where's Miss Ella, or Miss Browne, or anybody?" +</p> + +<p> +There was no one within hearing but Norah, and +she did not answer him; she did not even pause to +recollect that this must be her Uncle Nicholas, the +grim, vindictive being of whom she had heard so +much but whom she had never seen. She darted +down to him and pulled the candle out of his hand +without ceremony. +</p> + +<p> +"Oh please, I must have it!" she gasped; "it's +ever so much better than matches, because they go +out, you know." +</p> + +<p> +The old man did not attempt to resist, he only +gazed in utter amazement at the apparition that +had so unexpectedly appeared before him. Norah's +hat still hung upon her shoulders, as it had fallen +off during her wild scamper with Manus, her black +hair was tossed back off her forehead, and her blue +eyes were alight with excitement and earnestness +of purpose. +</p> + +<p> +"Who are you, child?" he cried. +</p> + +<p> +But Norah did not stay to answer. She had +blown the candle out and was racing along the +corridor and down the stairs with her spoils; nor +did she stop when she met Ella coming upstairs to +obey her brother's behest. +</p> + +<p> +"What are you doing up here, Norah?" cried +Ella. "Go to the kitchen; Brownie is there, and +the servants; and Harry says it is the safest place +for you to be." +</p> + +<p> +It had grown so dark within doors that Ella did +not see Mr. O'Brien till she ran up against him, +standing in the corridor, where Norah had left him, +as if he were rooted to the ground. She could not +repress a cry of alarm at the sudden shock. +</p> + +<p> +"Uncle Nicholas! We thought you were in +Dublin. How do you come to be here?" +</p> + +<p> +"I come to be here because I drove in by the +stable-yard five minutes ago, and it's the shortest +way to my bedroom," returned the old man gruffly. +"Is the world turned upside down, or am I going +mad? What's all that shouting and the row that I +hear? And in heaven's name, who was it that ran +down here just now?" +</p> + +<p> +"It was little Norah O'Brien. Poor child, she's +quite terrified. I suppose she's looking for +somewhere to hide. The miners are in front of the +house, Uncle Nicholas, and a mob of people with +them, threatening to attack it. Norah and her +brother brought warning just in time, and Harry +thinks we can hold out till help comes." +</p> + +<p> +Ella stopped short, remembering that it was the +first Mr. O'Brien had heard of the prodigal's return, +and dreading an outburst of wrath. She need not +have been afraid, however; her uncle had not heard +her last words at all. +</p> + +<p> +"Norah O'Brien," he repeated to himself slowly; +but it was not of her he was thinking. Another +child stood before him—a boy with the same bright +eyes and dark waving hair, a boy who had raced +about that house and made it ring with his shouts +and laughter forty years before. That boy's name +had been Piers, and it was nearly a year since he +had been laid, far from his kindred, in a crowded +London cemetery. +</p> + +<p> +Norah, meanwhile, little dreaming of the effect +she had produced, tore on her way downstairs. +Ella's words had fallen on unheeding ears. Norah +had not even taken their meaning in. +</p> + +<p> +"Quick, quick, Manus!" she cried, as she found +her brother waiting for her; "we haven't a minute +to lose. We must get out of the house somehow +or other—through a window or any way that we +can, before the crowd closes up all round." +</p> + +<p> +A momentary lull had come in the din outside, +as the human torrent swept up before the house +and found themselves confronted by the long +blank range of shuttered windows, with no light +visible anywhere. They halted irresolutely, +uncertain what to do, and in that instant's delay +Norah had her chance. A maid-servant with +blanched cheeks and trembling hands was +drawing the bolts of a little side-door which led down +upon the pleasure-ground, the last point that +remained to be secured in the defences of the house. +</p> + +<p> +"Let us out, please," Norah said authoritatively. +</p> + +<p> +The woman stared at her, hardly able to believe +that she had heard aright. +</p> + +<p> +"You must be mad, Miss, to be wanting such a +thing. It's fiends that's out there, nothing less; +they'd tear you limb from limb if they got you +amongst them." +</p> + +<p> +Norah gave her head a proud little toss as she +pushed back the bolts herself. +</p> + +<p> +"No one will see us if we slip out quickly, and +even if they did, Malachy is out there, and he +wouldn't let anyone hurt me. Shut the door +behind us and make it fast. Now then, Manus!" +</p> + +<p> +Brother and sister vanished into the night. Not +an instant too soon, for the next moment the mob +surged up all round the house, seeking to find some +means of entry; and they broke into shouts louder +and more ferocious than before as they found that +timely warning had been conveyed to the inmates, +and that on all sides the house had been made secure. +</p> + +<p> +"Arrah, thin, it's not willin' to be shpoke to they +are widin there! Give a rap at the doore, boys, an' +let them know we're here." +</p> + +<p> +In obedience to the mandate, heavy and repeated +blows were dealt upon the hall-door, which, however, +was of good solid oak, and showed no signs of +yielding. A pebble whizzed against one of the +plate-glass windows, and the crash and shiver of +the falling glass were greeted with exultant huzzas; +another and another followed. Then a window on +the upper floor was thrown open, and Harry's clear, +boyish tones made themselves heard: +</p> + +<p> +"Now then, I give fair warning to all concerned. +I have a double-barrelled gun, and Cartwright here +has another. You've all got two minutes to be out +of this, at the end of that time we fire." +</p> + +<p> +But the people's blood was up, too high and hot +for threats to turn them. Curses, groans, howls of +execration answered him. +</p> + +<p> +"Is't shoot us ye wud, ye clip? Is thim the +manners they've larned ye in Jarmany? Quit out +o' that, an' let's shpake to the masther. It's Nicholas +O'Brien we'll talk to, not you, ye dirty spalpeen!" And +another volley of stones crashed against the +windows. +</p> + +<p> +Harry had his gun at his shoulder, the gleaming +barrels levelled. His intention was to fire the first +discharge over the heads of the crowd in the hope +of scaring them away, but as his finger touched the +trigger he felt himself seized and thrust forcibly to +one side. A tall figure, which in the uncertain +light seemed to have lost its stoop and to be straight +and erect as in years gone by, advanced to the window, +and a strident voice called out above the din: +</p> + +<p> +"Who wants to talk to Nicholas O'Brien?" +</p> + +<p> +Everyone in the crowd knew the tones, and a +wild hubbub arose. +</p> + +<p> +"It's the masther! Begorra, it's his honour's own +self! It's justice we want! It's our