Here all eyes were turned on me, and I found it difficult to endure the unfriendly scrutiny with composure. Had I walked into a trap after all, and instead of thanks was I to find myself implicated in this plot and suspected as a rebel? "Tim Gallagher," said the magistrate, turning to his honour. "Do you know him, Gorman?" "I do," replied Mr Gorman shortly, and evidently uneasy. "His father was once a boatman on my place." "Ah, and a smuggler too, wasn't he? We used to hear of him at Malin sometimes." "Likely enough. He was drowned some years ago." "And his two sons are rebels?" "One is by all accounts," said his honour; "the other is here, and can speak for himself." "I am no more a rebel than you," said I hotly, without waiting to be questioned. "I am a servant of the king. His honour here knows if I ever joined with them." "It is true," said his honour, as I thought rather grudgingly, "this rough-spoken young man was the one who frustrated the attempt on me yesterday. I know of nothing against his loyalty." "Yet," said the presiding magistrate, who had been turning over the leaves of the secretary's book, "I find Barry Gallagher's name down here as having taken the oath. How's that?" "It's false!" exclaimed I, betraying more confusion at this sudden announcement than was good for me. "I was once forced, years ago, with a gun at my head, to repeat the words or some of them; but I was never properly sworn!" "How did you hear of the attempt that was to be made on Mr Gorman?" demanded the officer suspiciously. "By accident, sir. I overheard the whole plot." "Where?" "That doesn't matter. I'm not under arrest?" At this the officer glared at me, his honour drummed his fingers on the table, and the other magistrate looked sharply up. "We can remedy that in a moment," said he; "and will do so unless you treat this court with more respect. We require you to say if you know the meeting-place of this gang." "Sure, your honour, I'm after telling you--" began Flanagan, when he was peremptorily ordered to be silent. "Answer the question!" thundered the officer, "or--" Mr Gorman looked up. He had his own good reasons for preventing any revelations as to the secret uses to which Kilgorman had been put in past times. "Pardon me, captain, would it not be much better to take information like this in a more private manner, if we are to run these villains to earth? At present, what we have to decide is as to the two prisoners; and there seems no question as to their guilt. I identify them both as the men who attacked my car, and whom Gallagher here helped to capture." The officer growled something about interfering civilians, but the other magistrate adopted his honour's view. "Perhaps you are right, Gorman; but we must find out their hiding-places for all that later on.--Have you any questions to ask, Captain Lavan?"