hty quick there'll be
them here that will make you."

"Hell to your soul!" said Sweeny, "what way's that of talking? Ask him
now is the wind in the southeast or is it not?"

"I can tell you that myself," said Mrs. Sweeny. "It is not; for if
it was it would be in on this window and my hair would be blew off my
head."

"Ask him," said Sweeny, "what boats is in the harbor, and then shut down
the window."

Mrs. Sweeny put her head and shoulders out of the window.

"Himself wants to know," she said, "what boats is at the quay. You
needn't be looking at me like that, Peter Walsh. He's sober enough. Hard
for him to be anything else for he's been in his bed the whole of the
night."

"Will you tell him, ma'am," said Peter Walsh, "that there's no boats in
it only the _Tortoise_, and that one itself won't be there for long for
the wind's easterly and it's a fair run out to Inishbawn."

Mrs. Sweeny repeated this message. Sweeny, roused to activity at last,
flung off the bedclothes.

"Get out of the room with you," he said to his wife, "and shut the door.
It's down to the kitchen you'll go and let me hear you doing it."

Mrs. Sweeny was too wise to disobey or argue. She snatched a petticoat
from a chair near the door and left the room hurriedly. Sweeny went to
the window.

"What the hell work's this, Peter Walsh?" he said. "Can't you let me
sleep quiet in my bed without raising the devil's own delight in my
back-yard. If I did right I'd set the police at you."

"I'll not be the only one the police will be at," said Peter, "if that's
the way of it. So there you have it plain and straight."

"What do you mean?"

"What I mean is this. The young lady is off in her own boat. She and the
young fellow with the sore leg along with her, and she says the master
and the strange gentleman will be down for the _Tortoise_ as soon, as
ever they have their breakfast ate. That's what I mean and I hope it's
to your liking."

"Can you not go out and knock a hole in the bottom of the damned boat?"
said Sweeny, "or run the blade of a knife through the halyards, or smash
the rudder iron with the wipe of a stone? What good are you if you can't
do the like of that? Sure there's fifty ways of stopping a man from
going out in a boat when there's only one boat for him to go in?"

"There may be fifty ways and there may be more; but I'd be glad if you'd
tell me which of them is any use when there's a young police constable
sitting on the sid