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 BRIEF CONTENTS

PART 1 Essay Writing

1. An Introduction to Writing
2. The Writing Process
3. The First and Second Steps in Essay Writing
4. The Third Step in Essay Writing
5. The Fourth Step in Essay Writing
6. Four Bases for Revising Essays
7. Developing an Essay

PART 2 Patterns of Essay

Development
8. Description
9. Narration
10. Exemplification
11. Process
12. Cause and/or Effect
13. Comparison and/or Contrast
14. Definition
15. Division-Classification
16. Argument

8
PART 3 Researching, Writing,
and Documenting
17. Information Literacy
18. Summarizing and Paraphrasing
19. Writing a Source-Based Essay
20. Writing a Research Essay

PART 4 Handbook of Sentence

Skills

SECTION I Grammar

21. Subjects and Verbs

22. Fragments
23. Run-Ons
24. Regular and Irregular Verbs
25. Subject-Verb Agreement
26. More about Verbs
27. Pronoun Agreement and Reference
28. Pronoun Types
29. Adjectives and Adverbs
30. Misplaced Modifiers
31. Dangling Modifiers

vi

9
 SECTION II Mechanics and Punctuation

32. Capital Letters

33. Numbers and Abbreviations
34. Apostrophe
35. Quotation Marks
36. Comma

SECTION III Word Use

37. Commonly Confused Words

38. Effective Word Choice

SECTION IV Tests

39. Editing Tests

PART 5 Readings for Writers

INTRODUCTION TO THE READINGS

BUILDING SELF-AWARENESS

EDUCATION AND LEARNING

CHALLENGING SOCIETAL VALUES

Index
Instructor’s Guide

10
 vii

11
 CONTENTS

Readings Listed by Rhetorical Mode

Preface

PART 1 Essay Writing

1. An Introduction to Writing
Point and Support
Structure of the Traditional Essay
Benefits of Writing the Traditional Essay
Writing as a Skill
Writing as a Process of Discovery
Writing as a Way to Communicate with Others
Keeping a Journal
Using Technology to Work Efficiently
MLA Format
Review Activities
Using This Text

2. The Writing Process

Prewriting
Writing a First Draft
Revising
Editing

12
 Review Activities

3. The First and Second Steps in Essay Writing

Step 1: Begin with a Point, or Thesis
Step 2: Support the Thesis with Specific Evidence
Practice in Advancing and Supporting a Thesis

4. The Third Step in Essay Writing

Step 3: Organize and Connect the Specific Evidence
Introductions, Conclusions, and Titles
Practice in Organizing and Connecting Specific Evidence

5. The Fourth Step in Essay Writing

Revising Sentences
Editing Sentences
Practice in Revising Sentences

6. Four Bases for Revising Essays

Base 1: Unity
Base 2: Support
Base 3: Coherence
Base 4: Sentence Skills
Practice in Using the Four Bases

7. Developing an Essay
Important Considerations in Essay Development
The Writing Process in Action
A Look Ahead to Part Two: Patterns of Essay Development
viii

PART 2 Patterns of Essay

13
Development

8. Description
Student Essays to Consider
Developing an Essay with Emphasis on Description
A Model Essay to Consider
READING Lou’s Place by Beth Johnson

9. Narration
Student Essays to Consider
Developing an Essay with Emphasis on Narration
A Model Essay to Consider
READING The Teacher Who Changed My Life by Nicholas Gage

10. Exemplification
Student Essays to Consider
Developing an Essay with Emphasis on Exemplification
A Model Essay to Consider
READING Dad by Andrew H. Malcolm

11. Process
Student Essays to Consider
Developing an Essay with Emphasis on Process
A Model Essay to Consider
READING How to Do Well on a Job Interview by Glenda Davis

12. Cause and/or Effect

Student Essays to Consider
Developing an Essay with Emphasis on Cause and/or Effect
A Model Essay to Consider
READING Taming the Anger Monster by Anne Davidson

14
13. Comparison and/or Contrast
Methods of Development
Student Essays to Consider
Developing a Comparison and/or Contrast Essay
A Model Essay to Consider
READING Born to Be Different? by Camille Lewis

