"Did they take the haversack with my rations?"
"They took everything. And they asked me the name of the girl upstairs. And I said I didn't know; that you came last night and asked for a night's lodging, and that I never turned any one away from the door."
"You told them that!" I cried. "Did you want to make them suspect me? Do you usually give your guest room to women tramps? In the name of Heaven, how could you be so foolish?"
"Well," she said. "I wasn't going to let on that I knew you."
"What will I do?" I said. "Now they will be on the watch for me. I can't go to Clogher by train. I'll have to walk. How far is it?"
"It's not five miles," she answered. "You can walk it easily. About two miles from it you will come to a place called Ballygawley, and there you can get a tram that will take you to Clogher."
"Five miles," I said. "I'll get there easily before noon. Which way do I go?"
Before she answered a woman came in with a message from the girl's brother. She looked at me suspiciously till she was told who I was. I told her that I was going to walk to Clogher to get my sister who was there, and that after that we would make our way to Dublin.
"To Clogher!" she said and looked at me in astonishment.