McDermott of the Three Trees had a voice and a way
with him like you, and Father Burk too, and he was a gentleman born if
he could only remain sober."

"Well, you've hit it, in the dark or whatever," said I. "I am a
gentleman. Indeed I am an O'Ruddy. Have you ever been hearing of my
family?"

"Not of your honour's branch of it, sure," he made answer confidently.
"But I have often been hearing of the O'Ruddys of Glandore, who are
well known to be such great robbers and blackguards that their match
is not to be found in all the south of Ireland. Nor in the west,
neither, for that matter."

"Aye," said I, "I have heard that that branch of the family was much
admired by the peasantry for their qualities. But let us have done
with it and speak of other matters. I want a service of you."

"Yes, your honour," said he, dropping his voice. "May be 'twill not be
the first time I've been behind a ditch; but the light to-night is
very bad unless I am knowing him well, and I would never be forgetting
how Tim Malone let fly in the dark of a night like this, thinking it
was a bailiff, until she screamed out with the pain in her leg, the
poor creature, and her beyond seventy and a good Catholic."

"Come out of it now!" said I impatiently. "You will be behind no
ditch." And as we walked back to the inn I explained to my new man the
part I wished him to play. He was amazed at it, and I had to explain
fifty times; but when it once was established in his red head Paddy
was wild with enthusiasm, and I had to forbid him telling me how well
he would do it.

I had them give him some straw in the stable, and then retired to my
chamber for needed rest. Before dawn I had them send Paddy to me, and
by the light of a new fire I looked at him. Ye Saints! What hair! It
must have been more than a foot in length, and the flaming strands
radiated in all directions from an isolated and central spire which
shot out straight toward the sky. I knew what to do with his tatters,
but that crimson thatch dumfounded me. However there was no going back
now, so I set to work upon him. Luckily my wardrobe represented three
generations of O'Ruddy clothes, and there was a great plenty. I put my
impostor in a suit of blue velvet with a flowered waistcoat and
stockings of pink. I gave him a cocked hat and a fine cloak. I worked
with success up to the sword-belt, and there I was checked. I had two
swords, but only one belt. However, I slung the sword which King