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"Do you really think," I said, "that he ?" "We're business men," said Cahoon, "and we don't throw away our money." "But," I said, "who are you going to shoot at? It would be silly to attack a tax collector with a gun like that. I don't see who " "Oh," said Cahoon, "don't fret about that. We'll find somebody to shoot at." "There'll be plenty," said McConkey, "when the time comes."
"Malcolmson," I said, "always said he understood guns." "He does," said Bland. "If he'd shot just the least shade better he'd have sunk that ship." On the bridge we met McConkey, sweating profusely, taking his favourite weapon along at a rapid trot. He stopped when he saw us and halted his breathless team. "I have her working again," he said, "and she'll shoot the now."
"What, sir?" inquired Captain McConkey, "do you mean to say that you have rendered that vote in accordance with the facts elicited in evidence, as by your oath you were bound to do?" "Yes." "How, sir, do you mean to say that the prisoner did not sleep upon his post?"
"The fact is," I said, "that everybody will be too exhausted to fight. McConkey, for instance, is still hauling that field gun of his about the streets. He simply won't have strength enough left to-morrow to shoot it off. All the soldiers and all the volunteers are marching up and down. They mean to keep it up all night.
"Did it kill many people?" "Sorra the one," said McConkey. "But I'll tell you what it did do." His voice sank to a hoarse but singularly impressive whisper. "It made flitters of the statue of the old Queen that was sitting fornint the City Hall. The like of thon is nice work for men that's wearing the King's uniform." Bland burst into a sudden fit of boisterous laughter.
"You're too late," said Bland. "Is she sunken?" said McConkey. "Man o' man but I'm sorry for it. I wanted sore to have a shot at her." "She's not sunk," said Bland, "but she's gone. Steamed clean out of range of your gun." "I'd have liked well to have got to her before she quit," said McConkey. "Did you hear tell what she did with that shell she fired into the town?" "No," I said.
We were both hungry when she awoke, and in the total darkness we felt about for the dinner-basket, in which were the dinners of the children of the McConkey family with whom she had boarded, and who had gone home at noon, because the fuel was gone. We ate frozen pie, and frozen boiled eggs, and frozen bread and butter; and then lay talking and caressing each other for hours.
The military people got it into their heads that we intended to turn off the gas and plunge the town into darkness so as to be able to murder people without being caught. They took possession of the works and put a party of Royal Engineers in charge. Fairly silly idea! But some fool on our side a fellow who's been dragging a quick-firing gun about the streets all day " "McConkey," I said.
"Guilty!" "Captain Kingsley?" "Guilty!" "Captain McConkey?" "Guilty!" "Captain Lucas?" "Guilty!" "Captain O'Donnelly?" "Guilty!" "Captain Rozencrantz?" "Guilty!" "Major Greyson?" Every officer sprang to his feet and gazed in astonishment, consternation and indignant inquiry upon the renderer of this unprecedented vote. The President was the first to speak, breaking out with: "Sir!
It seemed to the sergeant quite natural that somebody should be in Belfast to hold one. We came across McConkey with his machine gun at a street corner. He had got a new crew to pull it along. I suppose the first men were utterly exhausted. But McConkey himself was quite fresh. Enthusiasm for the weapon on which he had spent the savings of a lifetime kept him from fatigue.
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