“Wid the help o' the Almighty, sir, I'll state nothing but the bare thruth.”
“How long are you off my estate?”
“Ten years, your honor, or a little more.”
“How came you to run away out of your farm?”
“Run away, your honor! Grod he knows, I didn't run away, sir. The whole counthry knows that.”
“Yes, ran away! Mr. Carson, here, stated to me this morning, that you ran away. He is a gentleman of integrity, and would not state a falsehood.”
“I beg your pardon, Colonel, not positively. I told you I did not exactly remember the circumstances; I said I thought so; but I may be wrong, for, indeed, my memory of facts is not good. M'Evoy, however, is a very honest man, and I have no doubt will state everything as it happened, fairly and without malice.”
“An honest 'rascal,' I suppose you mean, Mr. Carson,” said the Colonel, bitterly. “Proceed, M'Evoy.”
M'Evoy stated the circumstances precisely as the reader is already acquainted with them, after which the Colonel turned round to his agent and inquired what he had to say in reply.
“You cannot expect, Colonel B———,” he replied, “that with such a multiplicity of business on my hands, I could remember, after a lapse of ten years, the precise state of this particular case. Perhaps I may have some papers, a memorandum or so, at home, that may throw light upon it. At present I can only say, that the man failed in his rents, I ejected him, and put a better tenant in his place. I cannot see a crime in that.”