Next moment I saw a pair of nimble lower limbs, in white ducks and
straps under the boots, leap the wall, and run about, up and down, much
like a setter after a partridge.
I did not know what to make of this.
Then the head of McAlister peered from behind the tree, and screamed
"Lillibulero! God save King William!" Instantly the legs went after him,
and catching him up kicked him like a football about the enclosure. I
cannot recall precisely how many times the circuit was made, twice or
thrice, but all the while the head of McAlister kept screaming
"Lillibulero!" and "D---- the Pope!"
Recovering myself from my astonishment, and desirous of putting a term
to this not very edifying scene, I picked up a leaf of shamrock, that
grew at my feet, and ran between the legs and the trunk, and presented
the symbol of St. Patrick to the former. The legs at once desisted from
pursuit, and made a not ungraceful bow to the leaf, and as I advanced
they retired, still bowing reverentially, till they reached the wall,
which they stepped over with the utmost ease.
The half-Scotchman now hobbled up to me on his hands, and said: "I'm
varra much obleeged to you for your intervention, sir." Then he
scrambled, by means of the rails of the gate, to his former perch on the
wall.
"You must understand, sir," said McAlister, settling himself
comfortably, "that this produces no pheesical inconvenience to me at
all. For O'Hooligan's boots are speeritual, and so is my trunk
speeritual. And at best it only touches my speeritual feelings. Still, I
thank you."
"You certainly administered to him some spiritual aggravation," I
observed.
"Ay, ay, sir, I did. And I glory in it."
"And now, Captain McAlister, if it is not troubling you too greatly,
after this interruption would you kindly explain to me how it comes
about that the nobler part of you is here and the less noble in
Scotland?"
"I will do so with pleasure. Captain O'Hooligan's upper story is at
Auchimachie."
"How came that about?"
"If you had a particle of patience, you would not interrupt me in my
narrative. I told you, did I not, that my dear father had enjoined on
Colonel Graham, should anything untoward occur, that he should send my
body home to be interred in the vault of my ancestors? Well, this is
how it came about that the awkward mistake was made. When it was
reported that I had been killed, Colonel Graham issued orders that my
remains should be carefully attended to and put aside to be sent home to
Scotland."
"By boat, I presume?"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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