an insult offered to Lord Dunseveric's sister and daughter, under
Lord Dunseveric's own eyes, was a different matter. The less said the
better about the hanging of the man who had distinguished himself by
that exploit. Captain Twinely, growing savage at this second snub,
and afraid lest perhaps he himself might be sacrificed when Lord
Dunseveric's story of his raid came to be told, sought to ingratiate
himself with the authorities by offering them a fresh victim. He gave
an exaggerated version of Neal Ward's attack on the troopers outside the
meeting-house, and drew an imaginary picture of the young man as a deep
and dangerous conspirator. He even managed to shift the responsibility
for the hanging of the trooper from Lord Dunseveric's shoulders to
Neal's. He knew that Neal had left Dunseveric, and he assured Major Fox,
the town major, that Neal was at that moment in Belfast arranging for
the outbreak of the rebellion. Major Fox was worried by the complaints
which respectable citizens were making about the dragoons' riot. He
was anxious to prove, if possible, that the soldiers' conduct had been
provoked by the violence of the United Irishmen. He produced the man
whom Peg Macllrea and Neal had mangled and set him before the public as
an object of pity, his wrist tied up and his head elaborately bandaged.
A great idea flashed on him. He allowed it to be understood that he was
on the track of a most dangerous rebel--a young man who had hanged
a yeoman in Dunseveric and nearly murdered a dragoon in Belfast. In
reality he was too busy just then with more important matters to make
any real search for Neal Ward. But a week later he offered a reward of
fifty pounds for such information as would lead to his apprehension.

But the rumours of Captain Twinely's sayings were sufficient to frighten
Donald Ward. He did not shrink from danger himself, and, had his own
life been threatened, would have taken measures to protect himself
without any feeling of panic, but his apprehension of peril for Neal
was a different matter. He felt responsible for his nephew, and did not
intend to allow him to be captured if caution could save him. Therefore,
he insisted on Neal's remaining indoors, and plied him with the most
alarming accounts of the danger of his wound. He hoped in a few days to
get Neal out of Belfast to the comparative safety of some farmhouse. He
was particularly anxious that Finlay, who would certainly recognise the
young man, s