The Red Hand of Ulster Part 17

"You're sure," he said, "to have heard a garbled account of what happened, before you get this letter. I want to tell you the _facts_ before I take further action."

The word "facts" was underlined shakily. I had, of course, heard no account of anything which had happened. I handed the letter to Marion.

"Do you know what this means?" I asked.

Marion read it.

"Rose told me this morning," she said, "that there had been some kind of a row last night. She said G.o.dfrey was killed."

"That isn't true at all events," I said. "He's still alive."

"Of course I didn't believe her," said Marion.

"But I think you ought to have told me at breakfast," I said. "I hate having these things sprung on me suddenly. At my time of life even good news ought to be broken to me gradually. Any sudden shock is bad for the heart."

"I thought there might be no truth in the story at all," said Marion, "and you know, father, that you don't like being worried."

I don't. But I am worried a great deal.

"I suppose," I said, "that I'd better go down and see him. He says he's in great pain, so he's not likely to be agreeable; but still I'd better go."

"Do," said Marion; "and, of course, if there's anything I can do, anything I can send down to him--"

"I don't expect he's as bad as all that," I said. "Men like G.o.dfrey are never seriously hurt. But if he expresses a wish for chicken jelly I'll let you know at once."

I started at once. I met Bob Power just outside my own gate. He was evidently a little embarra.s.sed, but he spoke to me with the greatest frankness.

"I'm extremely sorry, Lord Kilmore," he said, "but I am afraid I hurt your nephew last night."

"Badly?"

"Not very," said Bob. "Collar bone and a couple of ribs. I saw the doctor this morning."

"Broken?"

"Yes. It wasn't altogether my fault. I mean to say--"

"I'm sure it was altogether G.o.dfrey's," I said. "The thing which surprises me is that n.o.body ever did it before. G.o.dfrey is nearly thirty, so for twenty years at least every man he has met must have been tempted to break his ribs. We must, in spite of what everybody says, be a Christian nation. If we were not--"

"He would keep following me about," said Bob. "I told him several times to clear away and go home. But he wouldn't."

"He has a fixed idea that you're engaged in smuggling."

"Even if I was," said Bob, "it would be no business of his."

"That's just why he mixes himself up in it. If it had been his business he wouldn't have touched it. There's nothing G.o.dfrey hates more than doing anything he ought to do."

"I'm awfully glad you take it that way," said Bob. "I was afraid--"

"My dear fellow," I said, "I'm delighted. But you haven't told me yet exactly how it happened."

"I was moving a packing-case," said Bob, "a rather large one--"

He hesitated. I think he felt that the packing-case might require some explanation, especially as it was being moved at about eleven o'clock at night. I hastened to rea.s.sure him.

"Quite a proper thing for you to be doing," I said, "and certainly no business of G.o.dfrey's. Every one has a perfect right to move packing-cases about from place to place."

"He told me he was going for the police, so--"

"I don't think you need have taken any notice of that threat. The police know G.o.dfrey quite well. They hate being worried just as much as I do."

"So I knocked him down."

"You must have hit him in several places at once," I said, "to have broken so many bones."

"The fact is," said Bob, "that he got up again."

"That's just the sort of thing he would do. Any man of ordinary good feeling would have known that when he was knocked down he was meant to stay down."

"Then the two other men who were with me, young fellows out of the town, set on him."

"Was one of them particularly freckly?" I asked.

"I didn't notice. Why do you ask?"

"If he was it would account for my daughter's maid getting hold of an inaccurate version of the story this morning. But it doesn't matter.

Go on with what you were saying."

"There isn't any more," said Bob. "They hammered him, and then we carried him home. That's all."

"I am going down to see him now," I said. "He's thinking of taking further action."

"Let him," said Bob. "Is Miss D'Aubigny at home?"

"Yes, she is. If you're going up to see her--"

"I would," said Bob, "if I thought she wouldn't be angry with me."

"She's nervous," I said, "and excited; but she didn't seem angry."

Just outside the town I met Crossan and, very much to my surprise, McNeice walking with him. Crossan handed me a letter. I put it into my pocket and greeted McNeice.

"I did not know you were here," I said. "When did you come?"

"Last night," said McNeice. "Crossan brought me on his motor."

"Were you in time for the scrimmage?"