again he raised the handkerchief to his
cheek and staunched the blood--"that you retire now, and hear what The
McMurrough has to say to you: the more as the cases and the arms I see
in the courtyard lie obnoxious to discovery and expose all to risk
while they remain so."

His surprising coolness did more to check them than The McMurrough's
efforts. They gaped at him in wonder. Then one uttered an imprecation.

"The McMurrough will explain if you will go with him," Colonel John
answered patiently, "I say again, gentlemen, I shall not run away."

"If you mean her any harm----"

"I mean her no harm."

"Are you alone?"

"I am alone."

So far Morty. But Phelim O'Beirne was not quite satisfied. "If a hair
of her head be hurt----" he growled, pushing himself forward, "I tell
you, sir----"

"And I tell you!" James McMurrough retorted, repelling him. "What are
the hairs of her head to you, Phelim O'Beirne? Am I not him that's her
brother? A truce to your prating, curse you, and be coming with me. I
understand him, and that is enough!"

"But His Reverence----"

"His Reverence is as safe as you or me!" James retorted. "If it were
not so, are you thinking I'd be here? Fie on you!" he went on, pushing
Phelim through the door; "you are good at the talking now, when it's
little good it will be doing! But where were you this morning when a
good blow might have saved all?"

"Could I be helping it, when----?"

The voices passed away, still wrangling, across the courtyard. Uncle
Ulick stepped to the door and closed it. Then he turned and spoke his
mind.

"You were wrong to come back, John Sullivan," he said, the hardness of
his tone bearing witness to his horror of what had happened. "Shame on
you! It is no thanks to you that your blood is not on the girl's hands,
and the floor of your grandfather's house! You're a bold man, I allow.
But the fox made too free with the window at last, and, take my word
for it, there are a score of men, whose hands are surer than this
child's, who will not rest till they have had your life! And after what
has happened, can you wonder? Be bid and go then; be bid, and go while
the breath is firm in you!"

Colonel John did not speak for a moment, and when he did answer, it was
with a severity that overbore Ulick's anger, and in a tone of contempt
that was something new to the big man. "If the breath be firm in those
whom you, Ulick Sullivan," he said--"ay, you, Ulick Sullivan--and your
fell