a lot of
soldiers were marching on the town. Some country girls saw them and came
running in to tell us. I must say for the Sinn Fein commander that he
kept his head. His name was O'Farrelly and he called himself a Colonel.
He sent out scouts to see where the soldiers were and how many there
were. Quite the proper thing to do. I didn't hear exactly what the
scouts reported; but that evening O'Farrelly came round to our house to
talk things over with my dad."

"I thought you said your father was a loyal man."

"So he is. There isn't a loyaller man in Ireland. You'd know that if
you'd ever seen him singing 'God Save the King.' He swells out an inch
all over when he's doing it."

"If he's as loyal as all that," said Waterhouse, "he wouldn't consult
with rebels."

"My dad, though loyal, has some sense, and so, as it happened, had
O'Farrelly. Neither one nor the other of them wanted to see a battle
fought in the streets of Ballymahon. You've seen battles, Waterhouse,
and you know what they're like. Messy things. You can understand my
father's feelings. O'Farrelly was awfully nice about it. He said that
the people of Ballymahon, including my father and even the police, were
a decent lot, and he'd hate to see licentious English soldiers rioting
through the streets of the town. His idea was that my dad should use his
influence with the C.O. of the troops and get him to march his men off
somewhere else, so as to avoid unnecessary bloodshed. O'Farrelly promised
he wouldn't go after them or molest them in any way if they left the
neighbourhood My dad said he couldn't do that and even if he could,
he wouldn't. He suggested that O'Farrelly should take his army away.
O'Farrelly said he was out to fight and not to run away. I chipped in
at that point and said he could fight just as well in a lonelier place,
where there weren't any houses and no damage would be done. I said I
felt pretty sure the soldiers would go after him to any bog he chose to
select O'Farrelly seemed to think there was something in the suggestion
and said he'd hold a council of war and consult his officers."

"What an amazing liar you are, Power," said Waterhouse.

Captain Power took no notice of the insult. He went on with his story.

"The Council of War assembled next morning," he said, "and sat for about
four hours. It might have all day if an English officer hadn't ridden in
on a motor-bike about noon. He was stopped by a sentry, of course,
and said he