ned. "Anything else
amiss with it?" he asked.

"No. But the devil a bit do I see why you bring Flavvy into it?"

"Don't you?"

"I do not."

Asgill drew rein, and by a gesture bade his groom ride on. "No?" he
said. "Well, I'll be telling you. He's an obstinate dog; faith, and
I'll be saying it, as obstinate a dog as ever walked on two legs! And
left to himself, he'd, maybe, take more time and trouble to come to
where we want him than we can spare. But, I'm thinking, James
McMurrough, that he's sweet on your sister!"

The McMurrough stared. The notion had never crossed his mind. "It's
jesting you are?" he said.

"It's the last thing I'd jest about," Asgill answered sombrely. "It is
so; whether she knows it or not, I know it! And so d'you see, my lad,
if she's in this, 'twill do more--take my word for it that know--to
break him down and draw the heart out of him, so that he'll care little
one way or the other, than anything you can do yourself!"

James McMurrough's face, turned upwards to the rider, reflected his
admiration. "If you're in the right," he said, "I'll say it for you,
Asgill, you're the match of the old one for cleverness. But do you
think she'll come to it, the jewel?"

"She will."

James shook his head. "I'm not thinking it," he said.

"Are you not?" Asgill answered, and his face fell and his voice was
anxious. "And why?"

"Sure and why? I'll tell you. It was but a day or two ago I'd a plan of
my own. It was just to swear the plot upon him; swear he'd come off the
Spanish ship, and the rest, d' you see, and get him clapped in Tralee
gaol in my place. More by token, I was coming to you to help in it. But
I thought I'd need the girl to swear to it, and when I up and told her
she was like a hen you'd take the chickens from!"

Asgill was silent for a moment. Then, "You asked her to do that?" he
said, in an odd tone.

"Just so."

"And you're wondering she didn't do it?"

"I am."

"And I'm thanking God she'd not be doing it!" Asgill retorted.

"Oh!" James exclaimed. "You're mighty particular all in a minute, Mr.
Asgill. But if not that, why this. Eh? Why this?"

"For a reason you'd not be understanding," Asgill answered coolly. "But
I know it myself in my bones. She'll do this if she's handled. But
there's a man that'll not be doing it at all, at all, and that's Ulick
Sullivan. You'll have to be rid of him for a time, and how I'm not
saying."

"I'll be planning that."

"Well, make no m