They found him seated on a stool, fondling the big grey-blue cat. He placed the cat gently down as they entered.
"God love ye, byes," he cried, "it's a foine pair ye are, an' no mistake; so it's sick y've been, Maurice?"
"Measles," said Maurice.
Harry nodded sympathetically. "Faith, measles are a blissin' in disguise, as are many other afflictions," he said. "Would ye relish a swate smell and the colors av God's big out av doors so much, think ye, if kept prisoner from thim ye never were? I'm thinkin' not.
"Take meself," he went on, drawing his stool closer to the chairs of his young friends. "All me life have I dhrunk more er less av the cup that cheers; but I'm through now, byes, not so much either because ut's a fit av the blue divils the stuff give me but because I mane from now on to quaff the swate draft of Nature widout a bad taste in me mouth. I'm through wid whisky feriver, and ut's Harry O'Dule, siventh son av a siventh son, so declares himself this day. Ut's out into God's blissid sunlight have I come afther bein' held prisoner by a deadlier disease than measles, me byes."
The tears came to the old man's eyes as he felt the sincere pressure of the hands held out to him. "Begobs! but ut's a foine pair ye be," he muttered. Then aloud. "And have ye told him, Billy?"
Billy nodded.
"Well, this much more I'll be tellin' both av ye," said Harry. "Just a bit ago two strange min stopped at me cabin dure. A rough lookin' pair they were, I'm sayin'. Says the big one av the two: 'Ould man,' says he, 'do ye know wan in these parts named Hinter?'"
"'I know one such,' 'sez I.
"'Then,' sez he, 'wull yu do me the favor av deliverin' a missage to him an' kin ye go now?' says he.