Bernard, as he heard it, felt himself newly informed as to the spirit in which India was governed. Perhaps it was necessary there; but it made him grind his teeth to think of its use in Ireland. The two figures scrambled to their feet, and Bernard shook hands with both. “Egor, sir, you’re a sight for sore eyes!” exclaimed Jerry, effusively, wringing the visitor’s fingers in his fat clasp. “Are ye come to take us out?” “Yes, that’ll be easy enough,” said Bernard. “You got my telegram all right?” Major Snaffle took his tablets from a pocket, and made a minute on them unobserved. “I did--I did,” said Jerry, buoyantly. Then with a changed expression he added, whispering: “An’ that same played the divil intirely. ’T was for that they arrested us.” “Don’t whisper!” interposed the resident magistrate, curtly. “Egor! I’ll say nothing at all,” said Jerry, who seemed now for the first time to consider the presence of the official. “Yes--don’t be afraid,” Bernard urged, reassuringly. “It’s all right now. Tell me, is O’Daly in the place we know of?” “He is, thin! Egor, unless he’d wings on him, and dug his way up through the sayling, like a blessed bat.” “Did he make much fuss?” “He did not--lastewise we didn’t stop to hear, He came down wid us aisy as you plaze, an’ I unlocked the dure. ’T is a foine room,’ says I. ‘’T is that,’ says he. ‘Here’s whishky,’ says I. ‘I’d be lookin’ for that wherever you were,’ says he, ‘even to the bowels of the earth.’ ‘An’ why not?’ says I. ‘What is it the priest read to us, that it makes a man’s face to shine wid oil?’ ‘A grand scholar ye are, Jerry,’ says he--” “Cut it short, Jerry!” interposed Bernard. “The main thing is you left him there all right?” “Well, thin, we did, sir, an’ no mistake.” “My plan is, major,”--Bernard turned to the resident magistrate--“to take my friend here, Jerry Higgins, with us, to the place I’ve been speaking of. We’ll leave the other man here, as the editors say in my country, as a ‘guarantee of good faith.’ The only point is that we three must go alone. It wouldn’t do to take any constables with us. In fact, there’s a secret about it, and I wouldn’t feel justified in giving it away even to you, if it didn’t seem necessary. We simply confide it to you.” “You can’t confide anything to me,” said the resident magistrate. “Understand clearly that I shall hold myself free to use everything I see and learn, if the interests of justice seem to demand it.” “Yes, but that isn’t going to happen,” responded Bernard. “The interests of justice are all the other way, as you’ll see, later on. What I mean is, if the case isn’t taken into court at all--as it won’t be--we can trust you not to speak about this place.” “Oh--in my private capacity--that is a different matter.” “And you won’t be afraid to go alone with us?--it isn’t far from here, but, mind, it is downright lonesome.”