fects him
more or less, I suppose, seeing he is the manager. The bank has been
robbed, you know."

It was well Brennan was at the horse's head, for the shriek with which
Mrs. Burke greeted the information was heard at the post office the
other end of the town and made the horse plunge and rear. Although
Brennan managed to hold it from bolting, it forced the buggy back on the
footpath and almost turned it over. But Mrs. Burke was out long before
then, for with a bound she sprang from the vehicle, sending Allnut
staggering as she blundered against him in her rush for the bank.

Harding, having heard Allnut's words, stepped forward to meet her.

"You need not be alarmed, Mrs. Burke," he said, as she dashed up. "So
far as you are concerned----"

"Where's that villain? Where's that wretch? He's stolen my deeds! I know
it, I know it! I'm ruined! Brennan, come and arrest him."

Her words, shouted at the top of her voice, rang through the place and
out on the roadway, where Brennan was still struggling with her rearing
horse, and Soden and Allnut stood by as sympathetic onlookers.

"If you will come in, the manager will explain the matter to you,"
Harding said.

"Don't talk to me about explaining," she shouted in answer. "Where are
my deeds? Where are the deeds of my Irish property? If you've stolen
them----"

"Pray speak quietly, Mrs. Burke," Harding said. "There are others who
can hear you, and the bank----"

"Others? Others hear me? I'll let them hear me. I want them to hear me.
I've nothing to hide, and I'll not shelter any scoundrel who will rob
and cheat a lonely widow. Maybe others will not stand by and see an
unfortunate poor weak woman robbed and swindled----"

"If you will come inside, Mrs. Burke----"

"I'll not come inside. I want my deeds back. I'll have nothing more to
do with your wretched bank. Sure I'm distracted. Have you those deeds?"

"Mr. Eustace," Harding began, when she flung round and leaped away from
the door.

"Brennan!" she cried. "Brennan! Come here, Brennan. They've robbed me of
my deeds, the deeds of my Irish property. They insisted I should leave
them here, and now they tell me they're stolen. Who's stolen them if it
isn't that scoundrel in there? Come and arrest him. Come and help me
recover my just rights."

She shouted out the words despite the fact that Brennan was still
careering round in the roadway trying to pacify her plunging horse.

Harding glanced over his shoulder tow