ignation at the imputed treachery of the absent man
buzzed through the crowd; while one fellow, with a face flushed by
drink, and eyes bleared and bloodshot, cried out: "And are ye to stop
here all night, calling for the boy that's gone down to bethray yez? Is
there none of yez will take his place?"

"I will! I will! I'm ready and willin'!" were uttered by full twenty, in
a breath.

"Who will ye have with yez? take your own choice!" said the leader,
turning towards M'Quire and Heffernan, who stood whispering eagerly
together.

"There's the boy I'd take out of five hundred, av he was the same I knew
once," said M'Guire, laying his hand on Owen's shoulder.

"Begorra then, I wondher what ye seen in him lately to give you a
consate out of him," cried Heffernan, with a rude laugh. "'Tisn't all
he's done for the cause anyway."

Owen started, and fixed his eyes first on one, then on the other of the
speakers; but his look was rather the vacant stare of one awakening from
a heavy sleep, than the expression of any angry passion--for want
and privation had gone far to sap his spirit, as well as his bodily
strength.

"There, avich, taste that," said a man beside him, who was struck by his
pale and wasted cheek, and miserable appearance.

Owen almost mechanically took the bottle, and drank freely, though the
contents was strong poteen.

"Are ye any betther now?" said Heffernan, with a sneering accent.

"I am," said Owen, calmly, for he was unconscious of the insolence
passed off on him; "I'm a deal better."

"Come along, ma bouchal!" cried M'Guire; "come into the little place
with us, here."

"What do ye want with me, boys?" asked Owen, looking about him through
the crowd.

"'Tis to take a hand at the cards, divil a more," said an old fellow
near, and the speech sent a savage laugh among the rest.

"I'm ready and willin'," said Owen; "but sorra farthen I've left me to
play; and if the stakes is high--"

"Faix, that's what they're not," said Heffernan; "they're the lowest
ever ye played for."

"Tell me what it is, anyway," cried Owen.

"Just, the meanest thing at all--the life of the blaguard that turned
yerself out of yer holdin'--Lucas the agent."

"To kill Lucas?"

"That same; and if ye don't like the game, turn away and make room for a
boy that has more spirit in him."

"Who says I ever was afeard?" said Owen, on whom now the whisky was
working. "Is it Luke Heffernan dares to face me down?--come out her