“It doesn’t in the least matter who you are,” said Dr. O’Grady. “Listen to the speech.”
“When I first set eyes on this town a month ago I thought I had bumped up against a most dead-alive, god-forsaken, one-horse settlement that Europe could boast.”
The crowd, being as Gallagher always asserted intensely patriotic, was not at all pleased at this beginning. Several people groaned loudly. Mr. Billing listened to them with a bland smile. The people were still further irritated and began to boo. Thady Gallagher broke suddenly from Doyle’s control, and rushed forward waving his arms.
“Pull the Yank down out of that,” he shouted. “What right has he to be standing there maligning the people of Ireland?”
Father McCormack and Doyle were after him at once and closed on him, each of them grasping one of his swinging arms.
“Behave yourself, Thady,” said Father McCormack, “behave yourself decent.”
“Isn’t it him that’s paying for the statue,” said Doyle, “and hasn’t he a right to say what he likes?”
Mr. Billing seemed quite unimpressed by Gallagher’s fiery interruption. He smiled benevolently again.
“I got bitten with the notion of speeding you up a bit,” he said, “because I felt plumb sure that there wasn’t a live man in the place, nothing but a crowd of doddering hop-toads.”
The hop-toad is a reptile unknown in Ireland, but its name sounds disgusting. The crowd began to get very angry, and surged threateningly towards the platform. Sergeant Colgan felt that a great opportunity had arrived. He had all his life been looking for a chance of quelling a riot. He had it at last.