"Burned to death!" The man's brain seemed bewildered.
"Didn't you know these things?"
"Shure, how would I know them, misther, all cooped in here like a bat in a cave?"
"How did you come here?"
"Och, the foolishness came over me, wid my head tangled in dhrink. What does a man know in dhrink? He can't tell his friend from his inimy. And me that had a dacent mother in the ould counthry and a dacent wife in the new, look at this, where it druv me."
"What crime are you charged with?"
"Wid breakin' and enterin', misther; and, sure, it was the stableman put me up to it that night I was full, and they got away and I was caught wid the watches on me and I was so shamed of Ellen and me mother at home, says I, I'll niver disgrace them, says I, and so I gev in me name Quirk, and none of them could tell the differ."
"When was it you were arrested?" asked Shagarach.
"It's three weeks and three days yesterday, misther; that I know by the scratches I made in me cell."
"Can't you read?"