14. Definition
Student Essays to Consider
Developing an Essay with Emphasis on Definition
A Model Essay to Consider
READING Propaganda Techniques in Today’s Advertising by
Ann McClintock

15. Division-Classification
Student Essays to Consider
Developing an Essay with Emphasis on Division-Classification
A Model Essay to Consider
READING The 5 Types of Friends Worth Holding Onto for Dear
Life by Shelley Emling

16. Argument
Strategies for Argument
Student Essays to Consider
ix
Developing an Essay with Emphasis on Argument
A Model Essay to Consider
READING Essay on the Importance of Teaching Failure by
Edward Burger

15
PART 3 Researching, Writing,
and Documenting

17. Information Literacy

Using Online Sources Effectively
Using the Library in the Context of the Digital World

18. Summarizing and Paraphrasing

Identifying and Avoiding Plagiarism
Writing a Summary
A Model Summary of an Article
Writing a Paraphrase
Using Direct Quotations

19. Writing a Source-Based Essay

Planning Ahead and Taking Notes
Understanding How to Incorporate Sources
Citing Sources
A Model Literary Analysis
Student Paper: A Rhetorical Analysis

20. Writing a Research Essay

Getting Started and Creating a Schedule
Selecting a Topic That You Can Readily Research
Limiting Your Topic and Making the Purpose of Your Paper
Clear
Brainstorming What You Know
Gathering Information on Your Limited Topic
Keeping Track of Your Sources and Taking Notes
Writing the Paper

16
 A Model Research Essay

PART 4 Handbook of Sentence

Skills

SECTION I Grammar

21. Subjects and Verbs

A Simple Way to Find a Subject
A Simple Way to Find a Verb
More about Subjects and Verbs

22. Fragments
Dependent-Word Fragments
-ing and to Fragments
Added-Detail Fragments
Missing-Subject Fragments

23. Run-Ons
What Are Run-Ons?
Three Ways to Correct Run-Ons

24. Regular and Irregular Verbs

Regular Verbs
Irregular Verbs
x

25. Subject-Verb Agreement

Words between Subject and Verb
Verb before Subject
Compound Subjects

17
 Indefinite Pronouns

26. More about Verbs

Verb Tense
Helping Verbs
Verbals

27. Pronoun Agreement and Reference

Pronoun Agreement
Pronoun Reference

28. Pronoun Types

Subject and Object Pronouns
Possessive Pronouns
Demonstrative Pronouns

29. Adjectives and Adverbs

Adjectives
Adverbs

30. Misplaced Modifiers

Identifying and Correcting Misplaced Modifiers

31. Dangling Modifiers

Identifying and Correcting Dangling Modifiers

SECTION II Mechanics and Punctuation

32. Capital Letters

Main Uses of Capital Letters
Other Uses of Capital Letters
Unnecessary Use of Capitals

33. Numbers and Abbreviations

18
 Numbers
Abbreviations

34. Apostrophe
Apostrophe in Contractions
Apostrophe to Show Ownership or Possession

35. Quotation Marks

Quotation Marks to Set Off the Words of a Speaker or Writer
Quotation Marks to Set Off Titles of Short Works
Other Uses of Quotation Marks

36. Comma
Six Main Uses of the Comma

SECTION III Word Use

37. Commonly Confused Words

Homonyms
Other Words Frequently Confused
xi

38. Effective Word Choice

Slang
Clichés
Pretentious Words

SECTION IV Tests

39. Editing Tests

Correction Symbols

19
PART 5 Readings for Writers

INTRODUCTION TO THE READINGS

The Format of Each Selection

How to Read Well: Four General Steps
How to Answer the Comprehension Questions: Specific Hints

BUILDING SELF-AWARENESS

from Self-Reliance
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Shame
Dick Gregory
I Became Her Target
Roger Wilkins
Stepping into the Light
Tanya Savory
Cultivating a Resilient Spirit
Brené Brown
The Certainty of Fear
Audra Kendall
100 Years of The Secret Garden
Gretchen Holbrook Gerzina

EDUCATION AND LEARNING

Single-Sex Schools: An Old Idea Whose Time Has Come

Diane Urbina
How to Make It in College, Now That You’re Here
Brian O’Keeney
College Lectures: Is Anybody Listening?
David Daniels

