ray marching up the hill toward them,
with the sun glittering on us as if we were walking jewellery. The
villagers, expecting to be torn limb from limb, scuttled away into the
forest, leaving the place as empty as a bottle of beer after a wake.
Even the guards around the Manor House fled as we approached it, for
the fame of our turbulence had spread abroad in the land. Lord Strepp
tried to persuade them that nothing would happen to them, for when he
saw the style in which we were coming he was anxious to make a show
from the Westport side and had drawn up his men in line to receive us.
But we rode through a silent village that might have been just sacked
by the French. I thought afterward that this desertion had a subduing
effect on the old Earl's pride, and made him more easy to deal with.
In any case his manner was somewhat abated when he received me. Lord
Strepp himself was there at the door, making excuses for the servants,
who he said had gone to the fields to pick berries for their supper.
So, leaving Paddy to hold one horse and Jem the other, with the seven
men drawn up fiercely in front of the Manor House, Father Donovan and
myself followed Lord Strepp into a large room, and there, buried in an
arm-chair, reclined the aged Earl of Westport, looking none too
pleased to meet his visitors. In cases like this it's as well to be
genial at the first, so that you may remove the tension in the
beginning.

"The top of the morning--I beg your pardon--the tail of the afternoon
to you, sir, and I hope I see you well."

"I am very well," said his lordship, more gruffly than politely.

"Permit me to introduce to your lordship, his Reverence, Father
Donovan, who has kindly consented to accompany me that he may yield
testimony to the long-standing respectability of the House of
O'Ruddy."

"I am pleased to meet your Reverence," said the Earl, although his
appearance belied his words. He wasn't pleased to meet either of us,
if one might judge by his lowering countenance, in spite of my
cordiality and my wish to make his surrender as easy for him as
possible.

I was disappointed not to see the Countess and Lady Mary in the room,
for it seemed a pity that such a costume as mine should be wasted on
an old curmudgeon, sitting with his chin in his breast in the depths
of an easy-chair, looking daggers though he spoke dumplings.

I was just going to express my regret to Lord Strepp that no ladies
were to be present in our assem