Argosy (UK), January 1955 — page 120: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

= ae” Slee > iP 118 W. R. BURNETT of the night. We'll be well on our way by dawn.” They drank a toast to Ireland, and then they shook hands, and slapped backs profusely at the door. ** And Catherine’s all right? ”? asked Michael hurriedly. *“ Ay, ay,” said Brady quickly, and rather furtively, Michael thought, and he wanted to detain them, but they got away from him, and he stood looking after them until they had disappeared round to the back of the Mansion. “There is something wrong at Walianoure,” Michael told him- self. ‘‘ Something very wrong.” At two o’clock he took Lady Anne aside: “‘ Anne, we’re closing tonight. I’ve got business to look after.” “* And it’s about time,”’ she was going to say, but thought better of it, fearing that such a statement might change Michael’s mind, as his perverseness was growing more noticeable every day. “‘ Very — well,”’ she said indifferently. ‘‘ Just as you say, Michael. DeLane will tell the staff.” ** Ay,” said Michael absent-mindedly. Lady Anne went home first, Michael staying to make a final check with DeLane. When Michael got home, Ara was waiting for him, beautifully dressed and smiling. What he did not know was that Lady Anne had primed Ara, and though it was a great wrench to her, Ara did not oppose Michael in his plan to go away for a few days; in fact, she seemed rather indifferent. As Michael fell wearily into bed, he said to himself: ‘‘ Ah, it’s time I got away from this prison for a while, not that anybody cares! ” No, Ara did not oppose him, but she cried into her pillow after he had fallen asleep, and she knew in her heart that this was the end of the first phase of their relationship. What the second phase would be she was unable to guess, and the uncertainty upset her so that she couldn’t sleep all night and only pretended to sleep for fear Mick might wake and wonder what was wrong. But Michacl found a great amount of opposition from another source: Big Tom. ‘“ Begging your pardon, Captain,” he said, in the presence of Trim, who would not commit himself, “‘ this is the wrong time to leave Dublin. You’re safe here. The Angus Desmond business is still a local matter, and with all the trouble in Kilkenny it will no doubt remain so. What—go to Ballymoure? It’s like putting your head in the lion’s mouth.” But Michael, pacing impatiently, woula not listen. ‘“‘ There’s something I’ve got to find out,” he insisted stubbornly, “‘ and the only way I can find it out is by going back to Ballymoure. It’s not as if I was going to stay, for heaven’s sake! I'll be in and out in one night.”’ “ If you must go,” said Big Tom, ‘‘ be guided by me. Two men riding cross-country at the present time will attract a lot of atten- tion, particularly two men on thoroughbreds. You must go by coach. I'll supply the boot, the driver, and the coach. Let Trim ride as postilion, and use the two thoroughbreds for lead horses. comicloooks.Ccomn)