20
 Brainology
Carol S. Dweck
Is Google Making Us Stupid?
Nicholas Carr
The Quiet Struggle of College Students with Kids
Gillian B. White

CHALLENGING SOCIETAL VALUES

The Professor Is a Dropout

Beth Johnson
Chief Seattle’s Speech of 1854
Chief Seattle
Is Sex All That Matters?
Joyce Garity
Moving Beyond Pain
bell hooks
When a Classmate Is a Former Inmate
Juleyka Lantigua-Williams

Index
Instructor’s Guide
Suggested Approaches and Techniques
A Model Syllabus
Suggested Answers to the Discussion Questions in Part 5
xii

21
Another Random Scribd Document
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The Project Gutenberg eBook of Tales of the
R.I.C.
 This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United
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Title: Tales of the R.I.C.

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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TALES OF THE

R.I.C. ***
TALES OF THE
R.I.C.
 TALES OF THE
R.I.C.

William Blackwood and Sons

Edinburgh and London
1921

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

 CONTENTS

PAGE

I. THE INFORMER 1

II. ON THE RUN 20

III. THE LANDING OF ARMS 37

IV. THE RED CROSS 54

V. THE R.M. 69

VI. AN OUTLAW 79

VII. THE STRANGER WITHIN THE GATES 97

VIII. MR BRIGGS’ ISLAND 108

IX. THE REWARD OF LOYALTY 120

X. POTEEN 137

XI. THE MAYOR’S CONSCIENCE 152

 XII. A BRUTAL MURDER 166

XIII. SEAL ISLAND 176

XIV. A FAMILY AFFAIR 191

XV. THE AMERICAN NURSE 208

XVI. FATHER JOHN 223

XVII. THE BOG CEMETERY 236

XVIII. A JEW IN GAELIC CLOTHING 253

XIX. MOUNTAIN WARFARE 262

XX. THE GREAT ROUND UP 281

XXI. THE TRUCE 300

TALES OF THE R.I.C.

