The Red Hand of Ulster

as applied to the appearance of a yacht, she can only have learned from Bob Power. I was not able to share her rapture because the Finola went out at

ey. Castle Affey is Lord Moyne's chief Irish place. He has three others in various parts of the country and one in England. It is about ten miles from my home. Lady Moyne invited Marion too; but this was evidently an after thought, and she discounted the value of the invitation by saying that her party was to consist almost entirely of men and might be dull for Marion. I suspected politics at once, and advised M

with them. If I were a carter, a fisherman, a shopkeeper, or a farmer, and lived in Kilmore, I should certainly wish Godfrey to live somewhere else. I did not even question the members of the deputation about their special reasons for wanting to get rid of Godfrey. They told me in general terms that he wa

ediately starve or go to the workhouse. He is quite unfit to earn his living in any way. Once, after great exertions, I secured for him a kind of minor clerkship in a government office. His duties, so far as I was able to learn, were to put stamps on envelopes, and he was provided with a damp sponge to prevent any injury which might happen to his tongue through licking the stamps. At the end of a year he was dismissed as hopele

. Nobody seems to have suffered any discomfort at the thought that the cost of the support of his relative was falling either on the rates or the taxes. (I am not sure which it was but it must have been one or the other.) Nowadays we are horribly self-conscious in such matters. The debilitated labourer began it, objecting, absurdly, to being fed by other people in the workhouse. His spirit spread to the upper classes, and it is now impossible, m

o have to say no to their request, but I said it quite firmly. M

enterprise was mine there is a considerable number of small shareholders. Crossan also runs the fishing business and our saw mill. I capitalized both these industries, lending money to the men to buy nets and good boats, and buying the various saws which are necessary to the makin

to things a bit, Exce

eputation of carters said th

place one of these days if that fellow C

g up that dispute about the car

ss are considerable. The five men who were dismissed appealed to Godfrey. Godfrey laid their case before me. I gathered that Godfrey had a high opinion of the outcasts who always spoke to him with the respect due to his position. He had a low opinion of the five interlopers who were men of rude speech and democratic independence of manner. I was foolish enough to speak to Crossan about the m

d Godfrey. "There's a great deal more behind that.

and it," I said, "you

ember the time that yacht of Co

u went and left my

something fishy about that yacht. What w

I should dismiss Crossan because C

coaling,"

nothing, but left Godfrey to devel

g on in the yard behind the stores. Those carters are in it, whatever it is, a

dancing,

likely to b

ly well that the store has not got a licence, and there's no

uld sell the stuff cheap and make money on it; if

. Godfrey, I have no doubt, would break any of the commandments which he recognized, if he saw his way to making a small profit on th

first place the Finola didn't come in h

t did she

so I ignored God

night on smuggled spirits. Why, only three weeks ago he spoke to me seriously about the glass of cla

eople find out, and you are let in for a prosecution. I tell you that every night for the last week men have been going up to t

ch them comi

e till nearly one o'clock in the morning. I could

aid, "were

lingly, "they were not. T

had been drinking smuggled spirits for ho

some mischief,

bly getting up a

y weren'

t I really cannot spare you the whole morning. If you have anything to do I wish you'd g

e simply wasted on him. Even after my last remark

slays through desire of gain or in obedience to an inborn criminal instinct. My murderer was to be a highly respectable, God-fearing man, a useful citizen, a good father, a man of blameless life and almost blameless thoughts, generous, high-principled, beloved. He was to slay his victim with one of the fire-irons on his hearth. The murderous impul

I wrote about two thousand words that morning before I was interrupted by the luncheon gong. I was unable to go on writi

that Mr. Power could really have b

; "he couldn

queer," s

's qu

ning Rose had a new gold br

sant and I believe efficient

ceedingly unlikely that he'd bring in a cargo of go

er young man gave her the brooch. He's a very nice, steady young fe

being a spy. If so he is evidently a judge of character, and hi

eek," said Marion, "and Rose is very my

l it from me," I said, "I d

e young men in the village have heaps of money lately, an

ourse, possible that they might earn the money there by some form of honest labour. But I could not imagine that Crossan had started one of those ridiculous industries by means of which Government Boards and philanthropic ladies think they will add to the wealth of the Irish peas