“Are you quite well, Larry?” John asked him.

“I am,” Larry replied; “but I need not ask the same question of yourself, for you are nothing but skin and bone, entirely.  Dear, dear, I wouldn’t have known you at all, at all, and such a foine colour as ye used to have.”

“I don’t think starving would suit you, Larry,” Captain Davenant said with a smile.

“Sure an’ it wouldn’t, yer honour.  It’s always ready to eat I am, though, as mother says, the victuals don’t seem to do me much good, anyway.”

“You won’t be able to come out and go back again the same night next week, John,” Captain Davenant said, presently.  “The tide won’t suit, so you must come up here, as you have done today.  You will always find a hearty welcome, and Walter shall go down and meet you early in the morning, near the mouth of the river, so you can come up with him; and then, if you fall in with any of the other parties, no questions will be asked.  I think everyone in camp knows him now.

“I wonder what your grandfather would say, if he saw you sitting here at dinner with Walter and me?”

John laughed.

“I am afraid he would disown me, then and there, without listening to explanations.”

“I have no doubt it’s a sore grievance to him that he is not in Derry, at present,” Captain Davenant said.

“I am sure it is,” John replied; “but the fasting would be a great trial to him.  My grandfather is a capital trencherman.  Still, I am sure he would have borne his part.”

“That he would,” Captain Davenant agreed.  “He and the men of his class are thorough, fanatics as I consider them.  Hard and pitiless as they proved themselves, to those against whom they fought, one cannot but admire them, for they were heart and soul in their cause.  There was no flinching, no half measures, no concessions for the sake of expediency.  On the ground on which they took their stand, they conquered or died.  Would that a like spirit animated all my countrymen!”

After nightfall, Larry brought round Walter’s horse, saddled, and his own rough pony.  Walter mounted the former, and John the latter.  The two kegs were slung across Walter’s horse.

“Will you meet me at the clump of trees, half a mile out of camp, Larry?” Walter said.  “In the dark, no one will notice the difference between you and John.”

Captain Davenant had furnished Walter with a password, and now walked beside the two boys till they were well beyond the camp, and then returned to his tent.  The lads made their way, without meeting with anyone, down to the mouth of the river.  The kegs were then taken off the horse and placed in the water—­they floated just above the surface.

“That is exactly right,” John said.  “They will not show any more than will my face.  When I come down next time, I shall fill them with water, so as to keep them just at this level.”

“I am afraid the moon will be up next time, John.”