"Now, Terence, I will go and fetch the boys; you and Hoolan make the
landlord understand that we want food and wine for fifteen or sixteen
officers. Of course they won't all be able to get away at once. We must
contint ourselves with anything we can get now; afterwards we will send up
our rations, and with plenty of good wine and a ham (there are lots of
them hanging from the ceiling down below), we shall do pretty well, with
what you can forage outside."

Terence left this part of the work to Hoolan, who, by bringing up a number
of plates and ranging them on the table, getting down a ham and cutting it
into slices, and by pointing to the wine-skins, managed to acquaint the
landlord with what was required. In this he was a good deal aided by the
man's two nieces, who acted as his assistants, and who were much quicker
in catching his meaning than was the landlord himself. Very soon the room
below was crowded with officers from other regiments, and Hoolan went up
to Terence:

"I think, Mr. O'Connor, that it would be a good job if you were to go down
and buy a dozen of them hams. A lot of them have been sold already, and it
won't be long before the last has gone, though I reckon that there are
three or four dozen of them still there."

"That is a very good idea, Tim. You come down with me and bring them
straight up here, and we will drive some nails into those rafters. I
expect before nightfall the place will be cleared out of everything that
is eatable."

The bargain was speedily concluded. The landlord was now in a better
temper. At first he had been very doubtful of the intentions of the