“In the first place we must arrange with the coast-guard to have a well-manned boat somewhere along the coast to cut the scoundrels off if they try to escape by sea.  The attack must be made by daylight, that is evident, for half the men would break either their legs or their necks if they tried to get down in the dark.  I think it will be best to place half the company along the top of the cliffs, posting two or three men at every point where it looks possible that they may ascend, then with the other half we will go down on this track she speaks of and search the whole place thoroughly.  If they are there we must find them sooner or later; and find them we will, if the search takes us a week.”

“Who is this Red Captain?”

“I believe his real name is Dan Egan.  He was mixed up in some brutal outrage on an inoffensive farmer, had to leave the county, went to Dublin, and enlisted.  He went out to Spain with his regiment, was flogged twice for thieving, then he shot an officer who came upon him when he was ill-treating a Portuguese peasant; he got away at the time, and it was months before he was heard of again.  It was thought that he had deserted to the French, but I suppose he got down to a port somewhere in disguise and shipped on board a vessel for England.  The next thing heard of him was that he was back again at his native place.  The police here were of course ignorant as to what had become of him from the time he disappeared; but the fellow made no secret of what he had been doing, and boasted of having shot the officer.

“The regiment was communicated with, and by a comparison of the date of enlistment and the personal description there was no doubt that the man who had enlisted as Mark Kelly was Dan Egan.  Of course every effort was made to capture him, but in vain.  I believe the peasants would have informed against him, for he was hated for his violence and overbearing way, but he soon established a sort of terror in the district.  He was joined by three or four of the greatest ruffians in County Galway, and unless the whole of these had been captured at one swoop, vengeance would be sure to fall upon whoever had betrayed him.

“He has killed four or five police officers at various times, and I should say twice as many peasants who have ventured to offend him.  He and his band levied a sort of blackmail in the district, and woe betide the small farmer who refused to send in a sheep or a bag of meal once a month.  Their cattle were killed and their ricks set on fire; and so in a short time he had the whole neighborhood under his thumb.  Whenever a party went in pursuit of him he was sure to obtain early information.  Not from love, but from fear; for it was a well understood thing that any one seeing a body of police and failing to send instant word would suffer for it.