against me--not in the king's name, but
in the name of Tim Gallagher, your brother, captain of the rebels here."

"In Tim's name!" exclaimed I. "It's false! I swear he never signed it;
he is not even in the country."

"Don't be too sure of that. Anyway he's their chosen leader, and they
do all in his name. I daren't go outside my own doors after dark for
fear of a bullet."

"The scoundrels!" cried I, starting up; "and they dare drag Tim's name
into their vile machinations. I tell you, Mr Gorman, Tim would no more
wink at murder than--than Miss Kit would. And, by the way, sir, what of
Miss Kit?"

He looked round with his haggard face.

"What is that to you, Gallagher?"

"I love her," said I bluntly, "and so I have a right to know."

"You! the son of Mike the boatman, and brother of Tim the rebel! You
dare--"

I cut him short.

"See here, Maurice Gorman; understand me. With or without you I will
find her, if I have to seek her to the world's end. I've done so before
now; remember how we parted last."

"Oh," said he, "I know all that, and of your meeting her in Holland and
placing her in Biddy McQuilkin's care. She wrote me all about that; and
it's little I owe you for it. Biddy belongs, body and soul, to the
rebel faction."

"But she wouldn't let a hair of Miss Kit's head be hurt for all that."

"How do you know that, so long as I could be made to suffer by it?"

"Where are they now, then?" I asked eagerly.

"Till lately she was in Dublin, in the family of Lord Edward, who,
traitor as he is, is at least a gentleman, and a distant kinsman into
the bargain. She was happy there; and what sort of place was this to
bring a girl to? But look here," said he, getting up and fumbling in a
drawer among some papers, "what do you say to this?" and he put a
letter, written in a delicate female hand, before me. It read as
follows:--

"To Maurice Gorman, Esquire.

"Sir,--With great sorrow I inform you that Miss Gorman, while walking
yesterday evening in the Park with her attendant McQuilkin, was
surrounded by a gang of masked men, and they were both carried away,
whither we know not. We are in terrible distress, and sparing no effort
to find the dear girl, whom Lord Edward and I had come to love as a
sister. Be assured you shall receive such news as there may be. Lord
Edward's wrath knows no bounds, and he even risks his own liberty (for
he is a marked man) in seeking for them.--I have the honour t