self, Mr. Durham."

"Oh, Mrs. Burke; why did you not tell me? I could have----"

"An Irish lady, Mr. Durham, does not ask her guests to do her
housework."

Durham turned away at the sting of her words and voice.

"Did you see the old man in the town, Brennan?" she asked.

"No, Mrs. Burke, he was not in town last night. I should have seen him."

"Oh, dear, then what can have happened to the creature? Sure I wish I
had left him behind me in Ireland."

"He may be about the place somewhere. Will I look for him?" Brennan
said.

"He's not about the house; I've looked everywhere," she answered.

"He might be in one of the outhouses or stables."

"I never thought of that," she exclaimed. "Maybe that's where he is. Oh,
the trouble of the wretched old fool! I'll pack him off back to
Ireland."

She went into the house and Durham turned to Brennan.

"Have you ever seen him in the town?" he asked.

"Oh, yes, sir. He comes in at night mostly and buys drink, but he never
stays. Soden told me yesterday the last time he came in he took away
half a gallon of rum with him. Maybe that's the cause of his
disappearance."

"We'll look for him," Durham said shortly.

In an outlying tool-shed they found him, stretched out on a tumbled heap
of old sacks and rubbish, the place reeking with the scent of rum and a
half-gallon jar lying on its side near him, empty.

"He's dead to the world for a day," Brennan said as he stood up after
bending over the old man and trying to rouse him. "He must have been
drinking steadily for days to get through that quantity and into this
state. What are we to do with him, sir?"

"If Mrs. Burke will give him in charge we will take him to the station
and lock him up, but we cannot take him otherwise. He's on her private
property."

"That settles it then," Brennan replied. "She's Irish, sir. You know
what that means."

His anticipation was correct. Mrs. Burke refused point-blank to allow
her helpless retainer to be touched. He could remain where he was, she
said, and she hoped the snakes and the lizards and the mosquitoes and
all the other fearsome things she could mention would come and devour
him--but the police were not going to touch him.

She was equally hostile when Durham suggested they should start off for
the town without giving her the trouble of preparing anything for them
to eat. In fact, he could not now open his lips to her that she did not
snap some biting retort at him.

"She