"Your uncle Alan's a dead man. And what's more: I have a word from him for ye." "But I'd have heard." "I cam' out in steam. It went against the grain a bit, but I cam' out in steam. From Belfast.... With a new boat out of Queen's Island ... Alan Donn's a dead man. That's why I stopped you. For to tell you your uncle Alan's gone...." "Come in, here," Shane said dazedly. He pulled the man into a bar, and sat down in a snug. "Tell me." "It was about nine in the morning, and an awful gray day it was, wi' a heavy sea running and a nor'easter, and this schooner was getting the timbers pounded out o' her. Her upper gear was gone entirely, and we could no' see how she was below, on account of the high seaway. She was a Frenchman, or a Portuguese. And she was gone. And we were all on shore, wondering why she had no' put into Greenock or Stranraer, or what kind of sailors they were at all, at all. "Up comes your uncle Alan; and he says: 'Has anybody put out to give those poor bastards a hand?' says he. "'There's no chance, Alan Donn,' says we. "And he says: 'How the hell do you know?' says he. "And we say: 'Can't you see for youself, Alan Donn, wi' the sea that's in it, and the wind that's in it, and the currents, there's no chance to help them?' "'So you're not going,' says he. "'Och, Alan Donn, have sense,' says we. "'If you aren't, then by Jesus, I am.' "He turns to one of the men there, a fisherman by the name of Rafferty, and he says: 'Hughie, get ready that wee boat o' yours, wi' the spitfire foresail, and the wee trisail.' "Then we said: 'You're not going, Alan Donn.' "'Who's to stop me?' says he. All this time we had to shout on account of the great wind was in it. "'We think too much of you, Alan Donn, to let you go.' "'If one o' you stinking badgers lays a finger on me to stop me, I'll break his God-damned neck.' "Says Hughie Rafferty to us--you know Hughie Rafferty, a silent man, a wise man--says he: 'He'll get out fifty yards, a hundred yards from shore and be stuck. And he'll say: "Well, I've done my best. Good-by and to hell with ye, and die like men!" And he'll come back. And if the boat turns over,' says Hughie Rafferty, 'he can swim like a rat, and he'll be back among us cursing, like his ain kind sel', within a wheen o' minutes.' "Says Hughie Rafferty, says he: 'I'll go wi' your Honor's Lordship, Alan Donn.' "'You will like hell,' says Alan Donn. 'You'll stay here wi' your childer and the mother o' your childer.' "Then a wee old man, that was a piper, speaks up. He was bent in two over an ash plant was in his right hand, and his left hand held his back. "'It's a foolish thing you are doing, Alan Donn,' says he. 'How can you bring off the poor people?'