"Boys," he exclaimed, his voice shaking with emotion, "I have just seen the Banshee. She was in the road outside the gates of this house, running backwards and forwards, just as I saw her five years ago in Kerry, and, as I tried to pass her by to get on my way to Dumfries, she waved me back, shaking her fist and screaming at the same time. Then she signalled to me to come here, and ran on ahead of me, crying, and groaning, and clapping her hands. And as I knew it would be as much as my life is worth to disobey her, I followed. You can still hear her outside, keening and screeching. But what are all these bricks for, and this mortar?" "The informer, Robert Dunloe," exclaimed one of the revellers. "We have been bricking him up for a lark, and intend keeping him here till the morning." "It's a lie," Ronan shouted. "I'm no more Dunloe than any of you. I'm Ronan Malachy, I tell you, and my home is in Dublin. I heard an Irish voice just now, surely he can tell I'm Irish, too." "Arrah, I believe you," said the new-comer. "It's the real brogue you've got, and none other, though it's not so pronounced as is my own; but may be you've lived longer in this country than I. Pull down those bricks, boys, and let me have a look at him." "No, no," cried several voices, angrily. "Anybody could take you in, Pat. He's Dunloe right enough; and now we've got him, we intend to keep him." In the altercation that now ensued, some sided with the Irishman, and some against him; but over and above all the clamour and confusion the voice of the Banshee could still be heard shrieking, and wailing, and clapping her hands. At last someone struck a blow, and in an instant swords were drawn, sticks and cudgels were used, furniture was flung about freely, and table, brazier, and cauldron were overturned; and the blazing pitch and red hot coals, coming in contact with piled up articles of all kinds--casks, chests, boxes, musty old books, paper and logs--it was not long before the whole chamber became a mass of flames. One or two of the calmer and more sober revellers attempted to get to the recess and batter down the bricks, which were merely placed together without cement, but the fury of the flames drove them back, and the hapless Ronan was, in the end, abandoned to his fate. Hideously aware of what was going on, he struggled desperately to free himself, and, at last succeeding, made a frantic attempt to reach a small window, placed at a height of some seven or eight feet from the floor. After several fruitless efforts he triumphed, only to discover, however, that the aperture was just too small for his body to pass through. The flames had, by this time, reached the entrance to the recess, and the heat from them was so stupendous that Ronan, weak and exhausted after his long fast and all the harrowing and exciting moments he had passed through, let go his hold, and, falling backwards, struck his head a terrific crash on the floor.