"I can only go on," said Daly, "as though they were in bed." Then he put his hand in his pocket, and felt that the pistol was there.
Mr. Persse saw what he did, and knew that his hand was on the pistol. "We have only a minute now to decide," he said.
"To decide what?" asked Daly.
"There must be no violence on our side." Daly turned round his face upon him, and looked at him from the bottom of those two dark caverns. "Believe me when I say it; there must be no violence on our side."
"If they attempt to stop my horse?"
"There must be no violence on our side to bring us, or rather you, to further grief."
"By God! I'd shoot the man who did it," said Daly.
"No, no; let there be no shooting. Were you to do so, there can be no doubt that you would be tried by a jury and—"
"Hanged," said Daly. "May be so; I have got to look that in the face. It is an accursed country in which we are living."
"But you would not encounter the danger in carrying out a trifling amusement such as this?"