after was cruel to any creature, but this is
sure--that he never after cared to be with cats of any sort.

This was the end of Hall, so far as his life had bearing on that of
James Hartigan Second; for Kitty dismissed him promptly as soon as she
heard the story of his brutality.

* * * * *

Of all the specimens of fine, physical manhood who owned allegiance to
Downey's Hotel, Fightin' Bill Kenna was the outstanding figure. He was
not so big as Mulcahy, or such a wrestler as Dougherty, or as skilled a
boxer as McGraw; he knew little of the singlestick and nothing of
knife- or gun-play; and yet his combination of strength, endurance and
bullet-headed pluck made him by general voice "the best man in Links."

Bill's temper was fiery; he loved a fight. He never was worsted, the
nearest thing to it being a draw between himself and Terry Barr. After
that Terry went to the States and became a professional pugilist of
note. Bill's social record was not without blemish. He was known to have
appropriated a rope, to the far end of which was attached another man's
horse. He certainly had been in jail once and should have been there a
dozen times, for worse crimes than fighting. And yet Bill was firmly
established as Bible bearer in the annual Orangemen's parade and would
have smashed the face of any man who tried to rob him of his holy
office.

Kenna was supposed to be a farmer, but he loved neither crops nor land.
The dream of his exuberant life was to be a horse breeder, for which
profession he had neither the capital nor the brains. His social and
convivial instincts ever haled him townward, and a well-worn chair in
Downey's bar-room was by prescriptive right the town seat of William
Kenna, Esq., of the Township of Opulenta. Bill had three other good
qualities besides his mighty fists. He was true to his friends, he was
kind to the poor and he had great respect for his "wurd as a mahn." If
he gave his "wurd as a mahn" to do thus and so, he ever made a strenuous
effort to keep it.

Bill was madly in love with Kitty Hartigan. She was not unmoved by the
huge manliness of the warlike William, but she had too much sense to
overlook his failings, and she held him off as she did a dozen more--her
devoted lovers all--who hung around ever hoping for special favour. But
though Kitty would not marry him, she smiled on Kenna indulgently and
thus it was that this man of brawn had far too much to say in sh