than he chose to confess.
Anyway he waited for me.

"Now," said I, "Mister Martin, I'm waiting for you."

He made a lunge at me, which I dodged, and before he knew where he was I
had him on the cheek-bone so suddenly that he slipped and tumbled on the
ground.

I was two years older than the day I had fought Tim, poor Tim, on the
cliff at Fanad. And to-day I was so uplifted I could have fought an
army.

So it was a disappointment when Martin stumbled to his feet and sheered
off with a threat of vengeance.

What cared I? Paddy and I had won a race, and my little mistress was
safe.

Yet Martin, as will appear presently, was a man of his word.

CHAPTER NINE.

BEHIND THE INN DOOR AT RATHMULLAN.

I know not what account of our adventure was given by my little mistress
to her parents, but certain it was I found myself risen in the good
graces of the mother, if not in those of his honour. As to the latter,
his graces, good or bad, were hard to calculate. Perhaps he disliked me
less than before, rather than liked me better. He said nothing, except
to reprimand me for assaulting Martin. But I suspected it was no
special love for Martin which called forth the rebuke.

And now, for a time, things went uneasily at Knockowen. For a sour man,
his honour kept a good deal of company; and I, who waited upon them,
with eyes and ears open, could see that my master was playing a
difficult and dangerous game.

One week certain mysterious persons would drop in, and sit in long
confabulation. Another week some fellow-justice of his honour's would
claim his hospitality and advice on matters of deep importance.
Sometimes a noisy braggart from the country side would demand an
audience; and sometimes an officer in his Majesty's uniform would arrive
as an honoured guest.

On all such occasions the tenor of the talk was the growing unrest of
the country, and the gathering of that great storm which was soon to
turn the whole country into a slaughter-house.

But the difficult task which Mr Gorman set before himself was to agree
with everybody.

That he was deep in league with the smugglers on the coast I myself
knew. But to hear him talk to the revenue officers who visited him, one
might think that he spent his days and nights in seeking to put down
this detestable trade. That he had a hand in the landing of foreign
arms the reader knows as well as I. But when his brother magistrates
came to lay their heads with his,