The Red Hand of Ulster

round the lawn. I came to the conclusion that Lady Moyne would have no difficulty in obtaining any subscription she wanted from the millionaire. They were, of cours

ad seen Lady Moyne in her character as hostess. It is not to be wondered at that he yielde

d to be true to my trust and to make myself agreeable to Conroy. Unfortunately he did not seem to want my company. He went off for a long walk with Malcolmson. This surpris

Mr. Cahoon, and we talked

aid, "is to get their hands int

re, plainly, the N

ion?"

Cahoon. "Money will be wanted to feed paupers and pay priests i

t only for our fellow-countrymen in Leinster, Munster and Connacht, but for all the other inhabitants of the Briti

y," he would say; "but it won't d

way, was touched with idealisms; I discovered, accidentally, that he devotes his spare time on Saturdays to the instruction of young men in cricket and football. His Sunday afternoons he gives to an immense Bible-class for boys of fifteen or sixteen. He has built and maintains, on the sole condition that he does not actually lose money by it, a kind of model village in a suburban district of Belfast. In order to look after this village properly he gets up at five o'clock in the morning on three days in the week. In winter, when his social work is in full swing, he spends almost all his evenings at a large Working-Men's club. He

ed to get him to explain how he proposed to fight, against whom he intended to fight, who might be expected to fight on his side. I do not think he got angry with me for my p

from paying an extra penny in the pound income tax? That's what it comes to, you know, and I

without replying. Then he took out his watch and looked at

e Green Loaney Scutc

mill. I have only a vague ide

from this," said Cahoon. "And in my c

rushing about the country in Cahoon's motor car. I preferred to

an," I said, "and the pr

said Cahoon, "when you've seen the man I'm

f he would really show me a citizen soldier in a sc

he name of McCon

. "One expects someth

thing for about ten mi

s foreman i

hing mill?

ersation. The long silences were embarrassing. Cahoon did not answer me. At the end of anothe

r drinks n

ight be some relation to my fr

oon a little later, "that he

rossan are close relations

now all about the establishment, led me through some very dusty purlieus. McConkey, when we came up

, "who wants to know whether you mean t

id McConk

y. Neither of them spoke. It was clearly my turn to say something; but with four hard

all

tare at me. Then McConke

be a Papist

replied. "In fact I

t in the back of his trousers and drew out a s

thon,"

ound on it drawings of a machine g

y wee thing,"

rous. Cahoon expressed his admir

something to fight with," said

I said, "that you've

t," said McConkey; "but

ctually me

. I

was still studying th

ly, "if she doesna' land a few of the

to Caho

think," I sai

aid Cahoon, "and we don

at? It would be silly to attack a tax colle

fret about that. We'll f

," said McConkey, "

culty," said Ca

ing to stand up til

, they seem to be actually cordial. There is certainly a good deal to be said for Lady Moyne's policy. So long as Cahoon and McConkey have

n up the business of killing in a lofty professional spirit. I cannot imagine anything more likely to shatter my nerve than to be pitted against men like McConkey, who neither drink nor smoke, but save and spend their savings on machine guns. The regular soldier has his guns bought for him

roy made a suggestion for

ad us the speech which she is to ma

they were numerous and quite as enthusiastic as their husbands and brothers. Cahoon said that he was giving his mill hand

never forget that the most impressionable years of a man's life are thos

and which rocks the cradle rules the world. The secret of Babberly's great success

o get at the children who were learning to say their prayers. The Home Rule Bill would be either rejected or passed lo

," he said, "have fathers, brothers an

ay with him to the billiard room; but I refused to do so. I wanted to watch Lady Moyne making her speech. I am glad that I resisted his appeal. Lady Moyne not only read us the speech. She delivered it to

ten their lives. Besides, they'll take it as a compl

sters of McConkey and other men of the same class. Cahoon's wife, if he had one, would

nking of women who are mothers and makers of men; who sew on trouser buttons and cook savoury messes for those who are fighting the battle of life for them in a rough world, sustained by an abiding vision of noble womanhood and the sanctity of home. It is an extraordinarily appealing phrase and Lady Moyne used it for all it was worth. As addressed by her to wives and sisters of the Belfast working-men, it had a further value. The plural possessive pronoun bracketed McConkey with Lord Moyne. McConkey's wife, assuming for the moment that he had not abstained fr

tized again. I have no doubt, however, that the speech was a powerful appeal for the maintenance of the Union. Conroy said so afterwards and Babberly entirely agreed with him. The Dean suggested that something might be put in about the sanctity of the marriage tie,

or at all events thought he understood, his own success. He believed that he was rich because he had, more than other men, a love of the excitement which comes with risk. He had the spirit of the true adventurer, the man who pursues novelty and danger for their own sakes. Every story he told us illustrated and was meant to illustrate this side of his character. He despised the rest of us, especially me perhaps. We, Cahoon, the Dean

ed the room and told Conroy that his motor was ready for him at the doo

ntion in the neighbourhood of Castle Affey. But his talk during the evening had left its impression on other minds as well as mine. We bid each other good night without expressing any astonishment at Conroy's conduct. Cahoon refrai

ing as any man living and certainly loves risk for its own sake, but Bob will not die a rich man. Nor will Conroy. Wealth falls into the hands of such men occasionally, as vast hoards of gold did one hundred and fifty years ago into the holds of pirate ships. But no one ever heard of a buccaneer who died with a large fortune safely invested. Before Conroy dies his fortune will have taken to itself wings and fled

shing my article, I heard Conroy's m

l. None of us asked him where he had been the nigh

given, looked pleased, and I recollected at once that I had promised to interest Conroy in

n opinion it would surely be better to leave him alone. If he has an opinion and attaches any importance to it he will go to the polling booth without being dragged there by a kind of special constable hired for the purpose. If the money of the party funds were given to the voters in the form of bribes, the expenditure would be intelligible. It might even be justif

Irish land question, a thing in which I no longer take any but an academic interest. He asked me if I still owned a small e

proposition?

, what with the agitation about grazing lands, an

"that your ancestors mism

ect to have their misdeeds brought h

grandfather, turned my grandfather of

hold the opposite opinion. We are evicting large tenants and establishing small holdings. Our grandsons, I dare say, will go back again to the large fa

English who invented the economic theories on which my grandfather acted. He talked so much about his dislike of England and everything English that I did not like to introduce the subject of the subscription to Lady Moyne's political fund. He did, in the end, subscri