miles inland, and, with two others of the same brigade, encamped near it.
All idea of keeping up a regimental officers' mess had been abandoned, and
as soon as the tents were pitched and the troops had settled down in them,
O'Grady said to Terence:

"We will go into the village and see if we can find a suitable place for
taking our meals. It may be that in time our fellows will learn how to
cook for us, but, by jabers! we will live dacent as long as we can. My
servant, Tim Hoolan, has gone on ahead to look for such a place, and he is
the boy to find one if there is one anyhow to be got. As our companies are
number 1 and 2, it is reasonable that we should stick together, and though
O'Driscol's a quare stick, with all sorts of ridiculous notions, he is a
good fellow at heart, and I will put up with him for the sake of having
you with me."

As they entered the village the servant came up. "I have managed it,
Captain; we have got hold of the best quarters in the village; it is a
room over the only shebeen here. The ould scoundrel of a landlord wanted
to keep it as a general room, but I brought the Church to bear on him, and
I managed it finally."

"How did you work it, Tim?"

"Sure, your honour, I went to the praste, and by good luck his house is in
front of the church. I went into the church, and I crossed myself before
the altar and said a prayer or two. As I did so who should come out of the
vestry but the father himself. He waited until I had done and then came up
to me, and to my surprise said in good Irish:

"'So it's a Catholic you are, my man?'