“Is that four more on top of the first five?” asked Jimmy O’Loughlin.
“It is, it is,” said Bridgy. “The Lord save us and help us! There’d hardly be more of them if there was to be a Member of Parliament making speeches about the land!”
“There now,” said Jimmy O’Loughlin, reproachfully, to Miss Blow. “What did I tell you? Sure, Mr. Goddard’s as fine a man as e’er a one that’s in it. It’s himself will do a job in fine style when once he takes it in hand at all. That’s eleven men, and Constable Moriarty makes twelve, and there was a sergeant with the first lot that I seen myself. Was there e’er a sergeant on the other car, Bridgy?”
“There was,” said Bridgy. “I took notice of him passing, and one of them two that came on bicycles had two stripes on his arm.”
“That makes two sergeants and an acting sergeant,” said Jimmy O’Loughlin. “What more would you expect? What more would anybody want, unless it would be a gunboat sent round from Cork? And that’s what you could hardly expect, unless it might be for an eviction on one of the islands.”
“I’ll see what all these men are going to do,” said Miss Blow, “before I give an opinion about them. I’ve been——”
“Here’s Mr. Goddard himself,” said Jimmy O’Loughlin, who was standing near the window, “and his lordship along with him. And they have the big waggonette from the Castle and the dog-cart with the yellow cob in it. Be damn, but it’s great!”
Miss Farquharson stood up and looked out of the window. Miss Blow, obstinately sceptical, continued to eat her breakfast. Mr. Goddard and Lord Manton entered the room.
“Ladies,” said Mr. Goddard. “In a quarter of an hour we start for Rosivera.”
“At the head of a small army,” said Lord Manton. “Twelve men armed with carbines, not counting Mr. Goddard, who wears a sword.”