I am actually the only rational man named Legge in the three
kingdoms. I will prove this to you, and at the same time keep your
indiscretion in countenance, by telling you something I ought not to
tell you. It is this. I am not here as an invalid or a chance tourist.
I am here to investigate the miracle. The Cardinal, a shrewd and
somewhat erratic man, selected mine from all the long heads at his
disposal to come down here, and find out the truth of Father Hickey's
story. Would he have entrusted such a task to a madman, think you?"

"The truth of--who dared to doubt my uncle's word? And so you are a
spy, a dirty informer."

I started. The adjective she had used, though probably the commonest
expression of contempt in Ireland, is revolting to an Englishman.

"Miss Hickey," I said: "there is in me, as you have said, a bad angel.
Do not shock my good angel--who is a person of taste--quite away from
my heart, lest the other be left undisputed monarch of it. Hark! The
chapel bell is ringing the angelus. Can you, with that sound softening
the darkness of the village night, cherish a feeling of spite against
one who admires you?"

"You come between me and my prayers" she said hysterically, and began
to sob. She had scarcely done so when I heard voices without. Then
Langan and the priest entered.

"Oh, Phil," she cried, running to him, "take me away from him: I cant
bear----" I turned towards him, and shewed him my dog-tooth in a false
smile. He felled me at one stroke, as he might have felled a
poplar-tree.

"Murdher!" exclaimed the priest. "What are you doin, Phil?"

"He's an informer," sobbed Kate. "He came down here to spy on you,
uncle, and to try and show that the blessed miracle was a makeshift. I
knew it long before he told me, by his insulting ways. He wanted to
make love to me."

I rose with difficulty from beneath the table where I had lain
motionless for a moment.

"Sir," I said, "I am somewhat dazed by the recent action of Mr.
Langan, whom I beg, the next time he converts himself into a
fulling-mill, to do so at the expense of a man more nearly his equal
in strength than I. What your niece has told you is partly true. I am
indeed the Cardinal's spy; and I have already reported to him that the
miracle is a genuine one. A committee of gentlemen will wait on you
tomorrow to verify it, at my suggestion. I have thought that the proof
might be regarded by them as more complete if you were taken by
surprise.