Bat an' Mr.Hycy met that night in Teddy Phat's still-house, in Glendearg, an' went home together across the mountains aftherward." "Well, Mr.Burke, what have you to say to this ?" asked Chevydale.
"Why," replied Hycy, "that it's a very respectable conspiracy as it stands, supported by the thief and vagabond, and the beggar's brat." "Was there any investigation at the time of its occurrence ?" asked Vanston.
"There was, your honor," replied Nanny; "it was proved, clearly enough that Phil and Ned Hogan were both dead drunk that night an' couldn't commit a robbery; an' Masther Hycy himself said that he knew how Bat spent the night, an' that of course he couldn't do it; an' you know, your honors, there was no gettin' over that.

I have, or rather my father has, Bat Hogan's shoes still." "This, I repeat, seems a very serious charge, Mr.Burke," said Chevydale again.
"Which, as I said before, contains not one particle of truth," replied Hycy.

"If I had resolved to break open my father's chest to get cash out of it, it is not likely that I would call in the aid of such a man as Bat Hogan.

As a proof that I had nothing to do with the robbery in question, I can satisfy you that my mother, not many days after the occurrence of it, was obliged to get her car and drive some three or four miles' distance to borrow a hundred pounds for me from a friend of hers, upon her own responsibility, which, had I committed the outrage in question, I would not have required at all." Old Burke's face would, at this period of the proceedings, have extorted compassion from any heart.

Sorrow, distress, agony of spirit, and shame, were all so legible in his pale features--that those who were present kept their eyes averted, from respect to the man, and from sympathy with his sufferings.
At length he himself came forward, and, after wiping away a few bitter tears from his cheeks, he said--"Gentlemen, I care little about the money I lost, nor about who took it--let it go--as for me, I won't miss it; but there is one thing that cuts me to the heart--I'm spakin' about the misfortune that was brought, or near bein' brought, upon this honest an' generous-hearted young man, Bryan M'Mahon, through manes of a black plot that was got up against him--I'm spakin' of the Still that was found on his farm of Ahadarra.