The Colonel turned and saw the four men with arms in their hands spreading out behind him. He understood. "You had better let me in," he said gently. "James will talk to them."
"James——"
"You had better speak to them," Colonel John continued, addressing his companion. "And you, Ulick——"
"You can't come in," Ulick repeated grimly.
James McMurrough interposed in his harshest tone. "An end to this!" he cried. "Who the devil are you to bar the door, Ulick! And you, Phelim and Morty, be easy a minute till you hear me speak."
Ulick still barred the way. "James," he said, in a voice little above a whisper, "you don't know——"
"I know enough!" The McMurrough answered violently. It went sadly against the grain with him to shield his enemy, but so it must be. "Curse you, let him in!" he continued fiercely; they were making his task more hard for him. "And have a care of him," he added anxiously. "Do you hear? Have a care of him!"
Uncle Ulick made a last feeble attempt. "But Flavia," he said. "Flavia is there and——"
"Curse the girl!" James answered. "Get out of the road and let the man in! Is this my house or yours?"
Ulick yielded, as he had yielded so often before. He stood aside. Colonel John opened the door and entered.