, on that occasion, she expected to have received from
Sarah. After having inquired from Hanlon why Donnel Dhu was called the
Black Prophet, she asked:

"But could he have anything to do with the murdher?"

To which Hanlon replied, that "he had been thinkin' about that, an' had
some talk, this mornin', wid a man that's livin' a long time--indeed,
that was born a little above the place, an' he says that the Black
Prophet, or M'Gowan, did not come to the neighborhood till afther the
murdher."

Now this person was no other than Red Rody Duncan, to whom our friend
Jemmy Branigan made such opprobrious allusion in the character of the
Black Prophet to Dick-o'-the-Grange. This man, who was generally known
by the sobriquet of Red Body, had been for some time looking after the
situation of bailiff or driver to Dick-o'-the-Grange; and as Hanlon was
supposed to possess a good deal of influence with young Dick, Duncan
very properly thought he could not do better than cultivate his
acquaintance. This was the circumstance which brought them together at
first, and it was something of a dry, mysterious manner which Hanlon
observed in this fellow, when talking about the Prophet and his
daughter, that caused him to keep up the intimacy between them.

When Donnel Dhu had closed his lengthened conference with Henderson, he
turned his steps homewards, and had got half-way through the lawn, when
he was met by Red Rody. He had, only a minute or two before, left young
Dick, with whom he held another short conversation; and as he met Rody,
Dick was still standing within about a hundred yards of them, cracking
his whip with that easy indolence and utter disregard of everything but
his pleasures, which chiefly constituted his character.

"Don't stand to spake to me here," said the Prophet; "that young
scoundrel will see us. Have you tried Hanlon yet, and will he do? Yes or
no?"

"I haven't tried him, but I'm now on way to do so."

"Caution!"

"Certainly; I'm no fool, I think. If we can secure him, the business may
be managed aisily; that is, provided the two affairs can come off on the
same night."

"Caution, I say again."

"Certainly; I'm no fool, I hope. Pass on."

The Prophet and he passed each other very slowly during this brief
dialogue; the former, when it was finished, pointing naturally towards
the Grange, or young Dick, as if he I had been merely answering a few
questions respecting some person about the place that the othe