rights we'll +have! We'll not be robbed nor peeled nor put upon +no longer! It's work we want, an' our wages, an' +bread for our childher's mouths! Down wid M'Bain +an' ivery furriner he'd bring along of him!" +</p> + +<p> +Mr. O'Brien struck his stick violently on the +ground, and raised his hand to stay the tumult. +What answer, however, he would have made to the +people's demands remained unknown, for as he +opened his mouth to speak, he stopped short, and +his eyes became riveted on some object away +beyond the sea of upturned faces waiting +breathlessly to hear what he would say. +</p> + +<p> +"Gracious heavens, what's that?" he cried. +</p> + +<p> +All heads were turned to follow the direction of +his gaze, and a low murmur of fear and wonder +ran through the wild and excited throng. +</p> + +<p> +One of the broken windows high up in the abbey +ruins was filled with a dim bluish light, and in +that strange radiance stood a white-clad figure +silent and motionless, one hand stretched menacingly +towards the surging crowd. For a moment or +two the people gazed at the vision speechless and +paralyzed with terror, then frightened whispers +began to be heard. +</p> + +<p> +"The saints 'tween us an' harm, there's the +white nun! Mercy be wid us, it's holy St. Bridget +it is!" +</p> + +<p> +Those who still held stones let them fall; some of +the crowd dropped on their knees and crossed +themselves. A few of the more timid began to edge +away, others followed; in a moment the movement +was general, and the people were huddling down +the avenue after each other like a flock of frightened +sheep, casting back terrified glances at the +dread apparition which still stood on high with +uplifted arm in the ruined window. +</p> + +<p> +The moment the terrified crowd had disappeared, +the light in the window vanished too. To those +who watched the strange sight from Moyross +House it seemed as if there was a stifled cry and +then a thud. After that all was silent, and the +darkness of the summer's night once more reigned +supreme. +</p> + +<p><br><br><br></p> + +<p><a id="chap15"></a></p> + +<h3> +CHAPTER XV +<br><br> +IT WAS ALL NORAH'S IDEA +</h3> + +<p> +It was all so sudden and so inexplicable that the +little group at the open window were left +gazing at each other in dumb amazement. +Mr. O'Brien was the first to recover his speech. +</p> + +<p> +"Tell me what it all means, some of you," he +cried irascibly. "Am I going out of my senses, or +is the whole world bewitched to-night?" +</p> + +<p> +"I don't understand it one little bit either, +Uncle," said Harry, as he slowly opened the breech +of his gun and took the cartridges out. "There +was a figure up in the abbey window, not a doubt +of it. Didn't you see it too, Cartwright?" +</p> + +<p> +But the dignified butler had fallen back against +the wall, where he leant shivering and shaking, the +cold dew standing on his forehead and his teeth +chattering audibly. +</p> + +<p> +"Preserve us all!" he gasped. "Fust it's a horde +of savages yellin' an' 'owlin' to make a man's blood +run cold to hear them, and then it's a ghost, sich as +I never believed in, nor thought to see the likes of. +Not another night does I stop in this hawful +country. No, Mr. O'Brien, sir, not if you was to +offer to make me Hemperor of Rooshia!" +</p> + +<p> +Cartwright's ejaculations were cut short by a +knocking at the hall-door, a frightened, hurried +knocking made not with the knocker but with +somebody's knuckles. Harry leant out of the +window and shouted down: +</p> + +<p> +"Who's that down there, and what's your business?" +</p> + +<p> +"Oh, please come down and help me somebody," +was the response that came very tremulously in +Manus's voice from below. "I'm afraid Norah has +hurt herself very badly." +</p> + +<p> +"It's that young O'Brien cub," said Harry, as he +drew his head in again. "I thought he was half-way +to the police barrack by this time. What was +the other child doing outside the house? she ought +to have been in the kitchen with Brownie. I'll +find out what's wrong and pack them both off +home. We've enough on our hands without having +them to look after." +</p> + +<p> +But Mr. O'Brien had heard too, and he pressed +forward eagerly. +</p> + +<p> +"Is it the child that was in the house just now, +and someone says she's hurt? Come on, come on, +what are you both standing there for? Come down +and see what's happened to her." +</p> + +<p> +And he himself led the way downstairs, moving +with an activity and energy such as had been +foreign to him for a very long time past. So +extraordinary was the condition of affairs which he +had found on his return home, a day sooner than he +had been expected, that Harry's presence had passed +unheeded, and he had as yet expressed no surprise +at finding the grand-nephew whom he had believed +in the Carpathian mountains, engaged in defending +his house. +</p> + +<p> +Ella was on the stairs, and joined them as they +went down. The stampede of the crowd had been +heard in the kitchen, where Miss Browne and the +maids were still ensconced, and she had come out +to glean information of what was going on. It +took some time to undo all the fastenings with +which the hall-door was secured, but when it was +opened at length Manus was found standing +outside, looking very white and scared. He pushed +past the others and caught hold of Ella by her +dress. +</p> + +<p> +"You don't think she could be killed," he gasped. +"She's lying over there on the ground, and I can't +get her to speak or move." +</p> + +<p> +"But did she get a fall, or was she knocked down +by the crowd? Tell us what happened, Manus +dear," implored Ella, who felt as if the solid earth +were whirling round beneath her, so many shocks +had succeeded each other upon this eventful night. +</p> + +<p> +"It was all Norah's idea from the beginning," +stammered out Manus, only keeping back his tears +by a strong effort. "I mean that we could frighten +the people off by her shamming to be a ghost over +in the abbey, the way she and I were frightened +that night by the table-cloth hanging up." +</p> + +<p> +Manus came to a sudden stop as he realized that +in the fulness of his heart he had betrayed a secret +which hitherto had been only known to Norah and +himself. None of his auditors appeared to heed +this part of the story, however, in their desire to +learn what was coming. +</p> + +<p> +"We had the candle and the counterpane, you +know," Manus went on, "and we got round to the +abbey without anyone seeing us, and climbed up +inside to the high window—the stones are all broken +and sticking out, so it was quite easy. Norah +stood up in the window with the quilt round her, +and her arm stretched out, and I held the candle +behind her at the back of the stone-work, where the +flame couldn't show and it couldn't throw shadows. +We heard the people all crying out and running +away, and just as they'd gone the