I asked him if he was not well. 'Only a kind of
fightin' within,' he said; 'such things soon pass, and it is well they
do, or we should break to pieces.'
"And I said again that I wished not to bring him into danger. And he
replied that these matters were accordin' to Fate; that men like him must
go on when once the die is cast, for they cannot turn back. It seemed to
me a bitter creed, and I was sorry for him. Then for hours we kept an
almost steady silence, and comin' at last to the top of a rise of land he
pointed to a spot far off on the plains, and said that you, father, lived
there; and that he would go with me still a little way, and then leave
me. I urged him to go at once, but he would not, and we came down into
the plains. He had not ridden far when he said sharply:
"'The Riders of the Plains, those gentlemen who seek me, are there--see!
Ride on or stay, which you please. If you go you will reach the priest,
if you stay here where I shall leave you, you will see me taken perhaps,
and it may be fightin' or death; but you will be safe with them. On the
whole, it is best, perhaps, that you should ride away to the priest.
They might not believe all that you told them, ridin' with me as you
are.'
"But I think a sudden madness again came upon me. Rememberin' what
things were done by women for refugees in old Donegal, and that this man
had risked his life for me, I swung my horse round nose and nose with
his, and drew my revolver, and said that I should see whatever came to
him.
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