--"sure, that's what I'd like to
know myself. There wasn't wan out a' the village but what was waitin'
at the man's own dour when the ker come up, an ne'ery a wan on it but
the driver, shoutin' murder, an' when the neighbours went back along
the road there was Jimmie an' the wife in the middle a' the pond, and
niver a sowl else to be seen."

Mick laughed. "Ye're the fly ould boy, Andy," he said; "an' I must say
ye done it right well, but didn't ye get awful wet when ye were duckin'
them?"

Andy stared at him.

"It's all right, Andy; we'll niver name it," said Patsy. "An' I
wouldn't 'a' blamed ye if ye'd 'a' drownded the both a' them."

Andy whistled. "Ye've as much brass as would make a dour knocker," he
said. "But, see here, the next time yous are on the war pad don't be
lavin' circumstantial evidence behind ye." He brought out from behind
the door an old rag doll, soaking wet.

"Och a nee!" wailed Honeybird, "it was me done that. I hadn't the
heart to lave her at home," she explained. "She's Bloody Mary, an' I
thought she'd enjoy the vengeance."

"I thought I knowed her when I seen her lyin' at the side a' the pond
this mornin," said Andy. "An', mind ye, I'm not blamin' ye, an' I'm
not sayin' but what Jimmie an' the wife disarved it, but ye'd better
keep a quiet tongue in yer heads. There's nobuddy but meself an' Lull
knows who done it, and nobuddy'll iver know. It's all very well for a
wheen a' neighbours to do the like, but it's no work for quality to be
doin'."

CHAPTER XIV

JANE AT MISS COURTNEY'S SCHOOL

Jane hated going to school. She had begged to be allowed to go on
doing lessons with Mr Rannigan, though he had said five children were
too many for him at his age. Then she had begged to be allowed to go
to a boys' school with Mick. But all her pleadings were in vain. Lull
had arranged that she was to go to the select young ladies' school that
Aunt Mary had attended when she was a girl. Lull secretly hoped that
contact with the select young ladies would make Jane a little bit more
genteel. Every morning, driving into town on the car with Andy, Jane
mourned to Mick for the good days that were gone. Mick annoyed her by
liking the change. His school was quite pleasant.

"How'd ye like to be me," she asked him, "goin' to a school where
whativer ye do it's always wrong?"

She hid her unhappiness from Lull, partly because Lull had taken such
pride in sending her to Miss Courtney