h God's
assistance, I'll venthur to do a thing that may be dangerous enough to
myself, at any rate; but what do I care about that, if I can save an
unoffendin' fellow-creature from harm?--Stay where you are then, till I
come in again."

She went out as she spoke, and after an? interval of about six or eight
minutes again made her appearance.

"I can't hear them plain enough," she said, on her return, "but whatever
it is, I can undherstan' that the most of them all is against it. In
God's name, at any rate, stay where you are--they're risin' to go
home, and as the night's light they'd be sure to pounce upon you if
you attempted to escape. Whatever I can do to save you from harm here I
will."

The poor woman's escape from detection, while performing the friendly
office of listening, was indeed very narrow. Short and hurried as her
last advice to M'Carthy was, the words in which she conveyed it had
scarcely been uttered, when her husband, accompanied by three persons,
their faces still blackened, made his appearance. They took seats in
silence around the fire, and one of them, handing over a bottle of
whiskey to Finnerty, merely nodded, as much as to say, pass that about.
Finnerty accordingly did so, and each of them drank a glass or two,
after which they were silent as before. This silence, to M'Carthy, began
to wear a solemn and a fearful aspect, especially as he knew enough of
the habits of the people to be aware, that in drinking whiskey is often
resorted to in order to deaden their moral, perceptions, or, in other
words, as a stimulant to crime.

At length, after about a quarter of an hour had elapsed, and three of
them--that is to say, two of the strangers and Finnerty--had each drank
three glasses of spirits, the fourth, who had taken only one glass,
beckoned to the other two to follow him.

"I think," said he, "they are all gone, and the coast is clear."

In this man's voice, M'Carthy, to his infinite delight, once more
recognized that of his unknown well-wisher. Be this as it may, he and
the other two left the house, and, as the reader is no doubt interested
in their movements, we shall permit him to follow them to the
dining-room of the shooting-lodge, where the meeting had just been held.

"Very well, then," he proceeded, "it is so best, as none of us can
become a traitor against the rest. Shew me your pistols; for, as I'm an
ould soger, I'll regulate them for you better than you'll be able to do
yourse