_Fardy:_ (_Lifting the sheep on his back._) I’ll give you a hand with it. _Hyacinth:_ (_Goes a step or two and turns round._) You told me no place where I could hide it. _Fardy:_ You needn’t go far. There is the church beyond at the side of the Square. Go round to the ditch behind the wall—there’s nettles in it. _Hyacinth:_ That’ll do. _Fardy:_ She’s coming out—run! run! Hyacinth: (_Runs a step or two._) It’s slipping! _Fardy:_ Hoist it up! I’ll give it a hoist! (_Halvey runs out._) _Mrs. Delane:_ (_Calling out._) What are you doing Fardy Farrell? Is it idling you are? _Fardy:_ Waiting I am, ma’am, for the message—— _Mrs. Delane:_ Never mind the message yet. Who said it was ready? (_Going to door._) Go ask for the loan of—no, but ask news of—Here, now go bring that bag of Mr. Halvey’s to the lodging Miss Joyce has taken—— _Fardy:_ I will, ma’am. (_Takes bag and goes out._) _Mrs. Delane:_ (_Coming out with a telegram in her hand._) Nobody here? (_Looks round and calls cautiously._) Mr. Quirke! Mr. Quirke! James Quirke! _Mr. Quirke:_ (_Looking out of his upper window with soap-suddy face_). What is it, Mrs. Delane? _Mrs. Delane:_ (_Beckoning._) Come down here till I tell you. _Mr. Quirke:_ I cannot do that. I’m not fully shaved. _Mrs. Delane:_ You’d come if you knew the news I have. _Mr. Quirke:_ Tell it to me now. I’m not so supple as I was. _Mrs. Delane:_ Whisper now, have you an enemy in any place? _Mr. Quirke:_ It’s likely I may have. A man in business—— _Mrs. Delane:_ I was thinking you had one. _Mr. Quirke:_ Why would you think that at this time more than any other time? _Mrs. Delane:_ If you could know what is in this envelope you would know that, James Quirke. _Mr. Quirke:_ Is that so? And what, now, is there in it? _Mrs. Delane:_ Who do you think now is it addressed to? _Mr. Quirke:_ How would I know that, and I not seeing it? _Mrs. Delane:_ That is true. Well, it is a message from Dublin Castle to the Sergeant of Police! _Mr. Quirke:_ To Sergeant Carden, is it? _Mrs. Delane:_ It is. And it concerns yourself. _Mr. Quirke:_ Myself, is it? What accusation can they be bringing against me? I’m a peaceable man. _Mrs. Delane:_ Wait till you hear. _Mr. Quirke:_ Maybe they think I was in that moonlighting case—— _Mrs. Delane:_ That is not it—— _Mr. Quirke:_ I was not in it—I was but in the neighbouring field—cutting up a dead cow, that those never had a hand in—— _Mrs. Delane:_ You’re out of it—— _Mr. Quirke:_ They had their faces blackened. There is no man can say I recognized them. _Mrs. Delane:_ That’s not what they’re saying—— _Mr. Quirke:_ I’ll swear I did not hear their voices or know them if I did hear them. _Mrs. Delane:_ I tell you it has nothing to do with that. It might be better for you if it had. _Mr. Quirke:_ What is it, so?