Tom Emmett flushed scarlet, and involuntarily placed a hand upon the pistol in his breast. A low murmur went round the room as Cassidy sprang to his feet.
'Take care!' he shouted, 'how ye bring vague charges. Many a disfigured corpse has Moiley eaten--many an informer has floated out to sea. Give a name--only a name--and I'll scrunch the spalpeen so flat that ye'll not know him from a sheet of paper, save for the coat on him!'
Curran shrugged his shoulders.
'Do you think if I knew the scoundrel I'd not have pointed at him long ago? It's for you to find him out. Don't glare at me, man--I'm not a youngster who has never blazed. Mind, I've warned you to be circumspect. The Irish nature is too open. It can't keep a secret without telling a lie, and lies lead to awful tangles. It's no affair of mine. Terence, come along.'
The junior rose and stretched himself, and prepared to follow his chief.
A betrayer in their midst! The case did seem hopeless to the young councillor; so hopeless as to be almost contemptible. Possibly Lord Clare was a trifle over-strict with them, but he certainly appeared justified to a certain extent in assuming with the children the manner of a severe pedagogue. What a pity that they persisted in fathering every enormity upon him!
'It's a bad job, my friends,' he said. 'Curran's right about the papers. Good-night.'
As they crossed the quadrangle his mentor became wondrous voluble. He was garrulous as to my lady, and her unfortunate penchant for the chancellor; talked of Glandore, and all the titled in the land, till his companion eyed him in indolent surprise. To occupy his attention was the design of his mentor, for lurking in the shadow of doorways were certain darkling figures who were not gownsmen; and the little king's counsel feared lest Terence, if he perceived danger to be imminent, should be ill-judged enough to retrace his steps and get mixed up in the misfortunes of his friends.
The spectres allowed the pair to pass, and then, gliding to the door from which they had issued, left half their number there, whilst the rest stole through the gateway to the inner court--so as to command two special windows which were pointed out to them.
Meanwhile the party above, having completed the business of the evening, prepared itself to be jolly. The story of the proposed arrest, the vague charge about an informer, were evidently Bugaboos invented by nurse Curran for the luring away of his junior.