"I mean, who was the man that came out of M'Grath's carrying a bundle on his back?"
"Some one carrying a bundle on his back?" queried the man in respectful perplexity.
"Yes," said O'Brien, sharply.
He was annoyed at what he considered the stupidity of Coyne.
"The yard door is locked this hour, and no one could come in that way. Ever since you went out, sir, I've been about here; and although the sea and the wind are high, I am used to them, and no one could, and no one did, come in. Nobody," added Coyne, emphatically, "crossed that threshold"--pointing to the front doorway--"since you went out, sir, until you yourself crossed it this minute. If you saw anything"--mysteriously--"for goodness sake don't say a word about it, or you'll have the missus and Mary in dread of their lives, if they don't die of the fright. Did you see it come in?"
O'Brien dropped his brows a little over his eyes, and looked at the man. Coyne did not seem as though he had been drinking or asleep.
"Go and ask Mrs. Carey and Mary, and when you are coming back, bring me some whisky and hot water."
When Coyne reappeared it was with the full assurance that neither Mrs. Carey, the landlady, nor Mary, the housemaid, had seen or heard any one enter the house between Jerry's leaving it and his return just now.
What was Jerry to make of this? There was not the shadow of a doubt that a man had come out of M'Grath's with a bundle of some kind on his back. He had watched that man with a little curiosity until he was quite sure he had no other cover to go to but the hotel. Then came a time when his attention was taken off the figure and given to the sea. No man was to be seen when he turned round, but something was going up the path to the downs. That something must have been the man he had seen leave M'Grath's. Nothing could be plainer than that. But who in the name of all that was mysterious could think of knocking at M'Grath's, and then ascend the downs with a heavy bundle on such a night? There was no house for several miles in the direction taken by the man with the bundle except the residence of the late Mr. Davenport, and that was two miles off.
Fahey, or----