_Man:_ Now, I daresay, sergeant, in your youth, you used to be sitting up on a wall, the way you are sitting up on this barrel now, and the other lads beside you, and you singing “Granuaile”?... _Sergeant:_ I did then. _Man:_ And the “Shan Bhean Bhocht”?... _Sergeant:_ I did then. _Man:_ And the “Green on the Cape?” _Sergeant:_ That was one of them. _Man:_ And maybe the man you are watching for to-night used to be sitting on the wall, when he was young, and singing those same songs.... It’s a queer world.... _Sergeant:_ Whisht!... I think I see something coming.... It’s only a dog. _Man:_ And isn’t it a queer world?... Maybe it’s one of the boys you used to be singing with that time you will be arresting to-day or to-morrow, and sending into the dock.... _Sergeant:_ That’s true indeed. _Man:_ And maybe one night, after you had been singing, if the other boys had told you some plan they had, some plan to free the country, you might have joined with them ... and maybe it is you might be in trouble now. _Sergeant:_ Well, who knows but I might? I had a great spirit in those days. _Man:_ It’s a queer world, sergeant, and it’s little any mother knows when she sees her child creeping on the floor what might happen to it before it has gone through its life, or who will be who in the end. _Sergeant:_ That’s a queer thought now, and a true thought. Wait now till I think it out.... If it wasn’t for the sense I have, and for my wife and family, and for me joining the force the time I did, it might be myself now would be after breaking gaol and hiding in the dark, and it might be him that’s hiding in the dark and that got out of gaol would be sitting up where I am on this barrel.... And it might be myself would be creeping up trying to make my escape from himself, and it might be himself would be keeping the law, and myself would be breaking it, and myself would be trying maybe to put a bullet in his head, or to take up a lump of a stone the way you said he did ... no, that myself did.... Oh! (_Gasps. After a pause._) What’s that? (_Grasps man’s arm._) _Man:_ (_Jumps off barrel and listens, looking out over water._) It’s nothing, sergeant. _Sergeant:_ I thought it might be a boat. I had a notion there might be friends of his coming about the quays with a boat. _Man:_ Sergeant, I am thinking it was with the people you were, and not with the law you were, when you were a young man. _Sergeant:_ Well, if I was foolish then, that time’s gone. _Man:_ Maybe, sergeant, it comes into your head sometimes, in spite of your belt and your tunic, that it might have been as well for you to have followed Granuaile. _Sergeant:_ It’s no business of yours what I think. _Man:_ Maybe, sergeant, you’ll be on the side of the country yet. _Sergeant:_ (_Gets off barrel._) Don’t talk to me like that. I have my duties and I know them. (_Looks round._) That was a boat; I hear the oars. (_Goes to the steps and looks down._) _Man:_ (_Sings_)—