As Neville had not left Ennis till late in the day,--after what he called a hard day's work in the warrior line,--they did not sit down till past eight o'clock; nor did any one talk of moving till past midnight.

Fred certainly made for himself more than two glasses of punch, and he would have sworn that the priest had done so also.

Father Marty, however, was said by those who knew him best to be very rigid in this matter, and to have the faculty of making his drink go a long way.

Young Mr.Finucane took three or four,--perhaps five or six,--and then volunteered to join Fred Neville in a day's shooting under the rocks.

But Fred had not been four years in a cavalry regiment without knowing how to protect himself in such a difficulty as this.