're too squeamish," he said. "It comes of the long Peace. I've
sent word to Costello. I suppose I'll have to appear at the inquest.
They say a wise man never found a dead man. No one would accuse me of
being wise."

A queer thought came to her. If Shawn had not been lying as he was,
helpless, might not he have been suspected of a hand in the death of
the man who had made such charges against him?

CHAPTER XXVI

MOTHER AND DAUGHTER

Lady O'Gara left Terry eating his curry--the Castle Talbot cook made a
particularly good and hot curry--with a quickly recovered appetite, and
went upstairs to where Patsy Kenny was sitting by the fire in the
sick-room.

"He woke up an' took his milk," said Patsy in an ecstatic whisper, "an'
he knew me! 'Is that you, Patsy, ye ould divil?' says he. Sorra a
word o' lie in it! An' Shot had twisted himself in unbeknownst to me,
an' when he heard the master spakin' he up an' licked his hand."

"I've asked Reilly to come on duty now, Patsy. I shall be up to-night,
so he has taken a short sleep."

"You think I'm not fit to be wid him," said Patsy mournfully. "Maybe
there's the smell o' the stables about me, though I put on me Sunday
clothes and claned me boots."

"No, no; Sir Shawn wouldn't mind the stable smell. Nor should I. I
want you to do something for me. I'll tell you in the office. Here's
Reilly now."

Reilly came in, cat-footed. Lady O'Gara delayed to tell him what had
happened during her watch. Then she followed Patsy downstairs, Shot
going with her.

In the office where Patsy stood, turning about his unprofessional
bowler in his hands, and looking quite unlike the smart Patsy she knew
in his slop-suit of tweeds, she told him how Terry had found a dead man.

"Murdered?" asked Patsy. "Sure it was no sight for a little young boy
like him!"

"No; not murdered, fortunately. He was lying huddled up by the
Admiral's tomb. Just as though in the dark he had stepped out over the
edge of the Mount, not knowing there was a sharp drop below. Mr. Terry
thought his neck was broken by the way he was lying."

She had a thought that but for Terry's rabbiting, which had led him
anywhere without thought of trespass, the body might have lain there a
long time undiscovered. Very few people cared, even in daylight, to go
close up to the tomb.

"What sort of a man?" asked Patsy, beetling his brows at her.

"A tramp, Mr. Terry thought."

"It wouldn't be that villa