ory.

The restless eyes, the wide-spread nostrils and quivering flanks of
the animals, not less than the noiseless caution of the grooms at their
heads, showed that their education had not yet been completed; and so
Fagan remarked at once.

"They look rakish,--there's no denying it!" said Mac-Naghten; "but they
are gentleness itself. The only difficulty is to put the traps on them;
once fairly on, there's nothing to apprehend. You are not afraid of
them, Miss Polly?" said he, with a strong emphasis on the "you."

"When you tell me that I need not be, I have no fears," said she,
calmly.

"I must be uncourteous enough to say that I do not concur in the
sentiment," said Fagan; "and, with your leave, Mr. MacNaghten, we will
walk."

"Walk! why, to see anything, you'll have twelve miles a-foot. It must
n't be thought of, Miss Polly,--I cannot hear of it!" She bowed, as
though in half assent; and he continued: "Thanks for the confidence; you
shall see it is not misplaced. Now, Fagan--"

"I am decided, Mr. MacNaghten; I'll not venture; nor will I permit my
daughter to risk her life."

"Neither would I, I should hope," said MacNaghten; and, although the
words were uttered with something of irritation, there was that in the
tone that made Polly blush deeply.

"It's too bad, by Jove!" muttered he, half aloud, "when a man has so
few things that he really can do, to deny his skill in the one he knows
best."

"I am quite ready, sir," said Polly, in that tone of determination which
she was often accustomed to assume, and against which her father rarely
or never disputed.

"There now, Fagan, get up into the rumble. I 'll not ask you to be the
coachman. Come, come,--no more opposition; we shall make them impatient
if we keep them standing much longer."

As he spoke, he offered his arm to Polly, who, with a smile,--the first
she had deigned to give him,--accepted it, and then, hastily leading her
forward, he handed her into the carriage. In an instant MacNaghten was
beside her. With the instinct of hot-tempered cattle, they no sooner
felt a hand upon the reins than they became eager to move forward, and,
while one pawed the ground with impatience, the other, retiring to the
very limit of the pole-strap, prepared for a desperate plunge.

"Up with you, Fagan; be quick--be quick!" cried Dan. "It won't do to
hold them in. Let them go, lads, or they 'll smash everything!" and the
words were hardly out, when, with a tremendous