Dyck read the brief document and whistled softly to himself.
“Well, well, you’ve got to obey orders like that, I suppose,” Dyck said. “They want to question us as to the state of the country here.”
“I think we can tell them something. I wonder if they know how wide your travel is, how many people you see; and if they know, how did they come to know? There’s spies all over the place. How do I know but the man who’s just left this room isn’t a spy, isn’t the enemy of all of us here?”
“I’d suspect Michael Clones,” remarked Dyck, “just as soon as Mulvaney.”
“Michael Clones,” said his father, and he turned to Captain Ivy, “Michael Clones I’d trust as I’d trust His blessed Majesty, George III. He’s a rare scamp, is Michael Clones! He’s no thicker than a cardboard, but he draws the pain out of your hurt like a mustard plaster. A man of better sense and greater roguery I’ve never met. You must see him, Captain Ivy. He’s only about twelve years older than my son, but, like my son, there’s no holding him, there’s no control of him that’s any good. He does what he wants to do in his own way—talks when he wants to talk, fights when he wants to fight. He’s a man of men, is Michael Clones.”
At that moment the door opened and the butler entered, followed by a tall, thin, Don Quixote sort of figure.
“His excellency,” said Mulvaney, with a look slightly malevolent, for the visitor had refused his name. Then he turned and left the room.
At Mulvaney’s words, an ironical smile crossed the face of the newcomer. Then he advanced to Miles Calhoun. Before speaking, however, he glanced sharply at Captain Ivy, threw an inquisitive look at Dyck, and said:
“I seem to have hurt the feelings of your butler, sir, but that cannot be helped. I have come from the Attorney-General. My name is Leonard Mallow—I’m the eldest son of Lord Mallow. I’ve been doing business in Limerick, and I bring a message from the Attorney-General to ask you to attend his office at the earliest moment.”
Dyck Calhoun, noting his glance at a bottle of port, poured out a glass of the good wine and handed it over, saying: