“Well, if it comes to the blows bechune ye,” Reilly said, “just grapple wid him, and I’ll give him a little small clip on the back of the head wid me stick.” He gripped his cane hard as he added grimly: “Bedad! I’ll put me heart in it, and that’s no lie. Now come on and try me plan.”
But Michael still held back.
“What’s changed you all at once?” he asked. “You never liked me.”
“That lump,” said Reilly. “He’ll marry her out of hand before their walk’s over if ye do not stop him.”
“And if I do stop him, will I have her myself?” Michael asked.
“Ye will,” Reilly promised. “I’ve passed me worrd.”
“Then God be with us all, and here goes!” said Michael.
They quickened their pace and caught up with the pair, and Kate, looking back, stopped.
“I thought you’d forgotten us, Father,” she said with a laugh. “And is it Mr. Cassidy with you, the great stranger!” She introduced him to Kerrigan as a “friend of the family,” and they walked on together, Reilly straggling on ahead, leading the way toward his tool-house, in a lonely part of the cemetery.