"I knew ye'd help us!" replied Pat, exultingly. "I told the boys you wouldn't fail us; ye have too much o' the real old spirit in ye."
It was done; he had given his promise; but if he had only hesitated one minute longer all might have been different. Pat had only just answered when a sound of scrambling on the other bank made Murtagh exclaim in a hurried whisper, "Hide!" and there was barely time for Pat to conceal himself in the bushes before Bobbo appeared followed by Nessa.
Poor little Nessa looked very white and tired, and a faint struggle to smile died away in the attempt.
"I was nervous," she said; "I could not go to bed while you were out, so Bobbo came with me. He thought you would be here. Will you not come in now?"
"Yes," said Murtagh, "I'll come; you go on first."
Nessa looked at him in some surprise. She had expected to find him prostrated with grief in some out-of-the-way corner, but here he was standing up by a blazing fire, his cheeks flushed, and his eyes bright with excitement. He really was incomprehensible.
"Our hut gone!" exclaimed Bobbo in dismay, standing still and surveying the ruins. "He can't have been so mean—To take it to-day!" And with the remembrance of all the day's troubles the tears came into his eyes.
"Yes," said Murtagh. Then in a hurried loud voice he continued: "Never mind; let us go home. Get on the stones and help Nessa down."
His manner half frightened Nessa; she wondered whether he were ill. She followed Bobbo, however, and Pat, putting his head out from his place of concealment, whispered to Murtagh:
"To-morrow night, here."