ome to an end."

"No, indeed, I will not," whispered my companion, as she strengthened
her hold upon my arm; "I will remain here with you, whatever happens.
They will never be such despicable cowards as to use violence in the
presence of a woman."

There was no time to say more, for O'Gorman, with all hands excepting
the man at the wheel behind him, was now within hearing distance of us.
I looked him squarely in the eye, and at once braced myself for
conflict; for there was a sullen, furtive, dogged expression in his
gaze, as he vainly attempted to unflinchingly meet mine, that boded
mischief, although of what precise nature I could not, for the life of
me, guess.

He so obviously had something to say, and was, moreover, so obviously
the spokesman for all hands, that I waited for him to begin, determined
to take my cue from him rather than, by speaking first, afford him the
opportunity of taking his cue from me. He shifted his weight, uneasily,
from leg to leg, two or three times, glanced uncomfortably from Miss
Onslow's face to mine, removed a large quid of tobacco from his cheek
and carefully deposited it in his cap, and betrayed many other symptoms
of extreme awkwardness and perturbation of mind for a full minute or
more without discovering a way of saying what he had to say; and so
uncouthly ridiculous an exhibition did he make of himself that presently
I detected a tremor of repressed laughter in the pressure of my
companion's hand upon my arm, and a second or two later the young lady's
risibility so far mastered her that she felt constrained to bury her
face in her pocket-handkerchief under pretence of being troubled with a
sudden fit of coughing.

O'Gorman, however, was not to be so easily deceived; he at once observed
the convulsion and recognised it for what it was, and the circumstance
that he had excited the mirth of a girl seemed to sting him into action,
for he suddenly straightened himself up and, with a vindictive glare at
Miss Onslow, exclaimed:

"Ah! so ye're laughin' at me, eh? All right, my beauty; laugh away!
Yell laugh the other side ov y'r purty face afore long!"

"O'Gorman!" I exclaimed fiercely, advancing a step or two toward him
and dragging Miss Onslow after me as she tenaciously clung to my arm.
"What do you mean, sir? How dare you address yourself to this lady in
such an insolent fashion? Take care what you are about, sir, or I may
find it very necessary to teach you a lesson in g