his enemy, and he appealed to him.

"What is it?" he repeated with energy; "I'll tell you!"

"Then you'll be telling me indoors!" James answered curtly.

"No!" said Colonel Sullivan.

But at that the young man exploded. "No?" he cried. "No? And, why no?
Confusion, sir, it's too far you are driving us," he continued
passionately. "Is it at your bidding I must stand in a mob of beggars
at my own gate--I, The McMurrough? And be telling and taking for all
the gossoons in the country to hear? No? But it's yes, I say! There's
bounds to it all, and if you must be falling to words with my friends,
quarrel like gentlemen within doors, and not in a parcel of loons at
the gate."

He turned without waiting for a reply and strode into the courtyard.
Colonel John hesitated a moment, then he stood aside, and, with a stern
face, he invited Asgill to precede him. The Justice did so, smiling. He
had won the first bout; and now, if he was not much mistaken, his
opponent had made a false move.

That opponent, following with a sombre face, began to be of the same
opinion. In his simplicity he had supposed that it would be easy to
bell the cat. He had seen, he fancied, a way to do it in a corner,
quietly, with little outcry and no disturbance. But the cat had teeth
and claws and the cunning of a cat, and was not, it now appeared, an
animal easy to bell.

They passed into the house, The McMurrough leading. There were two or
three buckeens in the hall, and Darby and one of the down-at-heel
serving-boys were laying the evening meal. "You'll be getting out,"
James said curtly.

"We will," replied one of the men. And they trooped out at the back.

"Now, what is it?" the McMurrough asked, turning on his followers and
speaking in a tone hardly more civil.

"It's what you're saying--Get out!" Asgill answered smiling. "Only it's
the Colonel here's for saying it, and it seems I'm the one to get out."

"What the saints do you mean?" James growled. "Sorra bit of your fun am
I wishing at this present!" He wanted no trouble, and he saw that here
was trouble.

"I can tell you in a few words," Colonel Sullivan answered. "You know
on what terms we are here. I wish to do nothing uncivil, and I was
looking for this gentleman to take a hint and go quietly. He will not,
it seems, and so I must say plainly what I mean. I object to his
presence here."

James stared. He did not understand. "Why, man, he's no Jacobite," he
cried, "whoever the other