when she
too lay ill in the house with her twin babies, had unnerved her and
touched her brain. But in that they were wrong; for she had taught Tim
and me to read and write better than any schoolmaster could have done,
and had read books and told stories to us such as few boys of our age
between Fanad and Derry had the chance to hear.

Yet, though her brain was sound, it was not to be denied that she had
been a woman of sorrow. And the strange words she had spoken when she
was near her end added a mystery to her memory which, boy as I was, I
took to heart, and resolved, if I could, to master.

That afternoon, when the mourners had gone their several ways, and the
short daylight was already beginning to draw in, Tim and I lay at the
cliff's edge, near our mother's grave, watching the _Cigale_ as, with
all her canvas flying and my father's dexterous hand at the helm, she
slipped out of the lough and spread her wings for the open sea. Even in
the feeble breeze, which would scarcely have stirred one of our
trawlers, she seemed to gather speed; and if we felt any anxiety as to
her being chased by one of his Majesty's cutters, we had only to watch
the way in which she slid through the water to assure us that she would
need a deal of catching.

I told Tim all I knew about her, and of my errand to Derry.

"What are the guns for?" said he. "What's there to be fighting about?
Man, dear, I'd like a gun myself."

"There's plenty up at the house there," said I, pointing to
Kilgorman--"two hundred."

"Two hundred! and we're only needing two. Come away, Barry; let's see
where they're kept."

"You're not going up to Kilgorman House, sure?" said I in amazement.

"'Deed I am. I'm going to get myself a gun, and you too."

"But his honour?"

"Come on!" cried Tim, who seemed greatly excited; "his honour can't
mind. I'll hold ye, Barry, we'll use a gun as well as any of the boys."

I would fain have escaped going up to so dreadful a place as Kilgorman
on such an errand at such an hour. But I durst not let Tim think I was
afraid, so when I saw his mind was made up I went with him, thankful at
least that I had his company.

CHAPTER FOUR.

THE KITCHEN AT KILGORMAN.

The daylight failed suddenly as we turned from our perch on the edge of
the cliff, and began to grope our way across the old graveyard towards
the path which led up to Kilgorman House.

But that Tim was so set on seeing the hidden arms, and seemed so