s he dragged him along; "walk in,
man alive; sure, and sich an honest man as you are needn't be afeard of
lookin' his friends in the face! Ho!--an' be me sowl, is it a spy we've
got; and, I suppose, would be an informer' too, if he had heard anything
to tell!"

"What's the manin' of this, boys?" exclaimed the others, feigning
ignorance. "Let the honest man go, Traynor. What do ye hawl him that way
for, ye gallis pet'?"

"Honest!" replied Traynor; "how very honest he is, the desavin' villain,
to be stand-in' at the windy there, wantin' to overhear the little
harmless talk we had."

"Come, Traynor," said Brady, seizing him in his turn by the neck, "take
your hands off of me, or, bad fate to me, but I'll lave ye a mark."

Traynor, in his turn, had his hand twisted in Brady's cravat, which he
drew tightly about his neck, until the other got nearly black in the
face.

"Let me go you villain!" exclaimed Brady, "or, by this blessed night
that's in it, it'll be worse for you."

"Villain, is it?" replied Traynor, making a blow at him, whilst Brady
snatched, at a penknife, which one of the others had placed on the
table, after picking the tobacco out of his pipe--intending either to
stab Traynor, or to cut the knot of the cravat by which he was held. The
others, however, interfered, and presented further mischief.

"Brady," said Traynor, "you'll rue this night, if ever a man did, you
tracherous in-formin' villian. What an honest spy we have among us!--and
a short coorse to you!"

"O, hould yer tongue, Traynor!" replied Brady: "I believe it's best
known who is both the spy and the informer. The divil a pint of poteen
ever you'll run in this parish, until you clear yourself of bringing
the gauger on the Tracys, bekase they tuck Mick M'Kew, in preference to
yourself, to run it for them."

Traynor made another attempt to strike him, but was prevented. The rest
now interfered; and, in the course of an hour or so, an adjustment took
place.

Brady took up the tongs, and swore "by that blessed iron," that he
neither heard, nor intended to hear, anything they said; and this
exculpation was followed by a fresh bottle at his own expense.

"You omadhawn," said he to Traynor, "I was only puttin' up a dozen o'
bottles into the tatch of the house, when you thought I was listenin';"
and, as a proof of the truth of this, he brought them out, and showed
them some bottles of poteen, neatly covered up under the thatch.

Before their