“In any case,” said Dr. O’Grady, “I don’t think you’d catch him, when he’d have fifteen or sixteen hours’ start of your telegrams. It was a good car, and I don’t believe you so much as know the number of it.” “The only thing that troubles me,” said Mr. Goddard, “is the Inspector-General. He’ll be in Clonmore by this time.” “Is he mixed up in it?” “Yes,” said Lord Manton. “He and the Lord Lieutenant, and the Chief Secretary, and the Prime Minister; though I’m not quite sure about the Prime Minister. It’s a State affair. The whole Empire is on the tip-toe of excited expectation to find out what has happened.” “All you can do,” said Dr. O’Grady, “is to tell them the truth.” “The truth?” said Lord Manton. “Yes; the simple truth, just as I’ve told it to you; doing your best, of course, to spare Mr. Sanders and Mr. Dick, especially Mr. Dick, on account of his poor wife.” “I’m not sure,” said Mr. Goddard, “that they’d believe--I mean to say, I’m not sure that I could venture to tell them the truth--that exact kind of truth, I mean.” “If you don’t care to tell it yourself,” said Dr. O’Grady, “get Jimmy O’Loughlin to tell it for you. He’d do it; wouldn’t he, Patsy?” “Be damn, but he would,” said Patsy Devlin. “He’d tell it without as much as turning a hair, so soon as ever he knew what it was you wanted him to tell.” THE END TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES This text has been preserved as in the original, including archaic and inconsistent spelling, punctuation and grammar, except as noted below. Obvious printer’s errors have been silently corrected. Illustration notation has been moved to below any enclosing paragraph. Text in italics in the original work is represented herein as _text_. Small capitals in the original work are represented herein as all capitals. End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Search Party, by G. A. Birmingham