 I.
THE INFORMER.

In many parts of the west of Ireland one finds small mountain farms
of from five to twenty acres, generally consisting of twenty-five per
cent rock, twenty-five per cent heather, and the remainder of
indifferent grass-land. On such a farm a peasant will rear a large
family, and how it is done is one of the mysteries of Ireland; but
done it is, and often.
Patsey Mulligan was one of a family of ten, brought up on one of
these farms until he was seventeen, when his father told him that it
was time he thought of keeping himself, and, incidentally, of earning
some money for his mother. Patsey quite agreed with his father, but
soon found that it was much easier to talk of getting work in such a
poor district as Cloonalla than to get it.
In the end Patsey made up his mind that the only thing to do was to
go to England in search of work, and one cold winter’s morning he
set off from his home, in company with three other lads from the
same townland, to walk the fifteen miles across the mountains and
bogs to the nearest railway station at Ballybor. Arriving in England,
they made their way to a town in Yorkshire, where one of them had
a brother working in a coal-mine, and within three days of leaving
his home in Ireland Patsey found himself a Yorkshire miner.
Hardly had he settled down to his work in the coal-mine when the
war broke out, followed by a rush of young miners to enlist,
amongst others Patsey Mulligan; and before he realised what he was
doing, he was a full private in a famous Yorkshire regiment. Patsey
had, however, enlisted in the name of Murphy, hoping to keep his
people in ignorance of the fact, knowing it would break his mother’s
heart if she knew he was fighting.
Patsey thoroughly enjoyed the training, and within seven months of
enlisting embarked for France; and after a few weeks’ pleasant life in
billets, gradually moved north until finally the battalion took over
trenches in the famous salient of Ypres—a great contrast to Patsey’s
home in the west of Ireland.
There happened to be in the battalion a young Irish subaltern by
name Anthony Blake, and when Blake told his Company Sergeant-
Major to find him a servant—an Irishman if possible—Patsey at once
volunteered for the job, and between the two young Irishmen there
soon sprang up a friendship through the common bond of danger
and discomfort.
After some time Patsey learnt through one of the boys with whom
he had first crossed to England that his mother was dangerously ill,
and that she had repeatedly written to Patsey to come home and
see her before she died, but had naturally received no answer. In his
trouble he appealed to Blake, and that night found him waiting at
Popperinghe Station for the leave train with a return-warrant to
Ballybor in his pocket.
On his arrival at Ballybor he set out on his long fifteen-mile tramp to
his home at Cloonalla, and late on a summer’s evening the family of
Mulligan were startled by a British soldier in full marching order
walking into their home.
Before his mother died she made Patsey promise that he would not
go back to France, and that he would stay at home and help his
father to mind the other children. It is hard for a son to refuse his
dying mother, and doubly so for an Irish boy.
When his mother’s funeral was over, Patsey buried his uniform and
equipment in a bog-hole at night; but his rifle he hid in the thatch of
an outhouse, and it was given out in the neighbourhood that he had
been discharged from the Army as medically unfit.
After the usual time Patsey was posted as a deserter in his battalion;
Blake found a new servant and forgot all about his late one, while
Patsey settled down to work with his father, and the memory of
Blake and the British Army faded from his mind.
Though wounded three times, Blake was one of the lucky men to
return home to Ireland at the end of the war, and at once set about
looking for a job. The son of a country doctor in the south of
Ireland, at the outbreak of war he had just left school, and had not
had time to settle on a career.
But if in England it was hard for ex-officers to get employment, in
Ireland it was doubly so; and Blake soon found that it was next to
impossible for a man who had worn the King’s uniform to get any
work or appointment. The power of Sinn Fein was beginning to be
felt in the land, and though many people would have gladly
employed men returned from the front, they dared not.
At last, when he had quite given up hope, he received by post an
offer to join the newly-formed Auxiliary Division of the Royal Irish
Constabulary, and, gladly jumping at such an offer, was soon in
training at the depot in Dublin. After a tour of duty in the south, the
authorities offered him a cadetship in the R.I.C., and in the course of
two months Blake found himself the District Inspector at Ballybor.
At this time the R.I.C., after about as bad a hammering as any force
ever received, were beginning to get their tails up again; and
whereas previously no policeman dared show his face outside his
barracks after dark, they were now occasionally sending out strong
patrols at night-time, to the great concern of the local Sinn Feiners,
who for a considerable time had had things all their own way in the
south and west.
The police district of Ballybor is, like many others in the west of
Ireland, large, consisting chiefly of mountains, bogs, lakes, and a
few small scattered villages, some of them hidden away in the
mountains—an ideal district in peace time for a D.I. who is fond of
shooting and fishing, but in war time a hard district to control with
the small force of police at a D.I.’s disposal.
Previous to Blake’s arrival all the barracks in the district had been
vacated with the exception of Ballybor and “Grouse Lodge,” a small
barrack at the foot of the mountains in the Cloonalla district; and as
each barrack was vacated, it was blown up or burnt by the local
Volunteers.
In all former rebellions in Ireland the Government have found that to
get information it was only necessary to pay money. Sometimes it
did not cost much, other times they had to pay generously, but
always money produced information; and at the beginning of the
Sinn Fein trouble the Government naturally assumed that money
would produce the informers as before. But this time they were
wrong, and it was only—when the Government were at their wits’
