s a general tendency to say, "The divil's cure
to him," and listen complacently to any details their visitors could
impart. For in his private capacity a policeman, provided that he be
otherwise "a dacint lad," which, to do him justice, is commonly the
case, may join, with a few unobtrusive restrictions, in our neighbourly
gossips; the rule, in fact, being--Free admission except on business.

Only Mrs. Kilfoyle was so much cast down by her misfortune that she
could not raise herself to the level of an interest in the affairs of
her thrifty suitor, and the babble of voices relating and commenting
sounded as meaningless as the patter of the drops which jumped like
little fishes in the large puddle at their feet. It had spread
considerably before Constable Black said to his comrade--

"Well, Daly, we'd better be steppin' home wid ourselves as wise as we
come, as the man said when he'd axed his road of the ould black horse in
the dark lane. There's no good goin' further, for the whole gang of
them's scattered over the counthry agin now like a seedin' thistle in a
high win'."

"Ay bedad," said Constable Daly, "and be the same token, this win' ud
skin a tanned elephant. It's on'y bogged and drenched we'd git. Look at
what's comin' up over there. That rain's snow on the hills, every could
drop of it; I seen Ben Bawn this mornin' as white as the top of a
musharoon, and it's thickenin' wid sleet here this minute, and so it
is."

The landscape did indeed frown upon further explorations. In quarters
where the rain had abated it seemed as if the mists had curdled on the
breath of the bitter air, and they lay floating in long white bars and
reefs low on the track of their own shadow, which threw down upon the
sombre bogland deeper stains of gloom. Here and there one caught on the
crest of some grey-bouldered knoll, and was teazed into fleecy threads
that trailed melting instead of tangling. But towards the north the
horizon was all blank, with one vast, smooth slant of slate colour, like
a pent-house roof, which had a sliding motion onwards.

Ody Rafferty pointed to it and said, "Troth, it's teemin' powerful this
instiant up there in the mountains. 'Twill be much if you land home
afore it's atop of you; for 'twould be the most I could do myself."

And as the constables departed hastily, most people forgot the stolen
cloak for a while to wonder whether their friends would escape being
entirely drownded on the way back from the