holy Virgin, I'd sooner it had been myself;
for I could have borne the thoughts of having done it better than you
are like to do. An' what did you do with the body?"

"Brady took it into Carrick."

"And does Brady know it war you did it?"

"Yes, they all know it--father and all; what was the use of telling a
lie about? Feemy was with him when I struck him."

"And war she going off with him? Niver mind, Mr. Thady, niver mind;
it's a comfort to think you've saved your sisther from him, an' you
know what a ruffian he was. By all the powers of glory there's a
weight off my mind now I know he's not escaped from the counthry,
where he caused so much misery, and did so much ill. But I'd a deal
sooner it had been I that done it than yourself."

"I wish it war not done at all--I wish he were alive this day. What
will I do now, Joe?"

"Faix, that's the question; any way, this is not the place for you
any longer; they'd have you in Carrick Gaol before to-morrow night,
av you were not out of this, an' far out of this too."

"Where is it you have the stills, Joe? Av I were there, couldn't I
be safe, for a little time at laste, till I got some plan of getting
entirely out of the counthry? Or may be when they hear the case,
and how it all happened, they mightn't think it murder at all,--the
Coroner I main; and then I could go home agin, or at any rate go away
where I choose without hindrance; it's little I care where I was, so
long as it's not in prison."

"I'm afraid, Mr. Thady, there's no hopes for you in that way. The
magisthrates, with Jonas Brown at the head of them, will be a dail
too willing to make a bad case of it, the divil mend them, to let you
off; an' the only thing for you is, to keep out of their hands."

"Would they find me there, Joe, up in the mountains, where you have
the stills?"

"They might, and they mightn't; but if you war there, an' they did
find you, they'd be finding the stills too, an' the boys wouldn't
like that."

"Where shall I go then? I thought you'd be able to help me. In
heaven's name, what shall I do? the night's half over now; can't you
think of any place where I might be, for to-morrow at any rate? I
depended on you, Joe, and now you won't help me."

"There you're wrong. I'm thinking now, where is the best place for
you: and by G----d as long as I can stick to you, I will; both becase
you were always a kind masther to the poor, an' becase the man you
killed war him I hated worse t