“Well, keep on listenin’ and answer me questions. First and foremost, when’s the quality coming to the Big House?”
“How many is there?” went on Mr Murphy, prodding the fire meditatively with his stick.
“Dozens of them. I heard Mrs Kinsella sayin’ that a lot of thim was comin’ by spicial train to Tullagh station.”
Tullagh was the nearest railway station to Glen Druid Park, and it was fifteen miles away.
“Did you hear tell of anything else about them?” asked Mr Murphy.
“I heard Mrs Kinsella say——” began Patsy, then he stopped.
“Ohone!” wailed Patsy, “sure, I oughtn’t to be tellin’ you——”
Mr Murphy drew a clasp-knife from his pocket, opened it, tried the point on his thumb to see if it were sharp, then, holding Patsy down with one big hand on his chest, he approached the point of the knife to his throat.
“Don’t do it, Paddy!” cried Con, pretending to be alarmed.
“I’ve made up me mind,” said Mr Murphy, “I’ve made up me mind to see the colour of his blood, there’s no use in tryin’ to stop me. I’ve made up me mind to see the colour of his blood.”
At this awful threat Patsy made sure that his last moment had come. He was too frightened to speak or cry out, he just lay staring at the broad, red face of his executioner, or as much as he could see of it, for Mr Murphy’s back was half turned on the fire.
“Tell him, Patsy,” implored Con, “or he’ll have your life.”
Patsy felt the point of the knife tickling his throat.
“Which jewels?” asked Mr Murphy. “Quick now, or the knife goes into you.”
“The jewels ould Lady Molyneux’s bringin’ with her worth hundredths of thousands of pounds.”
“Who told you of them?” went on Mr Murphy.
“Mrs Kinsella, no less; she tould the maids and I was listenin’. Ohone! sure, it’s ruined I am!”
“Faith, you never said a truer word, if you don’t tell all you know. Out with it all, before I slits your wizzind.”
“Dimonds and em’ralds and all,” cried Patsy. “They say she do be wearin’ them wherever she goes, and she ould enough to be Mrs Kinsella’s mother.”
“In a box on her dressin’ table. Mrs Kinsella says she wonders the ould lady hasn’t been robbed before this.”
“Faith, she won’t be wondering that long,” said Mr Murphy, who now having got the information he required, closed his knife and put it in his pocket. “Have you been listenin’ to what your nevy told me, Con Cogan?”