losed over the coins.

"I like your way of speaking," he said. "Now where are we to go?"

"To the strong house of Brede, some seven or eight miles from here. I
do not know how far exactly, nor in what direction."

"I am well acquainted with it," said Peel. "It was a famous smuggler's
place in its time."

"I don't mean a smuggler's place," said I. "I am talking of the
country house of the Earl of Westport."

"Yes, curse him, that's the spot I mean. Many a nobleman's house is
put to purposes he learns little of, although the Earl is such a
scoundrel he may well have been in with the smugglers and sold them to
the government."

"Did he sell them?"

"Somebody sold them."

There was a scowl on Peel's face that somehow encouraged me, although
I liked the look of the ruffian from the first.

"You're an old friend of his lordship's, then?" said I.

"He has few friends in Rye or about Rye. If you're going to do
anything against Westport, I'll get you a hundred men for nothing if
there's a chance of escape after the fight."

"Nine men will do me, if they're the right stuff. You will have good
cover to sleep under, plenty to eat and drink, and then I expect you
to hold Brede House against all the men the Earl of Westport can bring
forward."

"That's an easy thing," said Peel, his eye lighting up. "And if worse
comes to the worst I know a way out of the house that's neither
through door or window nor up a chimney. Where will I collect your
men?"

"Assemble them on the road to Brede, quietly, about half a mile from
Rye. Which direction is Brede from here?"

"It lies to the west, between six and seven miles away as the crow
flies."

"Very well, collect your men as quickly as you can, and send word to
me at the 'Anchor.' Tell your messenger to ask for The O'Ruddy."

Now I turned back to the tavern sorely troubled what I would do with
Father Donovan. He was such a kindly man that he would be loath to
shake hands with me at the door of the inn, as he had still two or
three days to stop, so I felt sure he would insist on accompanying me
part of the way. I wished I could stop and see him off on his ship;
but if we were to get inside of Brede's House unopposed, we had to act
at once. I found Paddy almost recovered from the assault of the day
before. He had a bandage around his forehead, which, with his red
hair, gave him a hideous appearance, as if the whole top of his head
had been smashed. Poor Paddy was getting so