candle blew out. +Norah was turning round to get down and somehow +she missed her footing or she caught in the +quilt, and she fell right down to the ground. I +tried to lift her up, but—but—" +</p> + +<p> +And Manus, unable to control himself any longer, +broke down in convulsive crying. +</p> + +<p> +"And it was Piers' child that did it—Piers' child +that played the trick on them!" Mr. O'Brien +exclaimed. Then striking his stick in his wonted +fashion on the ground: "What are you all staring +at each other like a lot of boobies for? Don't you +hear what the boy says? Go with him some of +you, and bring the child here. If a door or shutter +is wanted, take off the first that comes to your +hand." +</p> + +<p> +But no shutter or door was needed to carry the +light burden of the poor little would-be ghost. +Guided by Manus, Harry and Cartwright went +across to the abbey ruin, and Harry brought the +little unconscious form back in his arms, Cartwright +following, rather ashamed of the relief he felt at +discovering that the spectre which had appalled +him was of flesh and blood, and not a phantom from +another world. +</p> + +<p> +Miss Browne and the women-servants had trooped +out into the hall, half-fearful, half-curious, so that +it was amidst a babel of questions and exclamations +that Norah was borne into the house. +</p> + +<p> +"Oh, Harry, you don't think she's killed!" said +Ella with blanched cheeks, almost repeating Manus's +words, as she looked at the white face which lay +against his shoulder and the small hand which hung +down limp and powerless. +</p> + +<p> +Harry shook his head. +</p> + +<p> +"No; her heart's beating all right, and there are +no bones broken that I can feel. It's her head most +likely that was hurt in the fall." +</p> + +<p> +"Have her carried upstairs at once and put to +bed," interposed Mr. O'Brien gruffly. "Get some +of these women to stop their chattering and to +help you. I'll be bound they didn't chatter much +while those idiots were howling outside—that +child's worth twenty dozen of the whole lot of +them! Send to the stables, and tell them to put +the fastest horse into the car and drive for the +doctor." +</p> + +<p> +He had turned towards the library, there to pass +the weary hour of suspense which must ensue, when +his eye fell on Manus standing white and miserable +at the foot of the stairs up which the procession +carrying Norah had gone. +</p> + +<p> +"See here, my boy," he said, with a sort of +embarrassed kindliness, "the best thing you can do, +instead of hanging about here, is to run home and +tell them what has happened. You've an elder +sister and a brother, haven't you?" Mr. O'Brien +paused, and seemed as though he were swallowing +down an obstruction in his throat. "Don't frighten +them more than you can help, but tell them to come +here, if they will." +</p> + +<p> +Manus shook his head disconsolately. +</p> + +<p> +"It wouldn't be any good. Roderick and Anstace +are staying at Dromore, at Lady Louisa Butler's, +to-night, and they won't be home till to-morrow." +</p> + +<p> +Mr. O'Brien gave vent to a sound which was +very like a groan. +</p> + +<p> +"Then all we can do is to wait till we hear what +the doctor says; after that, if"—he had been about +to say "the child is badly hurt", but another glance +at Manus's face made him alter the sentence to "it's +necessary—they must be sent for." +</p> + +<p> +The doctor was a long time upstairs when he +did arrive at last, and he came down again looking +very grave. +</p> + +<p> +"Concussion of the brain," he said. "Tolerably +severe, I fear; but it is not possible to ascertain +precisely just yet. There are some other injuries +of less consequence." +</p> + +<p> +Mr. O'Brien waited for no more. His hand was +shaking as he scrawled a few lines on a sheet of +note-paper and folded it. He went out with the +missive to where the coachman waited with the +horse and car. +</p> + +<p> +"Dromore," he said, as he handed it to him; +"and drive your best." +</p> + +<p> +It was in the gray light of early morning that +Roderick and Anstace drove up to Moyross Abbey. +Mr. O'Brien had watched for their coming through +the long hours of the night, and he came out into +the hall to meet them. Anstace was still in her +evening dress, with flowers in her hair and a string +of Miss Ansey's pearls round her throat. The hood +she had worn during the drive had fallen back from +her head, and if a few hours before the old man +had seen in Norah a vision of the far-back days of +his brother's childhood, it was now his lost love, the +girl to whom he had given his heart and who had +broken it for him, who came forward to meet him. +</p> + +<p> +"Marion!" he exclaimed, stopping short and +gazing at her as though spell-bound. +</p> + +<p> +But Anstace did not even notice the name he had +called her by. +</p> + +<p> +"Oh, Uncle Nicholas, our little Norah!" she cried, +as she caught his outstretched hand. "Is she so +badly hurt?" +</p> + +<p> +"My dear, my dear, I hope not!" the old man +answered brokenly; "but no one can say for certain +yet." +</p> + +<p> +Roderick and Anstace followed him upstairs to +the room where a dim night-light burned, and Ella +in an arm-chair by the bed-side kept her solitary +watch. +</p> + +<p> +"I made everyone else go to bed—there was no +use in their remaining up—as there was so little +that anyone could do," she whispered, as the brother +and sister stooped over the little unconscious form. +"Norah has never spoken or moved since she was +laid down there." +</p> + +<p><br><br><br></p> + +<p><a id="chap16"></a></p> + +<h3> +CHAPTER XVI +<br><br> +PEACE AND HARMONY +</h3> + +<p> +It was many days before Norah did speak or +move, and many more before she recovered +consciousness sufficiently to take notice of the strange +room in which she found herself, and to ask how she +came to be there; and during that time some very +surprising and unlooked-for things had happened. +</p> + +<p> +Roderick presented himself in his uncle's study +later on that same day. Mr. O'Brien sat at his +writing-table, a pile of heavy leather-bound ledgers +and account-books before him, looking weary and +listless after the excitement and the fatigue of the +previous day. A quick flush mounted to his forehead +as Roderick crossed the room and stood looking +down at him. +</p> + +<p> +"I would like to tell you, sir," he said frigidly, +"that we will not intrude upon you more than we +can possibly avoid. I had hoped that we should +have been able to move Norah to Kilshane, but the +doctor, who has just been here, has absolutely +forbidden our attempting it. Of course, so long as she +is here, Anstace must remain to nurse her; and I +hope you will not object to Manus and me coming +over every day to see her—" +</p> + +<p> +He got no further, for Mr. O'Brien started forward +and gripped his hand with a force that was almost +painful. +</p> + +<p> +"My boy, what are you