hunger?"

"And why would you say he was a Yank?" said Gallagher.

"Why would I say it? You'd say it yourself, Thady Gallagher if so be
you'd heard the way he was talking. 'Is there a live man in the place at
all?' says he, meaning Ballymoy. 'It's waking up you want.' says he."

"Did he? The devil take him," said Gallagher.

"'And I've a good mind to try and wake you up myself,' said he. 'I'm
reckoned middling good at waking people up where I come from,' says he."

"Let him try," said Gallagher. "Let him try if it pleases him. We'll
teach him."

Gallagher spoke with an impressive display of truculent self-confidence.
He had at the moment no doubt whatever that he could subdue Mr. Billing
or any other insolent American. His opportunity came almost at once.
Mr. Billing appeared at the door of the hotel. He looked extraordinarily
cool and competent. He also looked rather severe. His forehead was
puckered to a frown. It seemed that he was slightly annoyed about
something. Gallagher feared that his last remark might have been
overheard. He shrank back a little, putting Doyle between him and Mr.
Billing.

"Say," said Mr. Billing, "is there any way of getting a move on that
hired girl of yours? It'll be time for breakfast to-morrow morning
before she brings my lunch if some one doesn't hustle her a bit."

"Mary Ellen," shouted Doyle. "Mary Ellen, will you hurry up now and cook
the gentleman's dinner?" Then he sank his voice. "She's frying the chops
this minute," he said. "If you was to stand at the kitchen door you'd
hear them in the pan."

Thaddeus Gallagher, reassured and confident that Mr. Billing had not
overheard his threat, stepped forward and stood bowing, his hat in his
hands. Wealthy Americans may be objectionable, but they are rare in the
west of Ireland. Gallagher felt that he would like to know Mr. Billing.
Doyle introduced him.

"This is Mr. Gallagher," he said. "Mr. Thaddeus Gallagher, J. P."

Mr. Billing bowed courteously and shook hands with Mr. Gallagher.

"Proud to meet you, sir," he said. "Proud to meet any prominent citizen
of this section."

"Mr. Thady Gallagher," said Doyle, "is the proprietor of the Connacht
Eagle, our principal newspaper."

The Connacht Eagle was, in fact, the only newspaper in Ballymoy. It
was the only newspaper published within a radius of forty miles from
Ballymoy.

It could therefore be quite truthfully called the principal one. Mr.
Billing shook Thady Gallagher's