"I've tried so many times to get in," admitted Kenny, "with Frank nippin' me just as my hand was on the knob, that I'm feelin' a bit surreptitious." He held up a tennis racket and a shotgun.
"And everything else," he boasted with an air of triumph, "that I took to Simon."
"And the bill-file!" exclaimed Brian, staring at the litter on the floor. "Jemima!"
"You remember it, Brian? You hated the sight of it. 'Tis the stiletto I stuck in a chunk of wax--"
"Lord, yes! And you wrote the I.O.U.'s on anything from a playing card to the end of a shirt."
"And never paid 'em until I had to," said Kenny with an unyielding air of self-contempt. "Many the time you checked 'em off, Brian, and rebuked me as you should. But that, by the Blessed Bell of Clare, is all behind me."
He proudly exhibited the bizarre collection of scraps, initialed in token of debt and reinitialed in token of payment.
"Go ahead, old boy," said Brian, his eyes tender. "I can see you've got a lot on your mind."
"And never again will you have to bookkeep lies. I'm that truthful now Sid worries a bit!"
"I practiced," went on Kenny with his lips compressed. "I practiced hard--up at the farm with Adam."
"Joan's told me you were there. I can't quite hitch things together yet, but I will in time."
"A landslide of things seemed to happen the minute you went--"
"I always had a feeling," admitted Brian, "that if I didn't stick around and keep an eye on you, a lot of things would happen."
"They did. They've been happenin' ever since."
"Kenny, surely you guessed. I was sorry--"
"Jewel machree, I was fair sick about the shotgun. And after you went I was willing to be sorry about anything--to get you back."
"And Ann's statuette. Lord, I burn when I think of it."
"You couldn't be blamed for a bit of temper. You're Irish, lad, and an O'Neill. 'Tis a splendid inheritance but volcanic too." He changed color and began to roam around the room, his mind casting up a painful memory.
"You'll never guess," he went on moodily, "what fell upon the head of me after you went. John Whitaker came up and took a shot at me. And Garry. And then after a while when I was quieter, old Adam, stirring me up afresh. My ears are as used to the truth as my tongue."