talking about?" he cried. +"As if I had not wanted you all along!" +</p> + +<p> +Roderick could not conceal his astonishment. +</p> + +<p> +"You did not give me any reason to think so, +sir," he said, and stopped short once more, for his +glance had fallen on the little water-colour portrait +that hung above the writing-table, as Ella's had +done months before. +</p> + +<p> +Mr. O'Brien saw the direction of his gaze. +</p> + +<p> +"You don't need to ask who that is, Roderick," +he said. "It is your mother as she was in the days +when I thought she would have been my wife. It +is an old story, over and done with twenty-three +years ago, but she was the one woman whom I ever +loved, and when she broke faith with me, it went +near breaking my heart too. Perhaps you can +understand how I dreaded, and yet wished, to see +her children. It has been in my mind half a +hundred times since I knew you were living in +Ansey O'Brien's house to have myself driven over +there, and walk in amongst you all. I never could +bring myself to do it though. It seemed to me that +I had forfeited the right of claiming kinship with +you when I let your father die without any effort +at reconciliation." +</p> + +<p> +"We would have welcomed you at any time that +you had come, Uncle Nicholas," Roderick said +earnestly. +</p> + +<p> +"Would you, my boy? I used to doubt it, and so +I waited on in the hope that chance would bring us +together, till, as you see, it was left for little Norah +to act as <i>dea ex machina</i>, and end the great family +feud." +</p> + +<p> +Roderick could not forbear laughing. +</p> + +<p> +"Norah did it in a manner peculiarly her own," +he said. "I only hope it will not be at too great +cost to herself, poor child. Dr. Hanlon says she is +going on as well as he could hope for at present, +but he will not be able to pronounce her out of +danger for some days to come." +</p> + +<p> +Outside his uncle's door Roderick encountered +Harry Wyndham, evidently lying in wait for him. +</p> + +<p> +"Look here, I'm awfully glad you've come, and +I want you to say a good word for me to the +governor—Uncle Nicholas, you know," the lad +began eagerly and confidentially. "I haven't +ventured to show my nose to him to-day, but I +want you to persuade him that it's no good trying +to make me work on at this mine business. I hate +the whole thing, stock, lock, and barrel, and I've +cut it, once and for all." +</p> + +<p> +"Is that what you wish me to tell Uncle +Nicholas?" enquired Roderick mildly. +</p> + +<p> +"Oh well, just put it to him the best way you +can, like a good fellow; he'll take it better from you +than from me," said the ingenuous youth. "The +fact is, I mean to be a soldier," and unconsciously +he drew himself erect, and threw his chest out. "It's +what my father was before me, and what I've +wanted to be all my life; but then, you see, Uncle +Nicholas had done such a lot for Ella and me, and +he's getting old, and—oh, hang it all, you understand +what I mean—I felt he'd a sort of claim upon me, +and that I was bound to do what he wanted—at +least, that I ought to give it a try. It's no go, +I can't do it. I wouldn't have come back at all, +I'd have struck out for myself, only it would have +been behaving scurvily to Uncle Nicholas after all +I owe him. And if one's going to be a soldier, one +oughtn't to begin by shirking things, ought one?" +</p> + +<p> +"Certainly not," said Roderick, much amused, but +not wishing to point out to Harry that now that he +had come home, he did not appear very desirous of +facing his irate uncle himself. +</p> + +<p> +"Well, if you'd just tell Uncle Nicholas that if +he'll help me to get into the army it's all I'll ever +ask of him, I'll manage for myself after that. Of +course, I know I've no right to expect it, and if he +won't do it I'll enlist and work my way up, as +many a better chap has done. That's why I'm so +awfully glad that you've turned up, for of course +you're the right man in the right place to look +after the mine and keep things straight for Uncle +Nicholas, and it makes it all plain sailing for me to +go off. I shan't feel that I'm fighting shy of my +duty." +</p> + +<p> +It was quite clear that Miss Browne's ambitious +schemes had found no entrance into Harry's boyish +mind, and that to him a life of soldiering and +adventure far outweighed the O'Brien heritage which +she coveted so ardently on his behalf. +</p> + +<p> +"I have no reason to imagine that Uncle Nicholas +desires my services in any capacity," said Roderick, +"but I think he owes you a good deal for defending +his house last night. But for you he would +have found the mob in possession on his return, and +so I dare say he may be induced to let you follow +your own bent." +</p> + +<p> +Roderick's anticipations proved correct, and +Mr. O'Brien showed himself even more complaisant than +had been expected. +</p> + +<p> +"If the boy's determined to wear a red coat he'll +do better in it than he would in one of any other +colour, and so it's best to let him have his way." +</p> + +<p> +The days of late summer went by, one by one, +and still Norah lay in the same heavy stupor, +varied only by occasional outbreaks of wandering +and delirium. Ella had begged to be allowed to +share the duties of sick-nurse, and she proved as +unwearied and devoted in her attendance on Norah +as even Anstace herself. Mr. O'Brien paid at least +one visit every day to the sick-room, and displayed +the liveliest anxiety about the little patient. It +was he who despatched the mounted messenger to +Ballyfin and thence by rail to Ennis, to procure the +ice which the doctor had ordered to be placed on +Norah's head; and on the day on which Dr. Hanlon +looked his gravest, Mr. O'Brien, without a word to +either Roderick or Anstace, telegraphed for the +doctor who was most highly thought of in the +county, to come to the local practitioner's aid. He +would have summoned a surgeon from Dublin if +Norah had not taken a favourable turn, which +enabled the doctor to pronounce her in a fair way +of recovery. +</p> + +<p> +The story of the attack made by the miners upon +Moyross Abbey, and the manner in which they had +been put to flight by Norah, quickly spread through +the neighbourhood, and it was quite wonderful what +interest it aroused. +</p> + +<p> +Carriages and cars rolled up the avenue constantly +with enquiries for the little girl. Foremost +of those who came was Lady Louisa Butler, a +stately white-haired old lady, who drove all the +way from Dromore and insisted on going up into +the darkened sick-chamber, where Anstace kept +her anxious watch. +</p> + +<p> +"Me dear," she said, with just the sweetest, +softest touch of brogue in her voice, as she stooped +to kiss her, "don't you be fretting yourself to +fiddle-strings, the child will be well again, you'll see, +in next to no time. I'd have known she was Piers +O'Brien's daughter just by her planning out that +trick, it's what he'd have loved to do himself. +Dear, dear, but he was the boy for pranks and +mischief. No sooner out of one scrape than he was +into another, and how fond we were of him in spite +of it all!" +</p> + +<p> +But the interest was by no means confined to the +gentry and the county magnates; the house was +beset by humbler friends of Norah, who, as they +said themselves, "slipped up to git a bit of word" +how she was progressing. Amongst the rest was +the orator of the trolly, Malachy Flanagan himself, +who marched up one windy, blustering afternoon, +reckless of all consequences to himself, and +careless whether it had become known that it was his +eloquence which had fired the recalcitrant miners +with the thought of attacking Moyross House. He +came, too, not modestly to the back-door like the +others, but on up the avenue with his long, +swinging gait, the ends of his red beard blown back +against his chest, and sat himself down on the hall +door-steps. Drawing out his scarlet and white +handkerchief, he buried his face in it and broke +forth into loud and uncontrolled weeping, for it +was just that day on which the doctors had looked +their gravest, and a rumour had spread abroad that +"it's tuk wid a wakeness since mornin', an' goin' +fast the little darlin' is." +</p> + +<p> +"An' if we had knew that 'twas widin the house +she was, there wasn't wan as would ha' riz a stone +agin it," Malachy declared, between the paroxysms +of his grief, to Ella, who had come down to speak +to him, and who was somewhat alarmed by his wild +and uncouth demeanour. "Or if she'd as much as +come to the windy an' held up the little finger of +her hand, we'd have been as quite that minnit as a +flock of ould lambs." +</p> + +<p> +"She wanted to go out and speak to you, she did +indeed," said Ella sadly. "She said you would go +away if she asked you, but Mr. Harry would not +believe it—it seemed so unlikely—and he would +not allow her out." +</p> + +<p> +"An' what call had Miss Norah to be mindin' +Misther Harry Wyndham, or any orders that he'd +give her?" demanded Malachy fiercely, forgetting +in his excitement who his interlocutor was. "Didn't +she know there wasn't wan of us that wudn't lie +down an' let her walk over us? Yis, indade, an' +wid good right too, seein' what she done for us that +same marnin' as iver was—" +</p> + +<p> +Here, however, Malachy became incoherent, as +even in the midst of his grief it was borne in +upon him that the service which Norah had +rendered him was one which it would hardly be well +to proclaim aloud. Happily, as has been already +recorded, Norah took a turn for the better that +evening, and from thenceforth made steady though +slow progress towards recovery. +</p> + +<p> +Manus had gone back to school as soon as she +was pronounced out of danger. Mr. O'Brien had +announced his intention of sending him to Harrow +in the spring, and Harry had previously departed +to a tutor to be prepared for the entrance +examination into the army. The mine was once more a +busy hive of industry, and shipload after shipload +of valuable ore was being despatched from the iron +pier at the foot of the cliffs. Mr. O'Brien, with +Roderick and M'Bain, had met the miners on that +very plot of ground behind the mine buildings +where Malachy Flanagan on that notable evening +had harangued the crowd, and terms of peace had +been arranged. M'Bain was to continue at his +post for three months till Roderick had gained an +insight into the working of the mine, and then +relinquish the management to him. The hard-headed +and energetic Scotchman, whose opinion of +Irish peasants had not been raised by recent events, +was not sorry to resign his charge and return to +work amongst his own more congenial countrymen. +</p> + +<p> +"A pack o' grown men rinnin' fra a bit lassie in +a white sheet—peeh!" and volumes could not have +expressed as much contempt as Mr. M'Bain threw +into that monosyllable. +</p> + +<p> +Mr. O'Brien promised to overlook the attack +made upon Moyross House, and to take no +proceedings for the damage done that night, whilst the +men, through their spokesman, Malachy Flanagan, +whose influence had had a goodly share in bringing +about this peaceful settlement, agreed to return +to work and to suffer the introduction of the new +machinery, the original cause of all the ill-will. +</p> + +<p> +It was at this point that Roderick stepped +forward. +</p> + +<p> +"Boys," he said, "I know less than any of you +about copper-mining, but I mean to learn. I hope +you and I may work together for many a day to +come, and if you'll help me, we'll make Moyross +the most flourishing mine in the county Clare, and +if we can, in the whole of Ireland." +</p> + +<p> +A frantic outburst of cheering answered him; +hats and arms were waving wildly, whilst women +poured out blessings on him; and when the tumult +subsided for an instant, Malachy, his hat held aloft +upon his blackthorn, shouted: +</p> + +<p> +"God bless Moyross Abbey, and them that's in +it, an' the blue sky over it, an' little Miss Norah, +the first o' them all!" +</p> + +<p> +Another roar, louder and more vociferous than +the first, rose and rolled out over the Atlantic, and +before its echoes had died away Mr. O'Brien and +Roderick had mounted the car that was in waiting +for them and driven swiftly away. +</p> + +<p> +The car with its two occupants had become a +familiar sight on the roads in the neighbourhood of +Moyross by this time. Mr. O'Brien took Roderick +for long drives through the wide-spreading property, +visiting each portion of it in turn; and as they +passed, the women at the cabin doors said to each +other: "'Tis the ould masther an' the young +masther; the blessin' of God be in their company +this day." +</p> + +<p> +No one acquiesced in the altered aspect of affairs +with more cheerful complacency than did Miss +Browne, and the cause of her contentment was +twofold. The first was that Roderick, meeting +Ella one evening in the Monk's Walk—as it +chanced, upon the very spot where the dread +white spectre had menaced Manus and Norah—had +taken her hand in his own and told her that +he loved her, that he had loved her for a long +time—ever since that evening, indeed, when he had +caught her pony on the road and she had come +down afterwards and sat in the little drawing-room +at Kilshane amongst them all. He had +asked her if she cared enough for him to trust +herself to him and give her life into his keeping, +and Ella, though fluttered and taken by surprise, +had yet given him an answer that satisfied him; +and when they came up the path and past the ruins +of the old abbey, it was hand in hand, with the light +of a great happiness shining in their eyes. Miss +Browne was quite content to relinquish her hopes +for Harry Wyndham and to see Roderick acknowledged +as his uncle's heir, if Ella was to be his +wife; and she had another reason for her +satisfaction