ended barrel to investigate a
promising lair above my head, and from this altitude was unexpectedly
presented with a bird's-eye view of a hat with a silver band inside the
railed and curtained "snug". I descended swiftly, not without an
impression of black bottles on the snug table, and Katty Ann here slid
in from the search in the cow-house.

[Illustration: "MUSHA! MUSHA!"]

"'Twasn't in it," she whined, "nor I didn't put it in it."

"For a pinny I'd give ye a slap in the jaw!" said Mr. Coolahan with
sudden and startling ferocity.

"That the Lord Almighty might take me to Himself!" reiterated Mrs.
Coolahan, while the search spread upwards through the house.

"Look here!" said Robert abruptly, "this business is going on for a
week. I'm going for the things myself."

Neither I nor my remonstrances overtook him till he was well out into
the street. There, outside the Coolahan door, was the Dean's inside car,
resting on its shafts; while the black horse, like his driver, restored
himself elsewhere beneath the Coolahan roof. Robert paid no heed to its
silent warning.

"I must go myself. If I had forty pencils I couldn't explain to Julia
the flies that I want!"

There comes, with the most biddable of men, a moment when argument
fails, the moment of dead pull, when the creature perceives his own
strength, and the astute will give in, early and imperceptibly, in order
that he may not learn it beyond forgetting.

The only thing left to be done now was to accompany Robert, to avert
what might be irretrievable disaster. It was now half-past one, and the
three mutton chops and the stewed gooseberries must have long since
yielded their uttermost to our guests. The latter would therefore have
returned to the drawing-room, where it was possible that one or more of
them might go to sleep. Remembering that the chops were loin-chops, we
might at all events hope for some slight amount of lethargy. Again we
waded through the nettles, we scaled the garden-wall, and worked our way
between it and the laurestinas towards the door opposite the kitchen.
'There remained between us and the house an open space of about fifteen
yards, fully commanded by the drawing-room window, veiling which,
however, the lace curtains met in reassuring stillness. We rushed the
interval, and entered the house softly. Here we were instantly met by
Julia, with her mouth full, and a cup of tea in her hand. She drew us
into the kitchen.

"Where are they, J