great influence on the minds of those
who read it, more influence, perhaps, than even The Times has on its
subscribers. For the readers of Gallagher's leading articles and columns
of news were still in that primitive stage of culture in which every
statement made in print is accepted as certainly true, whereas the
subscribers to The Times have been educated into an unworthy kind
of scepticism. Also the readers of the Connacht Eagle read little or
nothing else, while those who read The Times usually glance at one or
two other papers as well, and even waste their time and unsettle their
minds by dipping into books. Thus, in spite of the fact that The Times
appears every day, and the Connacht Eagle only once a week, it is likely
that the Irish paper exercises more real influence than the English
one--produces, that is to say, more definite effect upon the opinions
of men who have votes. The editor of The Times would perhaps scarcely
recognise Thady Gallagher as a fellow journalist. He may know--would
probably in any case be ashamed to admit that he did not know--where
Bolivia is. Thady Gallagher did not know, and was prepared to confess
his ignorance in private to his friend. Yet Gallagher was in reality the
more important man of the two.

"I know as much about Bolivia," he said, "as I do about the General, and
that's nothing at all."

"I'm glad it's you and not me," said Doyle, "that he took the fancy to
go out walking with."

"I suppose now," said Gallagher, "that you wouldn't come along with us."

"I will not," said Doyle, "so you may make your mind easy about that."

"I don't see what harm it would do you."

"I've things to look after," said Doyle, "and anyway I don't fancy
spending my time talking about a dead General that nobody ever heard
of."

"It's what I feel myself," said Gallagher.

"You may feel it," said Doyle, "but you'll have to go with him. It was
you he asked and not me."

CHAPTER III

Dr. Lucius O'Grady is the only medical man in Ballymoy. Whatever
money there is to be won by the practice of the art of healing in the
neighbourhood, Dr. O'Grady wins and has all to himself. Unfortunately it
is not nearly sufficient for his needs. He is not married and so cannot
plead a wife and family as excuses for getting into debt. But he is a
man of imaginative mind with an optimistic outlook upon life. Men of
this kind hardly ever live within their incomes, however large their
incomes are; and Dr