Part 31 (1/2)

Colonel John had not, to be honest, a word to say. He was fairly defeated, his flank turned, his guns captured. He had counted so surely on a panic, on the man whom he knew to be a knave proving also a coward, that even his anger--and he was very angry--could not hide his discomfiture. He looked, indeed, so rueful, and at the same time so wrathful, that Asgill laughed aloud.

”Come, Colonel,” he said, ”it is no use to scowl at me. We know you never call any one out. Let me just hint that wits in Ireland are not quite so slow as in colder countries, and that, had I been here a week back, you had not found it so easy to----”

”To what, sir?”

”To send two old women to sea in a c.o.c.kboat,” Asgill replied. And he laughed anew and loudly. But this time there was no gaiety in his laugh. If the Colonel had not performed the feat in question, in how different a state things might have been at this moment! Asgill felt murderous towards him as he thought of that; and the weapon of the flesh being out of the question--for he had no mind to face the Colonel's small-sword--he sought about for an arm of another kind, and had no difficulty in finding one. ”More, by token,” he continued, ”if you are going to turn informer, it was a pity you did not send the young woman to sea with the old ones. But I'm thinking you'd not be liking to be without her, Colonel?”

Colonel John turned surprisingly red: perhaps he did not quite know why. ”We will leave her out of the question, sir,” he said haughtily.

”Or--that reminds me! That reminds me,” he continued, with increasing sternness. ”You question my right to bid you begone----”

”By G--d, I do!” Asgill cried, with zest. He was beginning to enjoy himself.

”But you forget, I think, another little matter in the past that is known to me--and that you would not like disclosed, I believe, sir.”

”You seem to have been raking things up, Colonel.”

”One must deal with a rogue according to his roguery,” Colonel John retorted.

Asgill's face grew dark. This was taking the b.u.t.tons off with a vengeance. He made a movement, but restrained himself. ”You don't mince matters,” he said.

”I do not.”

”You may be finding it an unfortunate policy before long,” Asgill said between his teeth. He was moved at last, angered, perhaps apprehensive of what was coming.

”Maybe, sir,” Colonel John returned, ”maybe. But in the meantime let me remind you that your tricks as a horsedealer would not go far to recommend you as a guest to my kinswoman.”

”Oh?”

”Who shall a.s.suredly hear who seized her mare if you persist in forcing your company upon her.”

”Upon her?” Asgill repeated, in a peculiar tone. ”I see.”

Colonel John reddened. ”You know now,” he said. ”And if you persist----”

”You will tell her,” Asgill took him up, ”that I--shall I say--abducted her mare?”

”I shall tell her without hesitation.”

”Or scruple?”

Colonel Sullivan glowered at him, but did not answer.

Asgill laughed a laugh of honest contempt. ”And she,” he said, ”will not believe you if you swear it a score of times! Try, sir! Try! You will injure yourself, you will not injure me. Why, man,” he continued, in a tone of unmeasured scorn, ”you are duller than I thought you were!

The ice is still in your wits and the fog in your brain. I thought, when I heard what you had done, that you were the man for Kerry!

But----”

”What is it? What's this?”

The speaker was James McMurrough, who had come from the house in search of the kinsman he dared not suffer out of his sight. He had approached unnoticed, and his churlish tone showed that what he had overheard was not to his liking. But Asgill supposed that James's ill-humour was directed against his enemy, and he appealed to him.

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