er the ear, with a
slant upwards towards the brain, as though the weapon had been used
by someone crouching towards the ground.

Clayton made his way out of court, followed by the faithful Hunter,
and was soon surrounded by half a score of policemen. Hunter was left
to watch the door of the court, because he was well acquainted with
Lax, and because should Lax come across Hunter, "God help Mr. Lax!"
as Clayton expressed himself. And others were sent by twos and threes
through the city to catch this man if it were possible, or to obtain
tidings respecting him. "A man cannot bury himself under the ground,"
said Clayton; "we have always this pull upon them, that they cannot
make themselves invisible." But in this case it almost did appear
that Mr. Lax had the power.

Though Pat Carroll was not at once set at liberty, his trial was
brought to an end. It was felt to be impossible to send the case to
the jury when the only two witnesses belonging to the Crown had been
murdered. The prisoner was remanded, or sent back to gaol, so that
the Crown might look for more evidence if more might chance to be
found, and everybody else connected in the matter was sent home. A
dark gloom settled itself on Galway, and men were heard to whisper
among themselves that the Queen's laws were no longer in force. And
there was a rowdy readiness to oppose all force, the force of the
police for instance, and the force of the military. There were men
there who seemed to think that now had come the good time when they
might knock anyone on the head at their leisure. It did not come
quite to this, as the police were still combined, and their enemies
were not so. But such men as Captain Clayton began to look as though
they doubted what would become of it. "If he thinks he is big enough
to catch a hold of Terry Lax and keep him, he'll precious soon find
his mistake." This was said by Con Heffernan of Captain Clayton.

CHAPTER XXXII.

MR. O'MAHONY AS MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT.

Frank Jones had travelled backwards and forwards between Morony
Castle and the North more than once since these things were doing,
and had met the new member for Cavan together with Rachel on the very
evening on which poor Florian had been murdered. It was not till the
next morning that the news had become generally known. "I am sorry to
hear, Frank," said Rachel, "that you are all doing so badly at Morony
Castle."

"Badly enough."

"Are you fetching all these people