at the turn which matters had taken. +Ever since the night of the onslaught on Moyross +House, poor Miss Browne had been in constant +trepidation and alarm. She could not sleep at +night without fancying that she heard the shouts +and cries of the mob under her windows, and in +every frieze-coated countryman whom she +encountered on the road she saw a possible +blood-thirsty assailant. Whilst Ella needed her, nothing +would have induced Miss Browne to quit her post; +but since Ella had found another protector, there +was nothing to hinder her from leaving Moyross +and Ireland altogether, and establishing herself +upon her modest savings in security and in the +trimmest of little suburban dwellings. +</p> + +<p> +Roderick and Anstace still remained at Moyross +pending Norah's recovery. It had been arranged +that Roderick and Ella should take up their abode +at Kilshane after their marriage, whilst Anstace and +Norah were to live at Moyross with Mr. O'Brien in +Ella's place. +</p> + +<p> +It was upon this changed condition of affairs that +Norah opened her eyes, in the early days of autumn, +when the trees were beginning to assume tints of +russet and gold. The very first wish to which she +gave utterance, after coming back to full and clear +consciousness, was that Lanty Hogan might be +brought up to see her. +</p> + +<p> +Lanty, who had been among the most assiduous +of the enquirers at Moyross, was greatly gratified, +but also somewhat embarrassed, on hearing of +Norah's desire, and he came upstairs treading +gingerly on the carpets, and wiping his hobnailed +shoes with much care on the mat outside Norah's +bedroom door. +</p> + +<p> +"How do you do, Lanty? I am very glad to see +you," said Norah, stretching out her small white +hand to him as he stood just within the door, +turning his hat awkwardly round and round in +his hands. Her short black hair had been cut +shorter still during her illness, and her face seemed +to Lanty to have become all eyes, so thin and +wasted was it. +</p> + +<p> +"An' faix an' I'm glad to see you, Miss Norah," +he stammered, "if 'twas but a bit heartier ye wor +lookin'. But niver fear, ye'll be pickin' up noo, an' +it's gran' toimes we'll be havin' whin Masther Manus +comes home agin; yis, indade, sale-huntin' an' all +else." +</p> + +<p> +In his shyness Lanty hardly knew what he was +saying. Norah turned to her sister, who was sitting +at the other side of her bed. +</p> + +<p> +"Please, Anstace, what I want to say to Lanty +is a secret. Will you let me be alone with him for +a little while?" +</p> + +<p> +Anstace got up with less demur than might have +been expected. +</p> + +<p> +"Very well, Norah; you may talk to Lanty for +five minutes, but not longer. I shall come back +then." +</p> + +<p> +"Lanty, you haven't been making any more of +that stuff—I forget what you called it—the stuff +you and the other men made, up in that little house +on Drinane Head?" enquired Norah, when the door +had closed behind Anstace. +</p> + +<p> +"Is't the potheen, Miss Norah? Sorra sup's been +made since ye saw't yerself spillin' out like dirty +dish wather. Nor it's not like there will be, +nayther, up there anyways, since the polis has +their eye on us, and we'd not be knowin' when +they'd be happenin' down—bad scran to them! +'Tis another shnug little hidin' place we'll have +to be lookin' out for, I'm thinkin', for it's not +always we'd have yerself comin' up an' bringin' us +warnin'." +</p> + +<p> +"Lanty," said Norah earnestly, "I want you to +promise me that you won't make any more potheen, +neither on Drinane Head nor anywhere else. I +thought about you nearly all the time I was ill," +she went on, as Lanty stared at her in undisguised +amazement, "you and Malachy and the other men +up there, but you especially. I couldn't think +quite straight, all my ideas were upside down and +mixed together, like when one's not quite asleep +and not quite awake, don't you know, but you +were in my head somehow or other all through. +I didn't quite understand about the potheen. When +I went up to tell you about Captain Lester's coming, +it didn't seem as if the government had any right to +stop you making it if you liked; but I knew there +was something wrong about it the moment I saw +you, you looked so different from what you used +to do when you were boating and fishing with +Master Manus: your eyes were so red, and your +face was flabby, and you kept looking about all +the time as if you were afraid or ashamed of something." +</p> + +<p> +Lanty stood with his eyes on the ground shuffling +his feet awkwardly. +</p> + +<p> +"Thrue for ye, Miss Norah," he said slowly at +last, "an' meself knows that same roightly. Nor +it's not the love of the potheen that takes me +mannefacterin' it, but jist the divvlemint an' the +divarsion, an' the playin' blind hookey wid the +polis. I'd niver contint meself to live workin' +hard, wid no variety an' no venturesomeness, not +if I was to be makin' pouns an' pouns a day." +</p> + +<p> +"I'm sure all the devilment and the diversion +can't make you happy or comfortable, Lanty, +when you look as you did on Drinane Head that +morning," said Norah sagely. "And then do you +remember what Captain Lester said before he went +away, and he talked a lot more about it at breakfast +at Kilshane afterwards. He said people who +took to making potheen always came to ruin sooner +or later. I don't want you to be ruined, Lanty; you +were so kind to me, and took care of me that day +of the seal-hunt, and Master Manus likes you so +much; he says you're a broth of a boy, and he'd +be so sorry too. That was what kept worrying +me all the time I was ill, that if I didn't get well +quick you'd have been ruined; and the very first +moment Anstace would allow it, I made her bring +you upstairs. I want you to promise me that you'll +never make potheen again." +</p> + +<p> +"Sure it's too bad intirely that ye should ha' +been throublin' yerself for the likes o' me, Miss +Norah; an' there's nothin' on this mortial airth +I wudn't do for yer axin'—" he hesitated, but the +eyes that seemed to have grown so large of late +were fixed pleadingly upon him, and with desperate +resolve he added: "Divil resave the dhrop o' potheen +I'll make nor swally from this oot, not if Malachy +an' the rest o' the boys curshed till they broke their +hearts. I've promised that, Miss Norah, an' troth +I'll kape it." +</p> + +<p> +"I'm so glad," said Norah gratefully. "I won't +have to trouble any more about you; and now I +must say good-bye, Lanty, for I'm not strong +enough yet to talk a great deal, and it makes me +tired." +</p> + +<p> +Lanty touched the thin morsel of a hand which +she held out to him cautiously and reverently, as +if it were an egg-shell, or costly china, which would +break with rough handling. He was brushing his +hand across his eyes as he came out into the +corridor, and he nearly ran against Roderick, who +was on his way to his little sister's room. +</p> + +<p> +"Hullo, Lanty!" exclaimed the latter in some +astonishment. "Have you taken to the doctoring +trade, or what brings you up into Miss Norah's +room?" +</p> + +<p> +"Sure yer honour's always for havin' yer joke," +said Lanty, grinning confusedly. "Miss Norah +tuk a fancy to see me—'twas a little thransacsheeon +her an' me was consarned about." +</p> + +<p> +"Had the transaction anything to do with your +making potheen on Drinane Head, and her going +up there to tell you the police were coming?" asked +Anstace quietly, from the window in which she had +stood looking out on the pleasure-ground and waiting +for the minutes allotted to the interview to be +over. +</p> + +<p> +Lanty faced round quickly. +</p> + +<p> +"An' how did yer honour know that?" +</p> + +<p> +Anstace laughed softly. +</p> + +<p> +"I only guessed it before, Lanty; but I know it +now. Miss Norah talked about it almost always +when she was delirious, but what she said was so +incoherent and confused we could not make much +of it. Mr. Roderick would not believe that she +could really have gone up to warn you, and thought +it was only a delusion that had got hold of her, but +I remembered two or three little things which +happened that morning which made me suspect it +was true; and now, Lanty, you have admitted it to +me yourself." +</p> + +<p> +"Yer honour's too cute for a poor boy like me," +said Lanty in wheedling tones; "but sure it's not +yerself, Miss Anstace, that wud inform agin us, an' +me jist afther promisin' Miss Norah that I'd quit +out of the business wanst an' for all?" +</p> + +<p> +"Well, I'm glad to hear that, at any rate, Lanty; +and if you do turn over a new leaf and settle down +steadily to some honest trade, you may be quite +sure that neither Mr. Roderick nor I will ever +breathe a word of what we know." +</p> + +<p> +"I'll thry me livin' best," protested Lanty earnestly; +"but whin ye're used to sthravagin' over the +counthry wid ne'er a thing to do but plaze yerself, +settlin' down to work stiddy is the mischief's own +job." +</p> + +<p> +And Lanty heaved a prodigious sigh. +</p> + +<p> +"I'll make you an offer," said Roderick, who had +been listening to the colloquy with much +amusement. "Old Pat Lannigan, the gamekeeper, is +getting past his work, and Mr. O'Brien has been +talking of engaging some strapping young fellow +as under-keeper to assist him. Now if you're really +going to turn over the new leaf Miss Anstace talks +of, and will promise to keep from drink and +potheen-making and poaching for the future, I'll +try to induce my uncle to give the berth to you. +That will give you the sort of roving, outdoor life +that you like; and if you are steady and give +Mr. O'Brien satisfaction, there will be every likelihood +that when old Pat finally gives up work you will +become gamekeeper in his stead." +</p> + +<p> +Lanty flushed up under his freckles, and his eyes +beamed with pleasure. +</p> + +<p> +"Thank ye, Misther Roderick; sure that's what +I'd rather be nor nothin' besides." +</p> + +<p> +"One thing I'm sure of," and Roderick looked at +him with a twinkle in his eyes, "that there's not a +boy in the country that knows the ways of every +creature that has feathers or fur, and where to find +it, better than yourself. But remember, Lanty," he +added more gravely, "if I speak to my uncle on +your behalf I shall expect you not to disgrace my +recommendation." +</p> + +<p> +"No fear, yer honour, not the taste of a fear," +asseverated Lanty joyfully, as he vanished in the +direction of the backstairs. +</p> + +<p class="thought"> +* * * * * * * +</p> + +<p> +"And when you are married, Ella will be my +sister—my real, own sister, like Anstace? Oh, I +do think it's the most wonderful and the very +jolliest thing that ever happened!" +</p> + +<p> +It was a few days later, and Norah had been +moved for the first time from her bed to a sofa. +</p> + +<p> +"I quite agree with you, Norah," said Roderick, +who, with Anstace and Ella, had gathered in her +room for afternoon tea, and who was sitting on the +arm of the sofa looking down at his little sister. +"What you have to do now is to get well and +strong as quickly as possible, for Ella is determined +not to be married till you can be her bridesmaid. +The very first day you are able to go out of the +house I will take you down and show you the +Monk's Walk, where this most wonderful and jolly +thing came to pass, and Ella promised to bestow +herself on my unworthy self." +</p> + +<p> +"But Norah has seen the Monk's Walk before, +surely?" exclaimed Ella. Roderick laughed. +</p> + +<p> +"You forget what strangers we all were to each +other till Norah broke the ice for us, and her own +head into the bargain, by tumbling down from the +abbey window. She had never even set foot inside +Moyross till she ran over that night with Manus to +give you warning that the miners were coming, had +you, little woman?" +</p> + +<p> +To Roderick's astonishment, Norah's pale face +crimsoned slowly from chin to brow. +</p> + +<p> +"Yes, I was in Moyross before—once," she said, +after a few minutes' painful hesitation; "and I +came up the Monk's Walk, only it was so dark we +couldn't see anything, Manus and I. I've wanted +to tell about it ever so often since I've been ill, only +I was afraid it would make Uncle Nicholas so +dreadfully angry that perhaps he'd have another +quarrel with us. But there can't be a family feud +now, can there, when Roderick and Ella are going +to be married?" +</p> + +<p> +"No, dear, of course not; and now lie quiet and +try to go to sleep," said Anstace soothingly. She +thought this strange talk on Norah's part must +mean that she had been over-excited and that her +mind was beginning to wander as it had done +during her illness. +</p> + +<p> +But Norah's eyes were far too wide and bright +for any possibility of sleep. +</p> + +<p> +"Not even when Uncle Nicholas hears that it +was Manus and I who shot holes into his +table-cloth?" she asked anxiously. +</p> + +<p> +"Norah, you are not in earnest surely?" said +Roderick sternly, whilst Anstace laid her hand +quickly on her little sister's forehead. She was +quite certain now that Norah was suffering from a +sudden return of fever. +</p> + +<p> +Norah, however, shook herself from under the +cool, quieting clasp. +</p> + +<p> +"It is true, it is indeed!" she said piteously. "It +was that night when we were coming back after +killing the seal in Ballintaggart Cave, and Lanty +put us ashore out of his coracle in the cove, because +he was in a hurry— Oh, but I forgot," interrupting +herself; "that was a secret too!" +</p> + +<p> +Roderick looked even more grave. +</p> + +<p> +"I think we know pretty well about Master +Lanty and his doings, Norah," he said; "betraying +them is not of much consequence. But I confess I +don't like to hear of all this underhand work and +keeping of secrets which seems to have