“Here’s her cloak, anyway!” said a girl, picking it up where Kitty had let it fall....
“Sure, that’s not Moll’s cloak, girl dear!” said another, giving her a look to say no more.
There was a good deal of the people beginning to have a suspicion that something was up.
“Your car is gone, Mr. Heffernan,” said one, and then the spokesman said, “So it is! beyant there it was heeled up....”
“Where’s Kitty? where’s Kitty?” shouts Cusack, dashing back to the house, and on into her room.
Of course, it was empty. Moll had watched her opportunity and had slipped out of the house with the crowd, and whatever any one else might have thought, Cusack took no notice, till he ran out again, and met up with her near the well. It wasn’t till then that he began to suspect some villainy.
“Where’s me niece? where’s Kitty, I ask ye? This is some of your tricks, ye ould faggot, ye!” says Cusack, very fierce.
“Och, the Lord save us!” says Moll, pretending to cry; “and that he may forgive you, Mr. Cusack, for having the bad thought of a poor dark woman! Is it me to go do the like! Sure yous all seen me, and I going off for the water ... and it’s what I must have took a wakeness and I coming back ... fell out of me standing, so I did; sure, isn’t there me cloak upon the ground, where I had to let it down off o’ me shoulders....”
What could Cusack say to that? And, indeed, no more questions were asked then. For the weight of the people could make a guess about what was going on. And when the spokesman called out, that they should pursue after them, for who could tell what might be happening to Heffernan’s side-car, and a lot of other boys, ready for a bit of fun, began yoking up, there wasn’t a bridle to be found! Stuck into the heart of the turf-clamp they were; got there that night late. But no one ever knew who put them there.
There was nothing more to be done, then, except to gather back into the house, and wait. And by degrees, it appeared as if some that were there knew more than they cared to tell. Whether they did not, it vexed Heffernan’s party, who began to look inclined for fight. Only for Dark Moll, indeed, there might have been a bit of a row, but she kept going about from one to another, talking, and saying how that there was no use in crying over spilt milk, and if Kitty itself was gone, wasn’t there as good fish in the sea as ever came out of it? So they all did their best to make the thing pass over quietly. The dinner was nearly ready, and wouldn’t it be a pity, they all thought, to have it wasted! And Heffernan’s spokesman, when Big Cusack said they might as well wait and take their share of whatever was going, agreed, and added: