d Fetherston was one. I did not know why; and this fact
Doolan, who was well aware of it, took care to bring forward in
justification of the attack we purposed to make on his property. I
should have known that it was no justification whatever; but when people
want reasons for committing a bad act, they are obliged to make very bad
ones serve their purpose.

Pat Doolan was my senior by three years. He was the son of a man who
was nominally a small farmer, but in reality a smuggler, and the owner
of an illicit distillery; indeed I do not know what other lawless
avocations he carried on.

Very inferior, therefore, as he was in position in life, though Pat
Doolan was well supplied with money, he considered it of consequence to
be intimate with me, and to gain an ascendency over my mind, which he
might turn to account some time or other. He kept me sitting on the
heather, and listening to his good stories, and laughing at them, for
upwards of two hours, till he felt sure that my good resolutions would
not come back. During this time he produced some bread and meat and
whisky, of which latter he made me drink no small quantity, and he then
accompanied me towards my home, in sight of which he left me, with a
promise to meet him on the same spot at daybreak on the following
morning.

Even that very evening, as I sat with a book in my hand pretending to
read, in the same room the family occupied, and listened to the cheerful
voices of my light-hearted innocent sisters, I began to repent of my
engagement to Doolan; but the fear of his laughing at me, and talking
again about my sisters' petticoats, made me resolve to adhere to it.

CHAPTER TWO.

That night was far from a happy one, for I knew all the time that I was
doing what was very wrong. I waited till I thought that my father and
all the household were asleep; and then, with the sensations I should
think a thief experiences when about to commit a robbery, I crept along
the dark passage towards his dressing-room. I trembled very much, for I
was afraid that something would awake him, and that he would discover
what I was about. I was aware that he would learn what I had done, the
first thing in the morning; but then I should be far off, enjoying my
sport, and I thought not of the consequences. I felt my way along the
passage, for it was quite dark. I heard a noise--I trembled more and
more--I expected every instant to be discovered, and I should have
retreat