"No letter for me?" cried Laurie. He stepped out of the light, and striding up to his brother, laid one of his big hands on the boy's slighter shoulder. "No letter? But did you really meet Daneen?" "Of course I did. Don't grip me so hard, old chap. He had only one letter in his pocket, and that was for Aunt Honora, two newspapers for father, and a heap of circulars--nothing else whatever." "But are you certain sure? Surely Kitty would not fail a gossoon when he was in trouble." "I tell you, Laurie, there was nothing from her, nor from any one, except that one letter for Aunt Honora; but perhaps you'll hear in the morning." Laurie made no reply; his hands dropped to his sides. The next moment he dived into his trousers pocket and extracted a few coins. "Have we enough for a telegram, I wonder?" he said. "Ah, to be sure--why, we can send one now for sixpence. And I have tenpence here. I'll wire at once. I say, Pat, we must go to the nearest post office, and to-night. We will start now; do you mind? We can row across the Coulin, and anchor the boat at the opposite side, and then it is only eight miles across the mountains to Ballyshannon." "But James Dunovan will have shut up the office," exclaimed Pat; "and if we are absent from supper what will father say?" "Old Jim knows us; he'll open fast enough when he hears that we two lads have come on business." "But they can't send the telegram after the office is shut." "Don't make difficulties, Pat. I tell you this is a serious business. You don't want to be banished from the country do you? We'll go to the post office at once, and see that the message is sent to Kitty the very first thing in the morning. Come, what are young lingering for?" "Supper is waiting, and Aunt Bridget will make a fuss. You know we are not allowed to be out after ten at night." "Bother!" cried Laurie. "Well, then, we must go home first. What a nuisance. We'll have a bite, and then slink out. The dad can think we have gone to bed. Why, Pat, old boy, I met Wheel-about to-day, and he was like a mad man. He told me he had collected all that money for his funeral. What apes we were to touch the coat!" "Sure, it's unlike Kitty not to write," said Pat. "She is the last in the world to leave a fellow in the lurch." "Don't I know that? Who's fault it is it isn't hers, poor old girl. Something has happened to the letter. Now, Pat, let us get supper over, for we have no time to lose." As Laurie spoke he fastened the little boat securely by a rope to a stone near by, and then the lads turned their backs upon the silver-burnished lake, and strode into the darkness of a narrow mountain defile. The path was steep, and they had to scramble up, doing so with the agility of young ponies. "It is the thought of Wheel-about that bothers me entirely," said Laurie, after a pause. "I don't want to have it lying on my soul--upon my honor I don't--that I turned the poor old chap's brain still crazier."