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140 of the vehemence that moved her. She looked at him again, and she actually moved back a little bit from him.

You would not think that he had heard a single word all the time she had been talking, nor that he ever noticed that she had ceased or that she had moved away from him.

It was nightfall. Cormac and his men had not returned. Some of those who had accompanied them, and who had failed to keep up with them, were returning one after another. Some of them were saying that the thieves had been caught, others that they had not. There was a crowd of them gathered in the middle of the road just outside Dermot's house, disputing and arguing. The big tinker was in the midst of them asking them questions.

Shiana started out of his reverie.

"Dermot," said he, "shut this door behind me and fasten it well"; and out he went into the midst of the people who were talking.

"Have they been caught?" said he.

"They have," said one.

"They have not," said another.

"But I say they have," said the first. "Did not my two eyes see Cormac's hand on the throat of that big fellow who was walking the fair to-day with Sive? Would you deny me the sight of my own eyes?"

"Talking of that," said a third, "I cannot understand what made Sive go walking the fair with him."

"Neither can I," said a fourth. "Nor can I understand what brought them to Dermot's house at all, walking in and out there, so that one would