"They're yeomen," said Neal, "and they're coming towards us. We must lie
as still as we can. Perhaps they may pass without seeing us."

"They willna," said the boy, "they'll see us. We'll be kilt at last."

Neal peered again. The yeomen had reached the spot where Donald and his
pikemen had made their stand. They halted and dismounted to examine,
perhaps to plunder, the bodies. Neal could see their uniforms plainly.
He shivered. They were men of the Kilulta yeomenry, of Captain Twinely's
company.

"Neal Ward, there's something I want to say to you before they catch
us."

"Well, what is it? Speak at once. They'll be coming on soon, and then it
won't do to be talking."

"Ay, but you mustn't look at me while I tell you."

Neal turned away and waited. He was impatient of this making of
mysteries in a moment of extreme peril.

"I would I were in Ballinderry,
I would I were in Aghalee,
I would I were in bonny Ram's Island
Trysting under an ivy tree--
Ochone, Ochone!"

The words were sung very softly, but Neal recognised the voice at once.
He turned at the second line and gazed in open-eyed astonishment at the
singer.

"Ay, it's just me, just Peg MacIlrea." She smiled up at him as she
spoke.

"But, Peg, how could you do it? Peg, if I'd only known. Why did you
come?"

"It wasna right. It wasna maidenly. If that's what you want to be saying
to me, Neal Ward. The other lassie wouldna have done it. Maybe not. But
a' the lads I knew well were turning out and going to the fight, and
what was to hinder a poor, wild lassie, that nobody cared about, from
going, too? Ay, and being there at the break, the sore, sore break, in
Antrim town?"

Neal heard the tramp of the yeomen's horses on the road. He heard their
voices, their laughter, their oaths.

"Neal," said Peg, "you're a brave lad and a kind. I aye said it of ye
from thon night when you throttled the dragoon. Do you mind it? D'you
mind how I bit him?"

The yeomen were almost opposite their hiding-place now.

"Neal," whispered Peg, "will ye no gie me a kiss? The other lassie
wouldna begrudge it to me now, I'm thinking."

He bent over her, put his arms round her neck, raised her head, and
kissed her lips.

"Hush, Peg, hush," he whispered.

"There's a musket on the road in front of you, sergeant." Neal
recognised Captain Twinely's voice. "There might be some damned croppy
lurking in the meadow there. Dismount and beat him up.