The Storyteller

New Zealand Tablet, 1 April 1920, Page 3

The Storyteller

By William Carleton.

WILLY REILLY AND HIS DEAR COLEEN SAWN. {A Tale Founded upon S Fact)

CHAPTER XVll.(Continued.) In the course of half an hour the Red Rapparee came in, dressed in his uniform. On looking about him he exclaimed with an oath : ' “Who in hell’s fire is here?” “Why,” replied Mary Mahon, “a poor ould man that axed for charity and a lodgin’ for the night.” “And why did you give it to him?” . “Bekaise my charity to him may take away some of my sins.” . “Some of your devils!” replied the savage, “and I think you have enough o’ them about you. Didn’t you know I was to come here to-night, as I do every night?” “You wor drinkin’,” she replied; “and you’re drunk.” “I am drunk, and I will be drunk as often as I can. It’s a good man’s case. Why did you give a lodgin’ to this ould vagabone?” “I tould you the reason,” she replied; “but you needn’t care about him, for there’s not a word of English in his cheek.” “Faith, but he may have something in his purse, for all that. Is he ould?” “A poor ould man.” “So much the betther; be the livin’ I’ll thry whether he has any ould coins about him. Many a timeno, I don’t say many a time —but twis’t I did it, and found it well worth my while too. Some of these ould scampers die wid a purse o’ goolden guineas under their head, an* won’t confess it till the last moment. Who knows what this ould lad may have about him? I’ll thry, anyhow,” said the drunken ruffian; “it’s not aisy to give up an ould custom, Molly sheriff, my darlin’, for that. I aised him of his fines, and was near strikin’ a double blow —I secured his pocket-book, and made a good attempt to hang Willy Reilly for the robbery into the bargain. Now, d n it, Molly, didn’t I look a gentleman in his clothes, shoes, silver buckles, and all? Wasn’t it well we secured them before the house was burned? Here,” he added, “take a sneeshin of this,” pulling at the same time a pint bottle of whisky out of his pocket; “it’ll raise your spirits, air’ I’ll see what cash this ould codger has about him; an’ by the way, how the devil do we know that he doesn’t understand every word we say? Suppose, now —(hiccough)that ho heard me say I robbed the sheriff, wouldn’t I be in a nice pickle? But, tell me, can you get no trace o’ Reilly “Devil a trace; they said he has left the country.” “If I had what that scoundrel has promised me for findin’ him out or securin’ him——here’s to you—l say, if I had, you and I would ” Here he pointed with his thumb over his shoulder, as much as to say they would try another climate. “And now,” he proceeded, “for a search on the shake-down. Who knows that the ould fellow has the yellow boys (guineas) about him?” And he was proceeding to search Fergus, when Mary few at him like a tigress. “Stop, you cowardly robber!” she exclaimed; “would you bring down the curse and the vengeance of God. upon both of us? We have enough and too much to answer for, let alone to rob the ould an’ the poor.” “Bo aisy now,” said he, “I’ll make the search; sure I’m undher the scoundrel Whitecraft’s protection.” “Yes, you are, and you’re undher my protection, too; and I tell you, if you lay a hand upon him it’ll be worse for you.” “What—what do you mane?” . “It’s no matter what I mane; find it out.” “How do I know but he has heard us?” We must now observe that Fergus’s style of sleeping was admirably adapted for his purpose. It was not accompanied by a loud and unbroken snore; on the contrary, after it had risen to the highest and most disagreeable intonations, it stopped short, with a loud and indescribable back-snort in his nose, and then, after a lull of some length, during which he groaned and muttered to himself, he again resumed his sternutations in a manner so natural as would have imposed upon the very devil himself, if he- had been present, as-there is little doubt he was, though not actually visible to the eyes ■ of his two agents.