The question, and the extraordinary voice in which it was uttered, produced one of those roars of laughter which sometimes shake public meetings in Ireland; and O'Grady grew furious.
"If I knew who that gentleman was, I'd pay him!" said he.
"You'd better pay them you know," was the answer; and this allusion to O'Grady's notorious character of a bad payer, was relished by the crowd, and again raised the laugh against him.
"Sir," said O'Grady, addressing the sheriff, "I hold this ruffianism in contempt. I treat it, and the authors of it, those who no doubt have instructed them, with contempt." He looked over to where Egan and his friends stood, as he spoke of the crowd having had instruction to interrupt him.
"If you mean, sir," said Egan, "that I have given any such instructions, I deny, in the most unqualified terms, the truth of such an assertion."
"Keep yourself cool, Ned," said Dick Dawson, close to his ear.
"Never fear me," said Egan; "but I won't let him bully."
The two former friends now exchanged rather fierce looks at each other.
"Then why am I interrupted?" asked O'Grady.
"It is no business of mine to answer that," replied Egan; "but I repeat the unqualified denial of your assertion."