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hold no friendships that would do hurt to my country," answered
Dyck sharply.
Mallow smiled satirically. "As we're starting at daylight, I suppose, I
think I'll go to bed, if it may be you can put me up."
"Oh, Lord, yes! We can put you up, Mr. Mallow," said the old man.
"You shall have as good a bed as you can find outside the Viceregal
Lodge--a fourposter, wide and long. It's been slept in by many a man of
place and power. But, Mr. Mallow, you haven't said you've had no
dinner, and you'll not be going to bed in this house without your food.
Did you shoot anything to-day, Dyck?" he asked his son.

"I didn't bring home a feather. There were no birds to-day, but there are
the ducks I shot yesterday, and the quail."
"Oh, yes," said his father, "and there's the little roast pig, too. This is a
day when we celebrate the anniversary of Irish power and life."
"What's that?" asked Mallow.
"That's the battle of the Boyne," answered his host with a little
ostentation.
"Oh, you're one of the Peep-o'-Day Boys, then," remarked Mallow.
"I'm not saying that," answered the old man. "I'm not an Ulsterman, but
I celebrate the coming of William to the Boyne. Things were done that
day that'll be remembered when Ireland is whisked away into the
Kingdom of Heaven. So you'll not go to bed till you've had dinner, Mr.
Mallow! By me soul, I think I smell the little porker now. Dinner at
five, to bed at eight, up before daylight, and off to Dublin when the
light breaks. That's the course!" He turned to Captain Ivy. "I'm sorry,
captain, but there's naught else to do, and you were going to-morrow at
noon, anyhow, so it won't make much difference to you."
"No difference whatever," replied the sailorman. "I have to go to
Dublin, too, and from there to Queenstown to join my ship, and from
Queenstown to the coast of France to do some fighting."
"Please God!" remarked Miles Calhoun. "So be it!" declared Mallow.
"Amen!" said Dyck.
Once again Dyck looked the visitor straight in the eyes, and back in the
horizon of Mallow's life-sky there shone the light of an evil star.
"There's the call to dinner," remarked Miles Calhoun, as a bell began
ringing in the tower outside. "Come with me, Mr. Mallow, and I'll
show you your room. You've had your horse put up, I hope?"
"Yes, and my bag brought in."

"Well, come along, then. There's no time to lose. I can smell the porker
crawling from the oven."
"You're a master of tempting thoughts," remarked Mallow
enthusiastically.
"Sheila--Sheila!" said Dyck Calhoun to himself where he stood.
CHAPTER III
THE QUARREL
The journey to Dublin was made by the Calhouns, their two guests, and
Michael Clones, without incident of note. Arrived there, Miles Calhoun
gave himself to examination by Government officials and to assisting
the designs of the Peep-o'-Day Boys; and indeed he was present at the
formation of the first Orange Lodge.
His narrow nature, his petty craft and malevolence, were useful in a
time of anxiety for the State. Yet he had not enough ability to develop
his position by the chances offered him. He had not a touch of genius;
he had only bursts of Celtic passion, which he had not mind enough to
control.
Indeed, as days, weeks and months went on, his position became less
valuable to himself, and his financial affairs suffered from his own and
his agent's bad management. In his particular district he was a power;
in Dublin he soon showed the weaker side of his nature. He had a bad
habit of making foes where he could easily have made friends. In his
personal habits he was sober, but erratic.
Dyck had not his father's abstention from the luxuries of life. He drank,
he gamed, he went where temptation was, and fell into it. He steadily
diminished his powers of resistance to self-indulgence until one day, at
a tavern, he met a man who made a great impression upon him.
This man was brilliant, ebullient, full of humour, character and life,
knowing apparently all the lower world of Dublin, and moving with an

assured step. It was Erris Boyne, the divorced husband of Mrs. Llyn
and the father of Sheila Llyn; but this fact was not known to Dyck.
There was also a chance of its not becoming known, because so many
years had passed since Erris Boyne was divorced.
One day Erris Boyne said to Dyck:
"There's a supper to-night at the Breakneck Club. Come along and have
a skinful. You'll meet people worth knowing. They're a damned fine lot
of fellows for you to meet, Calhoun !"
"The Breakneck Club isn't a good