“A day or two after that I found out from a man who run a still, and knew the Red Captain well, that he had made up his mind to lave Galway and come down south, where he had some friends; so I just shut up the house and walked down here.  Now you know, your honor, that I don’t come here for the sake of the reward.  Not a penny of it would I touch if I were dying of hunger, and sooner than be pointed at as an informer I would throw myself over them big rocks.  But they have got Denis, and either they will make him as bad as themselves—­which I don’t think—­or they will shoot him; and if they don’t shoot him he will be shot one of these days by the soldiers.  What I want you to promise, your honor, is, that if I point out where you can lay your hands on the villains, you won’t say who tould you, and that you will tell your soldiers not to shoot Denis.

“You will know him aisy enough, your honor, for he is a dacent-looking boy; and when the time comes you will find he will do what he can to help you.  I found out who the people were that the Red Captain had come down to, and I watched and watched their place, till one day I saw him come there.  Then I followed him and found out whereabout they were hiding.  I kept about till, that evening, I had a chance of spaking to Denis for a minute.  He is broken-hearted, your honor, but he daren’t lave them.  He said they had sworn if he ever tried to run away they would hunt him down; and the Red Captain said that he would send information to the poliss that it was Denis who helped him fire the hut when those poor cratures were burned, and would say, he had been in the thick of it all along; and how could he prove the differ?  So he daren’t for the life of him move, your honor; and tould me to keep away and go home, for I could do him no good, and if they caught me spaking to him they would kill the two of us.”

“I promise you willingly,” Captain O’Connor said, “I will not say who pointed out their hiding-place, and if your husband does not join in the resistance he certainly shall receive no hurt.  If he is caught with them I am afraid that I shall be exceeding my duty in letting him go; but surely he would have no difficulty in proving that he had only accompanied them in consequence of their threats.”

“That’s what he couldn’t prove, sir.  That’s just what they tould him:  if they were caught themselves they knew there was no chance for them, and they would all swear together that he had been with them all along; and how could the boy prove that he wasn’t?”

“Well, Mrs. Moore, I will try and strain a point,” Captain O’Connor said.  “You see, people sometimes escape after they are taken, and I think we shall be able to manage somehow that Denis shan’t appear at the bar with the others; and if it should turn out that cannot be managed I will engage to make such representations to the authorities that your husband shall get off free.”