gone on +behind Anstace's and my back. Let us have the +rest of the story now, please; we have not heard +about the table-cloth yet." +</p> + +<p> +Very falteringly and tremulously it was told, +for Norah, though she was very fond of Roderick, +stood also in some awe of him and of his +displeasure. +</p> + +<p> +"And why did you not come forward at once +when you saw Miss Browne and Ella, and tell them +how it had happened, and how sorry you were for +the mischief you had done?" demanded Anstace at +the end of the recital. +</p> + +<p> +Poor Norah hung her head. +</p> + +<p> +"We were so much ashamed, and we were afraid, +too, because Miss Browne seemed so angry about +the table-cloth. And Manus said everyone would +laugh at us so dreadfully if they heard that we +had thought a table-cloth hanging on a tree was a +ghost, so we agreed to keep it a secret; but, oh +dear! I'm glad it's told, for secrets do weigh on one +so much." +</p> + +<p> +Ella stooped quickly to kiss her. +</p> + +<p> +"Never mind, Norah dear, it doesn't matter in +the least, not if you had shot all the table-cloths in +Moyross into rags. Roderick, you are not to frown +like that, I won't have it!" +</p> + +<p> +Roderick, in truth, in his efforts to keep the +muscles of his face under control, and to +maintain a proper air of severity while Norah was +telling her story, had contracted his forehead into +a most portentous frown. At Ella's command, +however, issued with a pretty air of imperiousness +that was quite new to her, he gave up the struggle +to retain his gravity and indulged in a hearty and +prolonged fit of laughter, in which Anstace and +Ella were not slow to join. +</p> + +<p> +"Hey! Hullo! What's all this about?" said a +voice behind them. +</p> + +<p> +Mr. O'Brien had come in without anyone hearing +him, and was standing leaning on his stick, holding +a fine bunch of grapes in his other hand. +</p> + +<p> +"Norah shall tell you what the joke is," said +Roderick. "Yes, Norah, every word, just as you +have told us now, before you touch one of the +grapes Uncle Nicholas has brought you. I ordain +that as your penance." +</p> + +<p> +So the whole story had to be told over again, +but this time Norah, conscious of having the +sympathy of the larger part of her audience with +her, was not as nervous as on the first occasion. +There was even a roguish twinkle in her eyes as +she finished up with: +</p> + +<p> +"But you see, Uncle Nicholas, if it hadn't been +for that table-cloth ghost, I'd never have thought +of being a ghost up in the abbey window; so it was +a good thing it happened after all." +</p> + +<p> +"So it was, my dear, a first-rate thing," said the +old man. "And you deserve your grapes for telling +it so well. You were a pretty pair of cowards, you +and that young rascal Manus; but perhaps we'd +none of us have been heroes under the +circumstances." And he laughed with as keen enjoyment +as anyone else. +</p> + +<p> +"Norah is getting on so well, Uncle Nicholas," +said Anstace, "that I think we shall not have to +trespass on your kindness much longer. In a few +days, if you will lend us the carriage, I think we +shall be able to take her home to Kilshane." +</p> + +<p> +"Eh, what's that?" said Mr. O'Brien, wheeling +round upon her. "I thought, my dear, you +understood that 'home' for you was here from +henceforward. I'll lend no carriages to take anyone +away from here till one is needed to drive +Mr. and Mrs. Roderick O'Brien on their +wedding-journey. And that wedding is going to be a big +affair, I've made up my mind about that. It shall +be remembered in the county when Miss Norah +here is brushing a gray head. There's one thing +I would like you to understand, nephew Roderick," +he said after a pause, fixing his eyes keenly upon +him. "Nothing which has occurred during the last +few weeks alters your future prospects in any way. +You only hold the position which you have held +since your father's death. Nothing would have +induced me to leave an acre of O'Brien land away +from the rightful heir." +</p> + +<p> +"There, didn't I tell you so, Anstace?" exclaimed +Norah triumphantly from her sofa, before anyone +else could speak. +</p> + +<p> +"Told me what, dear? What are you talking +about?" asked her elder sister, somewhat puzzled. +</p> + +<p> +"Don't you remember that first day when you +came to Treherne House and told me that Cousin +Ansey had left Kilshane to us, and that we were +all coming over to live here? You said then you +were sure that Uncle Nicholas would not make up +the feud, and that he would leave Moyross Abbey +to Harry Wyndham; and I told you he hadn't a +right to leave half a quarter of a yard of O'Brien +land to anyone except an O'Brien." +</p> + +<p> +"Really, Norah, you have become extremely +forward since you have been ill," said Roderick, +with considerable annoyance. "No one has asked +for your opinion, and in future please to remember +that little girls should be seen and not heard." +</p> + +<p> +"Just you leave her alone," said Mr. O'Brien +gruffly, as the tears sprang into Norah's eyes at +her brother's rebuke, and he patted her hand +kindly. "If she said anything of the sort, it +only showed that she had more sense in her +composition than all the rest of her family put +together. She's always been the one to cut the +Gordian knot and find the way out of difficulties +for everyone—miners, smugglers, and quarrelling +relatives included." He paused and sighed heavily, +then added as by an overmastering impulse, "I +wish your father Piers were here to see this day." +</p> + +<p> +"I wish indeed that he were, sir, or even that +you and he might have met and made up your +quarrel before he died," said Roderick earnestly. +</p> + +<p> +Mr. O'Brien sighed once again. +</p> + +<p> +"You cannot desire it as I do, Roderick. I +would gladly give half the little life that is left +to me that he and I had shaken hands even once. +He wronged me deeply, but he was my only +brother, and many a time of late years I should +have been glad if any opportunity had arisen to +end the estrangement. But I let the time slip +by, waiting for the chance that never came, and +then one day I heard it was too late." +</p> + +<p> +There was a few minutes' silence, and then +Anstace said softly: +</p> + +<p> +"It will be a year next week since he died. How +little we thought then that we should all be here, +gathered in his old home." +</p> + +<p><br><br><br><br></p> + +<div style='text-align:center'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 75934 ***</div> +</body> + +</html> + + diff --git a/75934-h/images/img-cover.jpg b/75934-h/images/img-cover.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..58d0877 --- /dev/null +++ b/75934-h/images/img-cover.jpg diff --git a/75934-h/images/img-front.jpg b/75934-h/images/img-front.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..de1d136 --- /dev/null +++ b/75934-h/images/img-front.jpg |
