ing satisfied himself that its appearance was
very much what he expected he walked down the quay to the place where
Kinsella was sitting.

"It's a fine evening," he said.

"It is," said Kinsella, "as fine an evening as you'd see, thanks be to
God."

Peter Walsh sat down beside his friend and spat into the boat beneath
him.

"I seen the sergeant talking to you," he said.

"That same sergeant has mighty little to do," said Kinsella.

"It'll be as well for us if he hasn't more one of these days."

"What do you mean by that, Peter Walsh?"

"What might he have been talking to you about?"

"Gravel, no less."

"Asking who it might be for or the like? Would you say, now, Joseph
Antony, that he was anyways uneasy in his mind?"

"He was uneasy," said Kinsella, "but he's easy now."

"Did you tell him who the gravel was for?"

"Is it likely I'd tell him when I didn't know myself? What I told him
was that Timothy Sweeny had the gravel bought off me at five shillings a
load and that it was likely he'd be sending it by rail to some gentleman
up the country that would have it ordered from him."

"And what did he say to that?"

"What he as good as said was that Timothy Sweeny and myself would have
the gentleman cheated out of half the gravel he'd paid for by the time
he'd got the other half. There was a smile on his face like there might
be on a man, and him after a long drink, when he found out the way we
were getting the better of the gentleman up the country. Believe you me,
Peter Walsh, he wouldn't have rested easy in his bed until he did find
out, either that or some other thing."

"That sergeant is as cute as a pet fox," said Peter Walsh. "You'd be
hard set to keep anything from him that he wanted to know."

Kinsella sat for some minutes without speaking. Then he took a match
from his pocket and lit his pipe for the third time.

"I'd be glad," he said, "if you'd tell me what it was you had in your
mind when you said a minute ago that the sergeant might maybe have more
to do than he'd care for one of these days."

Peter Walsh looked carefully round him in every direction and satisfied
himself that there was no one within earshot.

"Was I telling you," he said, "about the gentleman, and the lady along
with him that came in on the train today?"

"You were not."

"Well, he came, and I'm thinking that he's a high-up man."

"What about him?"

"The sergeant was sent for up to the big house," said Peter Wals