He held out his hand, first to Donald, who shook it heartily, and then to Neal. He fixed his dark eyes on the young man's face, and looked long and steadily at him. Neal's eyes wavered and dropped before this earnest scrutiny, which seemed to read his very thoughts.
"God bless you and keep you, my boy," said James Hope. "You are the son of a brave man. I doubt not that you will be a brave man, too, brave in a good cause."
Donald Ward seemed a little impatient at this long scrutiny of Neal and the speech which followed. He took several gulps of whisky and water and blew clouds of tobacco smoke. He cleared his throat noisily and said.
"You'll be satisfied, James Hope, by the letter I've given you that we are men to be trusted?"
"God forbid else," said Hope. "Whom should we trust if not the brother and son of Micah Ward?"
"Then I'll come straight to the point," said Donald. "Who were the two men that were with you just now?"
"The one of them," said Hope, "was Aeneas Moylin, a Catholic, and a friend of Charlie Teeling. He's a man that has done much to bring the Defender boys from County Down and Armagh into the society. He has a good farm of land near by Donegore."
"The other you ought to know, Neal Ward. He's from Dunseveric. His name's James Finlay."
"I do know him," said Neal, "but I don't trust him."
"He came to me," said Hope, "with a letter from your father, like the letter you bring yourself. I have trusted him a great deal."
"Trust him no more, then," said Donald, "the man's a spy. My brother was deceived in him."
"These are grave words you speak," said Hope. "Can you make them good?"
Donald told the story of the raid on the Dunseveric meeting-house. He dwelt on the fact that only five or six people knew of the buried cannon, that of these, only one, James Finlay, had left Dunseveric, that Neal Ward's name had appeared on the list of suspected persons, though Neal had hitherto taken no part and had no knowledge of the doings of the United Irishmen; that his name must have been given to the authorities by some one who had a private spite against him; that James Finlay, and he alone of the people of Dunseveric, had any cause to seek revenge on Neal.
"It's a case of suspicion," said James Hope, "of heavy suspicion, but you've not proven that the man's a traitor."