to drown yourselves," said Patsy the smith
sullenly.

"The glass has gone down," said Timothy Sweeny, coming forward.

"Help the gentleman ashore," said Priscilla, "and don't croak about the
weather."

"The master was saying today," said Peter Walsh, "that he'd take the
_Tortoise_ out tomorrow, and the gentleman that's up at the house along
with him. I'd be glad now, Miss, if you'd tell him it'll be no use him
wasting his time coming down to the quay on account of the weather being
broke and the wind going round to the southeast."

"And the glass going down," said Sweeny.

"It'll be better for him to amuse himself some other way tomorrow," said
Patsy the smith.

"I'll tell him," said Priscilla.

"And if the young gentleman that's with you," said Peter Walsh, "would
say the same I'd be glad. We wouldn't like anything would happen to the
master, for he's well liked."

"It would be a disgrace to the whole of us," said Patsy the smith, "if
the strange gentleman was to be drownded."

"They'd have it on the papers if anything happened him," said Sweeny,
"and the place would be getting a bad name, which is what I wouldn't
like on account of being a magistrate."

Priscilla began to wheel the bath-chair away from the quay. Having gone
a few steps she turned and winked impressively at Peter Walsh. Then she
went on. The party on the quay watched her out of sight.

"Now what," said Sweeny, "might she mean by that kind of behaviour?"

"It's as much as to say," said Peter Walsh, "that she knows damn well
where it is the master and the other gentleman will be wanting to go."

"She's mighty cute," said Sweeny.

"And what's more," said Peter Walsh, "she'll stop him if she's able. For
she doesn't want them out on Inishbawn, no more than we do."

"Are you sure now that she meant that?" said Sweeny.

"I'm as sure as if she said it, and surer."

"She's a fine girl, so she is," said Patsy the smith.

"Devil the finer you'd see," said one of the loafers, "if you was to
search from this to America."

This, though a spacious, was a thin compliment.

There are never, even at the height of the transatlantic tourist season,
very many girls between Rosnacree and America.

"Anyway," said Sweeny hopefully, "it could be that the wind will go
round to the southeast before morning. The glass didn't rise any since
the thunder."

"It might," said Peter Walsh.

A southeast wind is dreaded, with good reason, in Rosnacree Bay. It