Lord Kilgobbin Part 47

'That is true. I believe I should be worth a few hundred pounds to any one who would capture me. I suspect it is the only way I could turn to valuable account.'

'What if I were to drive you into Moate and give you up?'

'You might. I'll not run away.'

'I should go straight to the Podesta, or whatever he is, and say, "Here is the notorious Daniel Donogan, the rebel you are all afraid of.'"

'How came you by my name?' asked he curtly.

'By accident. I overheard d.i.c.k telling it to his sister. It dropped from him unawares, and I was on the terrace and caught the words.'

'I am in your hands completely,' said he, in the same calm voice; 'but I repeat my words: I'll not run away.'

'That is, because you trust to my honour.'

'It is exactly so--because I trust to your honour.'

'But how if I were to have strong convictions in opposition to all you were doing--how if I were to believe that all you intended was a gross wrong and a fearful cruelty?'

'Still you would not betray me. You would say, "This man is an enthusiast--he imagines scores of impossible things--but, at least, he is not a self-seeker--a fool possibly, but not a knave. It would be hard to hang him."'

'So it would. I have just thought _that_.'

'And then you might reason thus: "How will it serve the other cause to send one poor wretch to the scaffold, where there are so many just as deserving of it?"'

'And are there many?'

'I should say close on two millions at home here, and some hundred thousand in America.'

'And if you be as strong as you say, what craven creatures you must be not to a.s.sert your own convictions.'

'So we are--I'll not deny it--craven creatures; but remember this, mademoiselle, we are not all like-minded. Some of us would be satisfied with small concessions, some ask for more, some demand all; and as the Government higgles with some, and hangs the others, they mystify us all, and end by confounding us.'

'That is to say, you are terrified.'

'Well, if you like that word better, I'll not quarrel about it.'

'I wonder how men as irresolute ever turn to rebellion. When our people set out for Crete, they went in another spirit to meet the enemy.'

'Don't be too sure of that. The boldest fellows in that exploit were the liberated felons: they fought with desperation, for they had left the hangman behind.'

'How dare you defame a great people!' cried she angrily.

'I was with them, mademoiselle. I saw them and fought amongst them; and to prove it, I will speak modern Greek with you, if you like it.'

'Oh! do,' said she. 'Let me hear those n.o.ble sounds again, though I shall be sadly at a loss to answer you. I have been years and years away from Athens.'

'I know that. I know your story from one who loved to talk of you, all unworthy as he was of such a theme.'

'And who was this?'

'Atlee--Joe Atlee, whom you saw here some months ago.'

'I remember him,' said she thoughtfully.

'He was here, if I mistake not, with that other friend of yours you have so strangely escaped from to-day.'

'Mr. Walpole?'

'Yes, Mr. Walpole; to meet whom would not have involved _you_, at least, in any contrariety.'

'Is this a question, sir? Am I to suppose your curiosity asks an answer here?'

'I am not so bold; but I own my suspicions have mastered my discretion, and, seeing you here this morning, I did think you did not care to meet him.'

'Well, sir, you were right. I am not sure that _my_ reasons for avoiding him were exactly as strong as _yours_, but they sufficed for _me_.'

There was something so like reproof in the way these words were uttered that Donogan had not courage to speak for some time after. At last he said, 'In one thing, your Greeks have an immense advantage over us here. In your popular songs you could employ your own language, and deal with your own wrongs in the accents that became them. _We_ had to take the tongue of the conqueror, which was as little suited to our traditions as to our feelings, and travestied both. Only fancy the Greek vaunting his triumphs or bewailing his defeats in Turkis.h.!.+'

'What do you know of Mr. Walpole?' asked she abruptly.

'Very little beyond the fact that he is an agent of the Government, who believes that he understands the Irish people.'

'Which you are disposed to doubt?'

'I only know that I am an Irishman, and I do not understand them. An organ, however, is not less an organ that it has many "stops."'

'I am not sure Cecil Walpole does not read you aright. He thinks that you have a love of intrigue and plot, but without the conspirator element that Southern people possess; and that your native courage grows impatient at the delays of mere knavery, and always betrays you.'

'That distinction was never _his_--that was your own.'

'So it was; but he adopted it when he heard it.'

'That is the way the rising politician is educated,' cried Donogan. 'It is out of these petty thefts he makes all his capital, and the poor people never suspect how small a creature can be their millionaire.'

'Is not that our village yonder, where I see the smoke?'

'Yes; and there on the stile sits your little groom awaiting you. I shall get down here.'

'Stay where you are, sir. It is by your blunder, not by your presence, that you might compromise me.' And this time her voice caught a tone of sharp severity that suppressed reply.

CHAPTER x.x.xVI

THE EXCURSION