n. He turned a look of reproach upon Dick, who took the pistol
silently from him, and handed him the other, having carefully looked to
the priming after the accident which happened to the first.

Durfy handed his man another pistol also; and before he left his side,
said in a whisper, "Don't forget--have the first fire."

Again the word was given. Murphy blazed away a rapid and harmless shot;
for his hurry was the squire's safety, while Andy's murderous
intentions were his salvation.

"D----n the pistol!" said the squire, throwing it down in a rage. Dick
took it up with manifest indignation, and d----d the powder.

"Your powder's damp, Ned."

"No, it's not," said the squire, "it's you who have bungled the
loading."

"Me!" said Dick, with a look of mingled rage and astonishment. "_I_
bungle the loading of pistols! _I_, that have stepped more ground and
arranged more affairs than any man in the country! Arrah, be aisy,
Ned!"

Tom Durfy now interfered, and said for the present it was no matter,
as, on the part of his friend, he begged to express himself satisfied.

"But it's very hard _we_'re not to have a shot," said Dick, poking the
touch-hole of the pistol with a pricker, which he had just taken from
the case which Andy was holding before him.

"Why, my dear Dick," said Durfy, "as Murphy has had two shots, and the
squire has not had the return of either, he declares he will not fire
at him again; and, under these circumstances, I must take my man off
the ground."

"Very well," said Dick, still poking the touch-hole, and examining the
point of the pricker as he withdrew it.

"And now Murphy wants to know, since the affair is all over and his
honour satisfied, what was your brother-in-law's motive in assaulting
him this morning, for he himself cannot conceive a cause for it."

"Oh, be _aisy_, Tom."

"'Pon my soul it's true!"

"Why, he sent him a blister--a regular apothecary's blister--instead of
some law process, by way of a joke, and Ned wouldn't stand it."

Durfy held a moment's conversation with Murphy, who now advanced to the
squire, and begged to assure him there must be some mistake in the
business, for that he had never committed the impertinence of which he
was accused.

"All I know is," said the squire, "that I got a blister, which my
messenger said you gave him."

"By virtue of my oath, squire, I never did it! I gave Andy an enclosure
of the law process."

"Then it's some mistake that va