end—by a lucky chance of finding important papers on a man, who
was shot at night during a military raid on a Dublin hotel, that at last
they received the information which enabled them to grapple
successfully with Sinn Fein.
There is no doubt that the originators of Sinn Fein had read their
country’s history carefully, and were determined that this time there
should be no informers; and to this end they organised a “Reign of
Terror” throughout Ireland such as few countries have ever seen at
any time in history. Their chief obstacle was the R.I.C., and once this
force was reduced to a state of inactivity—they thought they had
broken it for good and all—their task appeared comparatively easy.
Every man, woman, and child in the south and west of Ireland knew
that if they gave any information to the police they would be shot,
and shot they were.
When Blake took over his duties at Ballybor, he found that the police
had no source of information whatsoever, with the result that each
attack on a barrack and every ambush of a patrol came as a surprise
to them. So great was the “Reign of Terror” in the Ballybor district
that no person dare speak to a policeman, and the shopkeepers
were afraid to serve one, even with the necessities of life.
Blake quickly realised that if he was ever to get the upper hand in
his district, he must discover some source of getting information,
and find it quickly, before the whole population were driven to join
forces against him.
One of Sinn Fein’s principles has been that the fewer who know the
fewer can tell, and, as a rule, there has only been one man in a
district—usually the local captain of the Volunteers—who has
information of coming events; and Blake knew that his only chance
of reliable news lay with this man, and with him alone.
About the only information which his men could give him of his area
was that a young man, who lived in the townland of Cloonalla,
named Patsey Mulligan, was the captain of the local Volunteers, and
that his house was close to the barracks at Grouse Lodge; so he
determined to go out to Grouse Lodge Barracks and stay there until
he had either come to terms with Patsey Mulligan, or saw that it was
hopeless.
On a fine winter’s morning Blake set out from the barracks at
Ballybor in the Crossley tender with an escort of six police, the most
he dared take with him for fear of weakening the Ballybor garrison.
It was market-day in the little town, and all along the road to Grouse
Lodge they met the country people coming in—some in horse-carts,
others in ass-carts, and the poorer ones on foot—but not one of
them would speak to or even look at the police, the people on foot
even getting off the road into the fields directly they caught sight of
the police-car approaching.
On learning from one of the constables that Mulligan’s house was
not on the main road to Grouse Lodge Barracks, but on a byroad,
Blake ordered the driver to go by this road, and when he came to
Mulligan’s house to stop the car and pretend that something
required adjusting in his engine. After a time the driver stopped
outside an ordinary thatched cottage on the side of the road, and, as
Blake had expected, the inhabitants came to the door to see who it
was.
The first to appear was a young man, and as the constable
whispered to Blake that he was Patsey Mulligan, Blake nearly
shouted for joy, for he saw that the man was none other than
“Murphy,” his former servant in France, and a deserter from his
Majesty’s Army in the field!
At once, before Patsey could get a good look at him and possibly
recognise him, Blake ordered the driver to go on to the barracks as
fast as the bad road would allow them.
The question now was how to get hold of Mulligan alone, and this
was settled by the information which a constable at Grouse Lodge
was able to give. It appeared that this plucky constable had for
some time past been in the habit of slipping out of the barracks by
the back entrance at night in plain clothes and returning before
daybreak. He had discovered that Mulligan was in the habit of
meeting a girl nearly every night at a certain lonely spot about a
mile from his house; and from overhearing their conversation, had
found out that Patsey wanted to marry this girl, but that she had
refused to marry him until he had enough money to take her out of
the country and to buy a small farm in America.
On questioning this constable, Blake was able to get a detailed
account of Mulligan’s movements since the time of his desertion. It
appeared that for a considerable time after he came back he hardly
left his home at all, contenting himself by working on his father’s
farm, and it was not until the Sinn Fein Volunteers were started in
the district and Mulligan was elected captain that he appeared in
public.
About the same time there was a report in the neighbourhood that
Patsey Mulligan was courting a girl called Bridgie O’Hara, who lived
in the Cloonalla district; also that another man in the same townland
with money was doing his best to make her marry him.
Bridgie had two brothers in the Royal Irish Constabulary, and as the
Sinn Fein movement grew stronger and the resistance of the
Government weaker, the Volunteers started to boycott the O’Hara
family. So savage had the boycott become lately that not a soul
dared speak to them, and it was only by going to a town several
miles away that they were able to obtain food.
As soon as it was dark that night Blake and the constable, both in
plain clothes, slipped out at the back of the barracks and made their
way to Mulligan’s trysting-place. As usual, Mulligan and Bridgie met,
and when they parted Blake and the constable followed Mulligan
until the girl was well out of hearing, when they called on him to
halt, at the same time covering him with their automatics.
Mulligan at once stopped and put up his hands, but did not speak,
and while Blake continued to cover him, the constable searched him
for arms. Blake then ordered Mulligan to walk in front of him until
they came to a mountain track which was off the road; leaving the
constable on guard, he ordered Mulligan to walk up the track in front
of him.
After they had gone about a hundred yards, Blake stopped and
asked Mulligan if he knew that he was liable to be arrested and shot
for desertion from the British Army, and waited to see the effect of
