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SHIANA
137

discovered so soon. It is a pity Cormac was not a few moments earlier. Perhaps he may overtake them yet!"

"I don't understand what you are talking about," said Sive.

"What I am talking about," said Shiana, "is that you have had four thieves lodging here, and that the money in the box was false coin; that all the horses they bought in the fair to-day were paid for with false money; that most of the horses that were bought to-day were bought for the King, and that the whole district has been robbed. That is what I am talking about."

She turned away from him. They noticed her legs giving way under her. Her father caught her in his arms, or they would have had her on the floor in a dead lump.

Sheila.—Poor girl! Three hundred pounds gone! It was a terrible loss!
Nora.—Did she faint, Peg?

Peg.—Indeed she did, and her father was a long time slapping her hands and throwing water on her before she came to herself. And when she did, the first thing she said was, "Oh, bother you! Why need you hurt me and drown me? What do you want here?" said she to Shiana. "Go away home," said she. "You have no business here."

He did not pretend to know that she had spoken.

"I am afraid," he said to Dermot, "that if they are caught they will come off badly. Cormac is angry. I think they must have carried off something of value from him. I never saw him go to work with so much fury. Even his own men felt a kind of fear of him. I can tell you they were