mmy McLoughlin
looked round and saw them. So did Mr. Hinde.

While Jimmy summoned his men from the ditches where they were smoking
and the fields into which they had wandered, Mr. Hinde gave an order to
his police. They took the sacking from their cart. Underneath it were
all the band instruments belonging to the Orange Lodge. The police
unpacked them carefully and then, loaded with drums and brass
instruments, went up the road to meet the Wolfe Tone Republicans.

Jimmy McLoughlin ran to Mr. Hinde, shouting as he went:

"What are you doing with them drums?"

Mr. Hinde turned and waited for them.

"I'm going to hand them over to Cornelius O'Farrelly," he said.

"You're going to do nothing of the sort," said Jimmy, "for they're our
drums, so they are."

"I don't know anything about that," said Mr. Hinde, "all I know is that
they're the instruments which O'Farrelly's band were playing when they
marched out of the town. They left them on the side of the road, where
my men found them."

"What right had you to be touching them at all," said Jimmy.

"Every right. O'Farrelly was complaining to me three days ago that one
set of band instruments had been stolen from him. It's my business
to see that he doesn't lose another set in the same way, even if he's
careless enough to leave them lying about on the side of the road."

"Amn't I telling you that they're ours, not his?" said Jimmy.

"You'll have to settle that with him."

"Sure, if I settle that with him," said Jimmy, "in the only way anything
could be settled with a pack of rebels, the instruments will be broke
into smithereens before we're done."

This seemed very likely. Jimmy McLoughlin's bandsmen, armed with sticks
and stones, were forming up on the road. The police had already handed
over the largest drum to one of the leading Wolfe Tone Republicans. It
was Cornelius O'Farrelly who made an attempt to save the situation.

He came forward and addressed Mr. Hinde. "It would be better," he said,
"if you'd march the police off out of this and let them take the band
instruments along with them, for if they don't the drums will surely be
broke and the rest of the things twisted up so as nobody'll ever be able
to blow a tune on them again, which would be a pity and a great loss to
all parties concerned."

"I'll take the police away if you like," said Mr. Hinde, "but I'm hanged
if I go on carting all those instruments about the country. I found them
on the side