As Ralph entered the messroom the officers had just taken their seats.  He was greeted with a boisterous outburst of welcome.  His comrades got up and shook his hand warmly, and he had to answer many inquiries as to how O’Connor and Desmond were going on.

“Sit down, gentlemen!” the major who was president of the mess shouted.  “Conway has had a twenty-mile march, and is, I have no doubt, as hungry as a hunter.  Let him eat his dinner in peace, and then when the wine is on the table he shall relate his adventures in detail.  By the way, Conway, I hope you have lodged that ruffian safely in jail?”

“Yes, sir, I have handed him over, and glad I was to get him off my hands; for though I had him handcuffed and his feet tied, and brought him along in a cart, I never felt comfortable all the way.  The fellow is as strong as a bull, and as he knows what is before him he was capable of anything desperate to effect his escape.”

“I remember the man well,” one of the officers said; “for, as you know, I was in his regiment before I exchanged into the Twenty-eighth.  He was a notorious character.  He had the strength of two ordinary men, and once or twice when he was drunk it took eight men to bring him into barracks.  I am heartily glad he is caught, for the poor fellow he killed was one of the most popular men in the regiment—­with the soldiers as well as with us—­and if they could have laid hands on this fellow I believe they would have hung him up without a trial.  I shall have real pleasure in giving evidence against the scoundrel for I was present at the time he shot poor Forrest.  I wasn’t five yards away, but it was all over and the villain was off before I had time to lift a hand.”

After dinner was over Ralph gave the full history of the capture in the cavern, of which Captain O’Connor had sent but an outline.

“It was a sharp fight indeed,” the major said when he had finished; “for, for a time you were greatly outnumbered, and in the dark discipline is not of much avail.  I think on the whole you got very well out of it, and O’Connor and Desmond were lucky in having got off with a broken limb each.”

Ralph was detained some days in Cork, as he had to be present at the courthouse when the prisoners were brought up before the magistrates.  After giving his evidence as to the capture, his attendance was no further required.  All with the exception of the Red Captain were committed at once upon the charges of working an illicit still, and of offering a forcible resistance with arms to the authority of the king’s officers.  The Red Captain was charged with several murders, and was remanded in order that evidence might be obtained from the regiment to which he belonged in Dublin, and of the constabulary and other people in County Galway.  Ralph then returned to Ballyporrit.

A fortnight later the detachment was recalled, the colonel having received the news that the regiment would be shortly under orders for America.  Lieutenant Desmond was able to travel to Cork at once, although still unfit for duty; and the surgeon reported that in another fortnight Captain O’Connor would be also fit to be removed.