scornful of my ill-concealed terror of the place, I should have turned
tail twenty times before I reached our destination. Yet in ordinary I
was no coward. I would cross the lough single-handed in any weather; I
would crack skulls with any boy in the countryside; I would ride any of
his honour's horses barebacked. But I shook in my shoes at the thought
of a ghost, and the cold sweat came out on my brow before ever we
reached the avenue-gates.

"What's to hurt you?" said Tim, who knew what was on my mind as well as
if I had spoken. "They say it's the lady walks through the house. Man,
dear, you're not afraid of a woman, are ye?"

"If she is alive, no," said I.

"She'll hurt ye less as she is," said Tim scornfully. "Anyway, if
you're afeard, Barry, you needn't come; run home."

This settled me. I laughed recklessly, and said,--

"What's good enough for you is good enough for me. I'm not afraid of a
hundred ghosts."

And indeed I should have felt easier in the company of a hundred than of
one.

We halted a moment at my mother's grave as we went by.

"She lived up at the house once," said Tim.

"I know," said I.

"Come on," said Tim; "it's getting very dark."

So we went on; and on the way I tried to recall what I knew of the story
of Kilgorman, as I had heard it from my mother and the country folk.

Twelve years ago Terence Gorman, brother of his honour, lived there and
owned all the lough-side from Dunaff to Dunree, and many a mile of
mountain inland. He was not a rich man, but tried, so folk said, to
deal fairly with his tenants. But as a magistrate he was very stern to
all ill-doers, no matter who they were; and since many of his own
tenants aided and abetted the smuggling and whisky-making on the coast,
Terence Gorman had plenty of enemies close to his own door. His
household, at the time I speak of, consisted only of his young wife and
her newly-born babe, and of my father and mother, who served in the
house, one as boatman and gamekeeper and the other as lady's-maid. My
mother had come over with the young bride from England, and had married
my father within a month or two of her coming. And, as it happened,
just when my lady gave birth to her infant, and was most in need of her
countrywoman's help, my mother presented my father with twins, and lay
sadly in need of help herself; so that Biddy McQuilkin, who was fetched
from Kerry Keel to wait on both, had a busy time of it.

What happened