Part 23 (2/2)

I spied a Colleen she was tall and handsome,

And she nearly stole my heart away.

She wore no jewels or no costly diamonds,

And as for silken stockings she had none at all,

She wore a bonnet with a ribbon on it,

And o'er her shoulders hung a Galway shawl.”

The maiden in the shawl takes the young man back to meet her father, her father who was six-foot tall, and the boy charms him by singing ”Brown-Eyed Sailor” and ”Foggy Dew” and the girl sits with the lad by the fire and they hold hands through the night. I warbles the last two verses.

”Early next morning I was on the High Road,

On the High Road out and bound for Donegal,

And as I wandered thoughts strayed wildly from me,

Dwelling with the maiden in her Galway shawl.

So all young men from me take warning,

Don't you love no maiden be she short or tall,

She'll wander with you in the mists of morning,

She'll steal your heart in her Galway shawl.”

Just as I'm ending and bowing my head, Gully strides in with the Lady under his arm and the applause breaks out and Gully takes it for his and bows grandly and bounds to the stage and says, ”Good one, Moneymaker, we'll add it to the act,” and I flush with pleasure, and as Gully pulls out the fiddle and rips into ”Bonny Kate,” I nip off the stage and grab my bag and pull out my sailor top and sailor cap and pull them on. As Gully finishes up, I bound back on the stage to cheers and starts on the whistle and we swings into our act.

We're flying along and the crowd is in a state of near delirium with the music and the drink and we're coming up on our break and I ends with a fine rattle of me hooves and we bow and there are cheers and whistles and the lovely clatter of coins being thrown into the Lady Lenore's open case when there's the sound of horses pulling up outside and in a moment six young men swagger in. They're finely dressed, with swords clanking by their sides, and they look like they're just itching for trouble, and at their front is Randall Trevelyne and he has his best arrogant, sneering, d.a.m.n-your-eyes look on his face.

Oh, Lord...

He walks up to the stage as if he had expected to find me here in this place. I can feel the ill will of the crowd toward these unwelcome puppies and I hope I can cut the fuse of this situation and calm things down. Randall hooks his thumbs in his sword belt and says, ”Your reputation has extended across the river, Jacky, even unto the ivy-covered halls of academe. When I heard rumors of a girl in a sailor suit who sang and danced and played a tin whistle in one of the sailor bars, I knew it could be none other than yourself.” It's plain that his friends find him a rare man-about-town in speaking to me as if he knows me well. Well, he don't.

”You are welcome here, Lieutenant Trevelyne,” I say, and again I see the chest swell a few inches when I say it. ”Please be seated and we will attend to your needs.”

I turn to Gully and say under my breath, ”College boys. Half drunk. Trouble. Do you know any college tunes?”

Randall strolls back to his table to the admiring looks of his chums and the black looks of the usual Pig patrons while Gully thinks and says, ”I know some ... mostly obscene, though ... Ah, I know. 'Glorious!' A real rouser! All will enjoy. Concertina, key of G. Chord along. Introduce it, Jacky, and tell 'em to sing along with the chorus.”

I pick up my squeeze box and take a breath and announce to the crowd, ”We have with us some fine lads from the college across the river and to give them a proper Pig and Whistle welcome, Mr. MacFarland and I will do 'Glorious' and we invite all to join in the chorus in the spirit of brotherhood and good fellows.h.i.+p!”

With that, Gully puts fiddle and bow to his sides and booms out the chorus.

”Glorious! Glorious!

One keg of beer for the four of us!

Glory be to G.o.d that there ain't no more of us,

The four of us can drink it all alone!”

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