his words, as the whole success of his plan depended on this.
By now Mulligan had recognised Blake’s voice, and knowing well
what would happen to him if he fell into the hands of the military,
fell on his knees and begged Blake to spare him. Blake at once
explained his terms, which the boy eagerly accepted, thankful to get
off at any price, though not counting the cost and danger of what he
was doing.
Blake’s terms were that Mulligan should give him information well
beforehand of every contemplated outrage in the district, and, in
return, promised him, on behalf of the British Government, a free
pardon, £500, and a passage for himself and Bridgie to any country
he wished to go to, but not until the Sinn Fein movement was
crushed in the district.
As it happened, only the evening before, Bridgie had told Patsey that
she could not stand the boycott any longer, and that if he could not
take her away to America at once she would marry Mike Connelly;
hence the promise of the £500 seemed to poor Patsey like a gift
from heaven.
It was arranged, in order that no suspicion should be drawn down
on him, that Mulligan should leave his letter at night-time when
going to meet Bridgie O’Hara under a certain large stone a few feet
from where they were, near the point where the track and road met.
As there was nothing more to settle, Blake told Mulligan to go home
at once, while he and the constable made their way back to the
barracks, and the following day Blake returned to Ballybor.
At this time Blake found that several of his men showed a strong
disinclination to leave the barracks, and remembering how hard it
used to be sometimes during the war to get men who had been
stuck in trenches for months to go “over the top,” he decided to
organise strong daylight patrols so that each man should leave his
barracks for a certain number of hours every day. In addition to
patrols round Ballybor, he sent out a strong patrol on certain days to
work its way across country—always by a different route—to Grouse
Lodge Barracks, where the patrol spent the night, returning to
Ballybor across country the following day.
Taking advantage of mistakes made in other parts of the country, he
sent no patrols on the main routes, but made them all go across
country, only using the roads for short distances when they were
open, and when it was practically impossible to be ambushed.
For some time there came no information from Mulligan, and when
at last a note was brought from him from Grouse Lodge, it only
contained the laconic news that the price for shooting a policeman
had gone up from £60 to £100; and though no further message
came from Mulligan for another ten days, as no outrages had been
committed during this time, Blake had no reason to think that he
was not fulfilling his part of the bargain.
Early one morning a bicycle patrol arrived at Ballybor Barracks from
Grouse Lodge, and the constable who had been with Blake the night
he met Mulligan handed him a note to the effect that two car-loads
of arms were to arrive in the Cloonalla district that night for the
purpose of an attack on Grouse Lodge Barracks the following night.
Mulligan gave the route the cars would take, but did not state at
what hour they might be expected.
On looking at an Ordnance map, Blake noticed that the cars would
have to pass through a small wood, and that the road took a sharp
bend where it entered the wood. Taking a leaf out of the Sinn
Feiners’ book, he determined to ambush the cars at the bend, and to
try and seize cars and arms.
The difficulty was to know what to do with the cars once they had
gained possession of them. The Volunteers would no doubt collect in
the Cloonalla district to take over the arms, hence it would be
dangerous to attempt to take them to Grouse Lodge Barracks, which
was much the nearer barrack to the proposed scene of the ambush;
so in the end he settled, if he came off victorious, to take the cars by
byroads to Ballybor and risk being attacked in the town at night. A
few days before this Blake had received his first batch of “Black and
Tans,” bringing his force up to a respectable number, so felt quite
justified in making the attempt.
As soon as it was dark that night, Blake with five of his men left
Grouse Lodge, and made their way by the starlight across country to
the wood. The men brought axes with them, and soon had the road
blocked with two small fir-trees, after which they took cover on each
side of the road and waited.
At ten the moon rose and the night still remained fine, but it was not
until after two that they heard the cars approaching. The leading car
came round the bend at a good pace, pulling up just clear of the
barricade, while the second car, failing to see the obstacle on the
road, was unable to pull up in time, and ran into the back of the
leading car.
Blake at once stood up and called on the men—there were two in
each car—to put up their hands; but for answer they opened fire
with automatics in the direction of Blake’s voice, whereupon the
police fired a volley at the cars, and three of the men were seen to
collapse, after which the fourth put up his hands.
They found that two of the men were dead, while the third was shot
through the chest. After removing all papers and arms from the
dead men, they hid their bodies in the wood, removed the trees
from the road, and started off to Ballybor, where they arrived
without mishap, and soon had the two cars safely in the barrack-
yard.
On investigation they found that the cars contained thirty carbines
and rifles, several thousand rounds of ammunition, and two boxes of
home-made bombs.
This capture had a great effect on the police morale in the district,
and, in fact, marked the turning-point in the Sinn Fein campaign in
that area, while the two captured cars made a welcome addition to
the police transport.
Shortly afterwards Blake received a warning from Mulligan to expect
an attack on a named night on the barracks in Ballybor, and that an
attempt would be made to blow up the gable-end of the barracks.
The night before the expected attack Blake brought all the men that
could be spared with safety from Grouse Lodge, and made his
preparations for defence.
The attack opened with heavy rifle-fire from all the surrounding
houses, which drove the unfortunate inhabitants of Ballybor in terror
