is tumbler across the table. Doyle replenished it.

"I'd be sorry," said Doyle, "if Mr. Ford was to be able to say he'd got
the better of you, Thady, in a matter of the kind."

"It'll not be me he'll get the better of."

"He'll say it," said Doyle, "and what's more there's them that will
believe it. For they'll say, recollecting the speech you made on
Tuesday, that you were in favour of the statue, and that only for Mr.
Ford you'd have had it."

"If I thought that----" said Gallagher.

"Come along over now to the committee," said Doyle, "and we'll have the
statue just in derision of him."

"It isn't the statue that I'm objecting to," said Gallagher, "nor it
isn't the notion of a new pier. You know that, Doyle."

"I do, of course."

"And if it's the wish of the people of this locality that there should
be a statue----"

"It is the wish," said Doyle. "Didn't you say yourself that the people
was unanimous about it after the meeting in the market square?"

Gallagher rose from his chair and pushed his papers back on the table.
He crushed his soft hat down on the back of his head and turned to the
door.

"Come on," he said.

"I knew well," said Doyle, "that you'd do whatever was right in the
latter end. And as for the tune that was troubling you, it's even
money that the band will never play it. Father McCormack was telling
me yesterday that the big drum's broke on them on account of one of the
boys giving it a kind of a slit with the point of a knife. The band
will hardly ever be able to play that tune or any other tune when they
haven't got a big drum."

CHAPTER XIII

Major Kent passed through the narrow hall of the hotel, went up a flight
of stairs and entered the commercial room. Mary Ellen was on her hands
and knees under the table which stood in the middle of the room. She
was collecting the corks which had offended Doyle's eye. There were more
than three of them. She had four in her left hand, and was stretching
out to grasp two more when the Major entered the room. As soon as
she saw him she abandoned the pursuit of the corks, crept out from
underneath the table, and stood looking at the Major. She expected
him to order a drink of some sort. Most people who entered Doyle's
commercial room ordered drinks. The Major was slightly embarrassed. Mary
Ellen evidently expected him to say something to her, and he did not
know what to say. He did not want a drink, and he could not think of any
subject