“There now,” said Tom. “You see for yourselves. You can’t call those men munitions of war.”
The guard, who had seen the soldiers march into the station, was puzzled; but the engine driver seemed convinced that there had been some mistake.
“I’ll do it,” he said, “for the sake of the young girl and the brave lad that wants to marry her, I’ll take the train to Dublin.”
“Well, hurry up,” said Tom. “Drive that old engine of yours for all she’s worth.”
The driver hastened to his post. The guard blew his whistle shrilly. Tom seized his wife by the arm.
“Hop into the carriage with Susie Farrelly,” he said. “Dry her eyes, and tell her I’ll spend £5 on a silk blouse for her, pink or blue or any colour she likes. I’ll explain the whole thing to you when we get to Dublin. I can’t travel with you. The guard is only half convinced and might turn suspicious if he saw us together.”
Tom O’Donovan caught, just caught the mail boat at Kingstown. He secured the agency for the sale of the Manners’ machines in Ireland. He is in a fair way to becoming a very prosperous man; but it is unlikely that he will ever be a member either of Parliament or Dail Eireann. He says that politics interfere with business.
VII. UNLAWFUL POSSESSION
When Willie Thornton, 2nd Lieutenant in the Wessex Fusiliers, was sent to Ireland, his mother was nervous and anxious. She had an idea that the shooting of men in uniform was a popular Irish sport and that her boy would have been safer in Germany, Mesopotamia, or even Russia. Willie, who looked forward to some hunting with a famous Irish pack, laughed at his mother. It was his turn to be nervous and anxious when, three weeks after joining his battalion, he received an independent command. He was a cheerful boy and he was not in the least afraid that anyone would shoot him or his men. But the way the Colonel talked to him made him uncomfortable.