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'Shaint Agnus Eve, he calls ut. Over an' over he kept repeathin' thim as he helped me shtaggerin' along. . . 'God! cries he, betune cursin' me an' th' dogs an' singin' 'Shaint Agnus Eve' 'Oh, help us this night! let us live, God! . . . oh, let us live! this poor bloody Oirishman an' me! . . ."

"Ye 'd niver let an Oirishman go hungry," he appealed, putting a brogue on his tongue. "Arrah, me darlin', no maid wid such lips but has a kind heart." The officer boldly put his hand under the woman's chin and made as if he would kiss her. Then, as she eluded the threatened blandishment, he continued, "Sure, and do ye call yeself a woman, that ye starve a man all ways to wanst?"

'The Tyrone was pushin' an' pushin' in, an' our men was swearin' at thim, an' Crook was workin' away in front av us all, his sword-arm swingin' like a pump-handle an' his revolver spittin' like a cat. But the strange thing av ut was the quiet that lay upon. 'Twas like a fight in a drame except for thim that was dead. 'Whin I gave room to the Oirishman I was expinded an' forlorn in my inside.

"The Tyrone was pushin' an' pushin' in, an' our men was swearin' at thim, an' Crook was workin' away in front av us all, his sword-arm swingin' like a pump-handle an' his revolver spittin' like a cat. But the strange thing av ut was the quiet that lay upon. 'Twas like a fight in a drame except for thim that was dead. "Whin I gave room to the Oirishman I was expinded an' forlorn in my inside.

"But is the man an Irishman?" asked Stuart. "He has no brogue." "Faith, sor," said the repentant O'Flynn, glad of the diversion, "he hits loike an Oirishman, I don't think he is an impostor. My nose feels rather limber."

Eyah! But I thrimmed um in th' finals. Wan Oirishman cannot put ut over another wan." He softly rubbed his huge hands together. "Five years! That'll tache Mishter Joe Lawrence tu go shtickin' his brand on other people's cattle! But blarney me sowl! Ryan sure is a bad man tu run up agin when he's actin' for th' defence."

"I thought he'd never turn traitor," cried Captain Gillespie emphatically; Tim Rooney adding with equal warmth, "Nor I, sorr. I've allers found the Chinee chap a good Oirishman ivery day he's bin' aboord!"

'We'd make an Oirishman of him for ever. 'Begad, we'd make him wear the grane in raal earnest, and, a foine scraw it would be, said a third. The witticism was greeted with a roar of laughter, and upon this expression of a somewhat verdant patriotism the dispute concerning the reduction was resumed. 'Give us the land all round at the Government valuation, said a man in the middle of the group.

"Ye bet Oi do, sor. Sthep out there, Burke, yer slab-sided boss o' Swades, or Oi 'll show ye what a dacent Oirishman an O'Brien, bedad, thinks o' the loikes of ye; Oi will that."