human
Faix, Mr. Flory, an' it's well for you you've come, said Carroll.
gpt
Jist you sit steady there, 'cause it won't do the laist good in life you're moving about where all the world'd see you. It was thus that the boy was addressed by him, whom we may now call his co-conspirator, and Carroll showed plainly, by his movements and by the glances which he cast around him, that he understood perfectly the dreadful nature of the business in which he was engaged.
human
You see that jintl'man there?
gpt
I see him,
human
You'd better mark him, that's all. If he cotches a hould o'ye he'd tear ye to tatthers, that's all. Not that he'd do ye the laist harum in life if ye'd just hould yer pace, and say nothin' to nobody.
gpt
Not a word I'll say, Pat.
human
Don't! That's all about it. Don't! We knows,--he knows,--what they're driving at down at the Castle. Sorra a word comes out of the mouth o' one on 'em, but that he knows it. Here the man in the mask shook his head and looked as horrible as a man in a mask can look.
gpt
They'll tell ye that the father who owns ye ought to know all about it. It's just him as shouldn't know.
human
He don't,
gpt
Not a know;--an' if you main to keep yourself from being holed as they holed Muster Bingham the other day away at Hollymount. The boy understood perfectly well what was meant by the process of
human
The Mr. Bingham, a small landlord, who had been acting as his own agent some twenty miles off, in the County of Mayo, had been frightfully murdered three months since. It was the first murder that had stained the quarrel which had now commenced in that part of the country. Mr. Bingham had been unpopular, but he had had to deal with such a small property, that no one had imagined that an attack would be made on him. But he had been shot down as he was driving home from Hollymount, whither he had gone to receive rent. He had been shot down during daylight, and no one had as yet been brought to justice for the murder.
gpt
You mind's Muster Bingham, Muster Flory; eh? He's gone, and sorra a soul knows anything about it. It's I'd be sorry to think you'd be polished off that way.
human
It's I that'd be awful sorry that anything like what happened Bingham, should happen to you, Muster Flory.
gpt
Why wouldn't you; and I'd have done nothing against you?
human
You're to remimber your oath, Muster Flory. You're become one of us, as Father Brosnan was telling you. You're not to be one of us, and then go over among them schaming Prothestants.
gpt
I haven't gone over among them,--only my father is one of them.
human
What's yer father to do with it now you're a Catholic? Av you is ever false to a Catholic on behalf of them Prothestants, though he's twice yer own father, you'd go t' hell for it; that's where you'd be going. And it's not only that, but the jintl'man as is there will be sending you on the journey. Then Pat signified that he alluded to the man in the mask, and the gentleman in the mask clenched his fist and shook it,--and shook his head also.
gpt
You ask Father Brosnan also, whether you ain't to be thrue to us Catholics now you're one of us? It's a great favour as has been done you. You're mindful o' that--ain't you?
human
What's the chap up to now?
gpt
He ain't up to nothin', said Carroll.
human
We're only a cautioning of him.
gpt
Not to be splitting on yourself?
human
Nor yet on you,
gpt
Sorra a word he can say agin me, said the stranger.
human
I wasn't in it at all.
gpt
But you was, said Florian.
human
I saw you pick the latch up and throw it away.
gpt
You've sharp eyes, ain't you, to be seeing what warn't there to be seen at all? If you say you saw me in it, I'll have the tongue out of your mouth, you young liar.
human
What's the good of frightening the boy, Michael. He's a good boy, and isn't a going to peach upon any of us.
gpt
But I ain't a liar. He's a liar.
human
Never mind, said Pat, throwing oil on the troubled waters.
gpt
We're all frinds at present, and shall be as long as we don't split on nobody.
human
It's the meanest thing out,--that splitting on a pal, said the man who had been called Michael.
gpt
It's twice worse when one does it to one's father. I wouldn't show a ha'porth of mercy to such a chap as that.
human
And to a Catholic as peached to a Prothestant,
gpt
Or to a son as split because his father was in question.
human
I suppose I may go now, said Florian. He was told by Pat Carroll that he might go. But just at that moment the man in the mask, who had not spoken a word, extemporised a cross out of two bits of burned wood from the hearth, and put it right before Florian's nose; one hand held one stick, and the other, the other.
gpt
Swear,
human
Bedad! he's in the right of it. Another oath will make it all the stronger. 'That ye'll never say a word of this to mortial ears, whether father or sister or brother, let 'em say what they will to yer, s'help yer the Blessed Virgin.'
gpt
I won't then,
human
Stop a moment, me fine fellow, said Michael.
gpt
Nor yet to no one else--and you'll give yourself up to hell flames av you don't keep the blessed oath to the last day of your life. Now let him kiss it, Pat. I wouldn't be in his shoes for a ten-pun note if he breaks that oath.
human
Nor I neither, said Pat.
gpt
Oh laws, no.