I thought a moment, but there seemed to be only one answer:—
“You are quite right, Dick! We can do nothing just at present. We must keep a sharp look out, and get some tangible evidence of his intention—something that we can support—and then we can take steps against him. As to the matter of his threat to harm Norah, I shall certainly try to bring that out in a way we can prove, and then he shall have the hottest corner he ever thought of in his life.”
“Quite right that he should have it, Art; but we must think of her too. It would not do to have her name mixed up with any gossip. She will be going away very shortly, I suppose, and then his power to hurt her will be nil. In the mean time everything must be done to guard her.”
“I shall get a dog—a good savage one—this very day; that ruffian must not be able to even get near the house again——” Dick interrupted me:—
“Oh, I quite forgot to tell you about that. The very day after that night I got a dog and sent it up. It is the great mastiff that Meldon, the dispensary doctor, had—the one that you admired so much. I specially asked Norah to keep it for you, and train it to be always with her. She promised that she would always feed him herself and take him about with her. I am quite sure she understood that he was to be her protector.”
“Thank you, Dick,” I said, and I am sure he knew I was grateful.
By this time we had come near the house, outside which the car stood. Andy was inside, and evidently did not expect our coming so soon, for he sat with a measure of stout half emptied before him on the table, and on each of his knees sat a lady—one evidently the mother of the other. As we appeared in the doorway he started up.
“Be the powdhers, there’s the masther! Git up, acushla!”—this to the younger woman, for the elder had already jumped up. Then to me:—
“Won’t ye sit down, yer ’an’r—there’s only the wan chair, so ye see the shifts we’re dhruv to, whin there’s three iv us. I couldn’t put Mrs. Dempsey from off iv her own shtool, an’ she wouldn’t sit on me knee alone—the dacent woman!—so we had to take the girrul on too. They all sit that way in these parts!” The latter statement was made with brazen openness and shameless effrontery. I shook my finger at him:—
“Take care, Andy. You’ll get into trouble one of these days!”