rty, 'for there was not a soul in the town but Jerome, the--the
treacherous ape, that knew it. It's he that dhresses my head every
morning behind the bed-curtain there, with the door locked. And Nutter
could never have found it out--_who_ was to tell him, unless that ojus
French damon, that's never done talkin' about it;' and O'Flaherty strode
heavily up and down the room with his hands in his breeches' pockets,
muttering savage invectives, pitching his head from side to side, and
whisking round at the turns in a way to show how strongly he was wrought
upon.

'Come in, Sorr!' thundered O'Flaherty, unlocking the door, in reply to a
knock, and expecting to see his 'ojus French damon.' But it was a tall
fattish stranger, rather flashily dressed, but a little soiled, with a
black wig, and a rollicking red face, showing a good deal of chin and
jaw.

O'Flaherty made his grandest bow, quite forgetting the exposure at the
top of his head; and Puddock stood rather shocked, with the candle in
one hand and O'Flaherty's scalp in the other.

'You come, Sir, I presume, from Mr. Nutter,' said O'Flaherty, with lofty
courtesy. This, Sir, is my friend, Lieutenant Puddock of the Royal Irish
Artillery, who does me the honour to support me with his advice and--'

As he moved his hand towards Puddock, he saw his scalp dangling between
that gentleman's finger and thumb, and became suddenly mute. He clapped
his hand upon his bare skull, and made an agitated pluck at that
article, but missed, and disappeared, with an imprecation in Irish,
behind the bed curtains.

'If you will be so obliging, Sir, as to precede me into that room,'
lisped Puddock, with grave dignity, and waving O'Flaherty's scalp
slightly towards the door--for Puddock never stooped to hide anything,
and being a gentleman, pure and simple, was not ashamed or afraid to
avow his deeds, words, and situations; 'I shall do myself the honour to
follow.'

'Gi' me _that_,' was heard in a vehement whisper from behind the
curtains. Puddock understood it, and restored the treasure.

The secret conference in the drawing-room was not tedious, nor indeed
very secret, for anyone acquainted with the diplomatic slang in which
such affairs were conducted might have learned in the lobby, or indeed
in the hall, so mighty was the voice of the stranger, that there was no
chance of any settlement without a meeting which was fixed to take place
at twelve o'clock next day on the Fifteen Acres.