Page:Shiana - Peadar Ua Laoghaire.djvu/204

190 questioned her, and gathered from her the whole truth of the matter, from beginning to end, all the particulars of the match and promise of marriage and loan of money and all, while Sheeghy stood there bound, listening to them, and the man with the axe behind him.

"When Sive had finished her story she drew from her pocket some of the false money and gave it to the King. He looked at it closely. Then he called the head of the city police, who was standing below at the door. He came up.

"'How did it happen,' said the King, 'that three of them were caught and that the fourth escaped?'

"'That is what was puzzling me, my King,' said he, 'but I understand it now. There,' said he, pointing his finger towards Sheeghy, 'There is the man who swore information against the other three.'

"A groan escaped from all present when they heard that. 'He also swore,' said the head of the police, 'that the person who was manufacturing the false coin was a man who lives in Munster, and whose name is Shiana, and that it was he that bought the horses at the fair in your name, my King, and as a confirmation of that, that the man was in abject poverty until a very little time ago. That he was but a poor shoemaker in a cabin at the foot of a mountain, and that he is now the richest and most independent man in Ireland. I at once ordered a body of men to go south straight into Munster and to arrest that Shiana, when who should walk in at the door to us but Cormac, the bailiff here, in pursuit of the thieves, and covered with sweat and road-dust. He told us a story then which was exactly the opposite of the other story.