ed me what I'd got in the car. The three of
them whispered together for a bit, and I suggested that if they didn't
believe me they'd better go and see. The car was outside the door, and
their own man was sitting on the guns. Dopping went, and I suppose he
told the other two that the guns were there all right Dad asked me where
I got them, and I told them, mentioning Hazlewood's name and the name
of the yacht I was a bit puzzled, but I still thought everything was all
right, and that there'd be no harm in mentioning names. I very soon
saw that there was some sort of mistake somewhere. The governor and old
Dopping and the other man, who seemed to be the coolest of the three,
went over to the window and looked at the car. Then they started
whispering again, and I couldn't hear a word they said. Didn't want to.
I was as hungry as a wolf, and there was a jolly good breakfast on the
table. I sat down and gorged. I had just started my third egg when
the door opened, and a rather nice-looking young fellow walked in. The
footman came behind him, looking as white as a sheet, and began some
sort of apology for letting the stranger in. Old Dopping, who was still
in a pretty bad temper, told the footman to go and be damned. Then the
new man introduced himself. He said he was Colonel O'Connell, of the
first Armagh Regiment of National Volunteers. I expected to see old
Dopping kill him at sight Dopping is a tremendous loyalist, and the
other fellow--well--phew!"

Sam whistled. Words failed him, I suppose, when it came to expressing
the disloyalty of a colonel of National Volunteers.

"Instead of that," said Sam, "Dopping stood up straight, and saluted
O'Connell. O'Connell stiffened his back, and saluted Dopping. The
third man, the one I didn't know, stood up, too, and saluted. O'Connell
saluted him. Then the governor bowed quite civilly, and O'Connell
saluted him. I can tell you it was a pretty scene. 'I beg to inform
you, gentlemen,' said O'Connell, 'that a consignment of rifles and
ammunition, apparently intended for your force, has arrived at our
headquarters in a motor lorry.' Nothing could have been civiller than
the way he spoke. But Dopping was not to be beat He's a bristly old bear
at times, but he always was a gentleman. 'Owing to a mistake,' he said,
'some arms, evidently belonging to you, are now in a car at our door.'
The governor and the other man sat down and laughed till they were
purple, but neither O'Connell nor old