Mary,' said Captain Con, suffused in the merriest of grins. 'She sells
apples at a stall at a corner of a street hard by, and I saw her sitting
pulling at her old pipe in the cold October fog morning and evening for
comfort, and was overwhelmed with compassion and fraternal sentiment;
and so I invited her to be at the door of the house at half-past ten,
just to have a roll with her in Irish mud, and mend her torn soul with
a stitch or two of rejoicing. She told me stories; and one was pretty
good, of a relative of hers, or somebody's--I should say, a century old,
but she told it with a becoming air of appropriation that made it family
history, for she's come down in the world, and this fellow had a stain
of red upon him, and wanted cleaning; and, "What!" says the good father,
"Mika! you did it in cold blood?" And says Mika, "Not I, your Riverence.
I got myself into a passion 'fore I let loose." I believe she smoked
this identical pipe. She acknowledged the merits of my whisky, as
poets do hearing fine verses, never clapping hands, but with the
expressiveness of grave absorption. That's the way to make good things
a part of you. She was a treat. I got her out and off at midnight, rosy
Mary sneaking her down, and the old girl quiet as a mouse for the fun's
sake. The whole intrigue was exquisitely managed.'

'You run great risks,' Philip observed.

'I do,' said the captain.

He called on the brothers to admire the 'martial and fumial' decorations
of his round tower, buzzing over the display of implements, while
Patrick examined guns and Philip unsheathed swords. An ancient clay pipe
from the bed of the Thames and one from the bed of the Boyne were
laid side by side, and strange to relate, the Irish pipe and English
immediately, by the mere fact of their being proximate, entered into
rivalry; they all but leapt upon one another. The captain judicially
decided the case against the English pipe, as a newer pipe of grosser
manufacture, not so curious by any means.

'This,' Philip held up the reputed Irish pipe, and scanned as he twirled
it on his thumb, 'This was dropped in Boyne Water by one of William's
troopers. It is an Orange pipe. I take it to be of English make.'

'If I thought that, I'd stamp my heel on the humbug the neighbour
minute,' said Captain Con. 'Where's the sign of English marks?'

'The pipes resemble one another,' said Philip, 'like tails of
Shannon-bred retrievers.'

'Maybe they 're both Irish, then?