“What took me round the house, is it? Why, then, nothing in life, Sir, but that just as I went outside the kitchen door to take a smoke, I saw the pigs, that Shaneen forgot to put up in their stye, making right for the mistress’s flower-garden; so I just put my _dudheen_, lighting as it was, into my pocket, and ran after them. I caught them on the grand walk under the end window, and indeed, Ma’am, I had my own share of work turning them back to their proper spear.” Gahan spoke with unusual volubility, but without raising his eyes from the ground. “Who were the people,” asked his master, “whom I saw moving through the western grove?” “People! your Honour—not a sign of any people moving there, I’ll be bound, barring the pigs.” “Then,” said Mr. Hewson, smiling, to his wife, “the miracle of Circe must have been reversed, and swine turned into men; for, undoubtedly, the dark figures I saw were human beings.” “Come, Billy,” said Gahan, anxious to turn the conversation, “will you come home with me now? I am sure ’twas very good of the mistress to give you all them fine apples.” Mrs. Hewson was going to propose Billy’s remaining, but her husband whispered:—“Wait till to-morrow.” So Gahan and his child were allowed to depart. Next morning the magistrates of the district were on the alert, and several suspicious looking men found lurking about, were taken up. A hat which fitted one of them was picked up in Mr. Hewson’s grove; the gravel under the end window bore many signs of trampling feet; and there were marks on the wall as if guns had rested against it. Gahan’s information touching the intended meeting at Kilcrean bog proved to be totally without foundation; and after a careful search not a single pike or weapon of any description could be found there. All these circumstances combined certainly looked suspicious; but, after a prolonged investigation, as no guilt could be actually brought home to Gahan, he was dismissed. One of his examiners, however, said privately, “I advise you take care of that fellow, Hewson. If I were in your place, I’d just trust him as far as I could throw him, and not an inch beyond.”