from the town, and after an hour a determined rush was made
under heavy covering fire to ram the barrack door; but the fire of
the police forced them to drop the ram and run for shelter. Only one
attempt was made to blow up the gable, the police allowing the
attackers to start laying the gelignite, and then dropping a Mills
bomb from the window above, where a projecting V-shaped steel
shutter had been put up, with deadly effect.
After this the attackers kept up an intermittent rifle-fire for another
two hours, and towards daybreak withdrew, leaving the police
victorious; and although several men had been seen to fall during
the attempt to ram the door, by the time it was light their bodies had
been removed.
A subsequent attack on Grouse Lodge Barracks was also successfully
beaten off without any police casualties; but an attempt Blake made
to capture an important Volunteer staff-officer in the Cloonalla
district one night failed—the bird had flown a quarter of an hour
before the patrol surrounded the house where he had been staying.
This attempt to seize the staff-officer convinced the Volunteers that
there was a traitor in the district, and a Volunteer intelligence officer
was sent down forthwith from Dublin to investigate.
Blake now felt that he was really beginning to break the Sinn Fein in
his district, and decided to take the offensive to the full extent of his
power. Not only did he have the town and country patrolled night
and day, but he also sent out parties of “Black and Tans” to search
houses in the country for suspected stores of arms, and also to try
and obtain information by all means in their power.
Though at this time the people were beginning to get restive under
the Sinn Fein tyranny, yet so great was the terror that not a single
person in the whole district dared to give the police one word of
information of his own will; and though the information from
Mulligan was of vital importance as regards attacks and movements
by the Volunteers, yet Blake was still in complete ignorance of the
names of the most dangerous Sinn Feiners.
Blake felt that he was winning, but he knew that there would be no
peace or rest in his district until he had arrested the leaders: the
others would then be like sheep without a shepherd. To this end an
interview with Mulligan was necessary, in order to get from him the
names of these leaders.
This time Blake waylaid Mulligan as he was going to meet Bridgie
O’Hara, and at once saw that the boy’s nerve was fast breaking.
Mulligan gave him the names and addresses he wanted readily
enough, and then implored Blake to have him arrested at once and
taken to a place of safety, as he was in terror of his life.
He told Blake that the Volunteers were already suspicious of him,
and that an intelligence officer had been specially sent down from
Dublin to watch him and report on the leakage of information, and
that he could not stick it any longer. Blake, knowing that once
Mulligan was removed, he would not get any information at all,
managed after a long argument to persuade him to carry on a little
longer, by promising to arrest him when the other leaders were
taken.
After parting from Blake the unhappy Mulligan met his girl, who by
this time was half-mad from the misery of the boycott of her family.
In despair she told him she had made up her mind to marry
Connelly, and they would sail for America as soon as they could get
passports.
Patsey, at the end of his tether and racked with terror, implored her
to wait a little longer, saying that very soon he would have £500,
and directly he got the money he would take her away.
The girl went home in the seventh heaven of delight, forgot all about
the promises of silence she had made to Patsey, and told her
mother, who, of course, told her husband, and it was not many days
before the good news was common property in the district. A few
days afterwards the intelligence officer returned to his H.Q.’s—his
mission was fulfilled.
Having got the ringleaders’ names, Blake at once set about his plans
for arresting them, realising that not until they were safe under lock
and key could he truthfully say that he had won; but it is one thing
to arrest two or three men, and quite a different story to arrest thirty
or forty, as, if not all arrested at the same time, the majority would
get warning and disappear on the run.
Once again Blake met Mulligan at night, and arranged with him to
call a meeting of the ringleaders the following Sunday at early Mass
outside a wayside chapel in the Cloonalla district, when he proposed
to arrest them, and promised Mulligan he would be separated from
the others at once and conveyed to England on a destroyer. At first
Mulligan refused, being now demented with the fear of
assassination, but when promised the payment of the £500 on his
arrival in England, he consented.
Blake arranged that on the following Sunday morning as many men
as could be spared should be sent from Grouse Lodge and Ballybor
Barracks to meet near the Cloonalla chapel at the same time, when
he hoped to surround the crowd and make the arrests without any
difficulty.
On a typical soft Irish morning Blake and his men set out early from
Ballybor Barracks on their drive to the chapel, full of hope that the
day’s work would clinch his victory, and that then he would apply for
leave, as the strain of the last few months was beginning to tell on
him, and he needed a rest badly.
When the Crossley was within half a mile of the chapel and still out
of view from there, Blake stopped the car, got out his men, and
proceeded to surround the chapel, while Blake himself advanced
alone towards the chapel gates. When he drew near he could see
that the road in front of the gates was a mass of country people,
who did not move until Blake got close to them, when they divided,
forming a lane towards the gates.
And to his last day Blake will never forget the sight which met his
eyes as he advanced through the people in a deathly silence. Lashed
to one of the pillars of the chapel gates was the body of the
unfortunate Patsey Mulligan with two bullet-holes through his
forehead, and pinned on his chest a sheet of white paper bearing
the single word Traitor, while at his feet lay poor Bridgie O’Hara, her
body heaving with sobs, and her long dark hair, which had been cut
off, lying on the ground beside her.
 II.
ON THE RUN.

