ye. Mrs. Blank came off this boat not a fortnight ago, an' as she came
down this gangway I declare to God you'd ha' swore she was within a week
of her time--and divil a ha'porth the matter with her, only cartridges.
An' the fun was that the Custom House boys knowed rightly what it was,
but they dursn't lay a hand on her nor search her, for fear they were
wrong."

This admiring tribute to the heroic matron of Dungannon--whose real name
was not concealed by the porter--was heard by a number of people, and
probably most of them thought themselves compensated by the story for
the delay it caused them in leaving the steamer.

By the summer of 1913 several thousands of rifles had been brought into
Ulster; but in May of that year the mishap occurred to which Lord
Roberts referred in his letter to Colonel Hickman on the 4th of June,
when he wrote: "I am sorry to read about the capture of rifles."[85]
Crawford had been obliged to find some place in London for storing the
arms which he was procuring from his friends in Hamburg, and with the
help of Sir William Bull, M.P. for Hammersmith, the yard of an
old-fashioned inn in that district was found where it was believed they
would be safe until means of transporting them to the North of Ireland
could be devised. The inn was taken by a firm calling itself John
Ferguson & Co., the active member of which was Sir William Bull's
brother-in-law, Captain Budden; and the business appeared to consist of
dealing in second-hand scientific instruments and machinery,
curiosities, antique armour and weapons, old furniture, and so forth,
which were brought in very heavy cases and deposited in the yard. For a
time it proved useful, and the Maxims from Woolwich passed safely
through the Hammersmith store. But the London police got wind of the
Hammersmith Armoury, and seized a consignment of between six and seven