Paddy Flanagan stood in the doorway of his small shop in the main
street of the mean and dirty little village of Ballyfrack, watching the
rain coming down in torrents, while he listened with one ear to his
wife arguing with a countrywoman in the shop behind him over the
price of eggs, and with his other ear for the high-pitched sound of a
powerful car.
Presently the woman in the shop, having sold her eggs and bought
provisions, wrapped her shawl over her head and started to make
her way home. As Paddy moved aside to let the woman out, his ear
caught the dreaded sound he was expecting, growing louder every
second, and culminating in a shower-bath of mud as two Crossley
tenders, full of Auxiliary Cadets, dashed past the shop and
disappeared as suddenly as they had come.
Hardly had the noise of the engines died away than Paddy’s quick
ear caught the sound of cars approaching again, and two Ford cars
—the first carrying a huge coffin and the second apparently
mourners—drew up at the small hotel almost opposite Paddy’s shop.
Some two years previously Flanagan had become a rabid Sinn Feiner
—he had previously been as rabid a Nationalist—with a keen eye to
business. For a long time it looked as though Sinn Fein was the only
horse in the race, and the dream of an Irish Republic seemed more
than likely to become a reality; lately, however, the British
Government had been sitting up and taking a quite unnecessary
interest in Ireland.
First, the British Government had formed the Auxiliary Division
—“those cursed pups of Cromwell,” as Paddy described them to his
friends, while Mrs Paddy used to say that the Government had
recruited them from all the prisons and asylums in England; then, to
crown all, the Government had had the audacity to put several
counties within easy reach of Ballyfrack under martial law.
So far Paddy had carried on the war for freedom with words only,
but a week before this story starts he had found to his great alarm
that he would be called upon for deeds. On a dark Sunday night,
just as the Flanagans were preparing to go to bed, there came two
short sharp knocks at the shop door, followed by a long one.
Now Paddy had always had a great dread of night work, and swore
that come what might he would not open his door to any man, be
he policeman or Sinn Feiner: for a minute there was a tense silence
in the stuffy dark shop, save for the heavy breathing of Mrs
Flanagan, broken suddenly by a blow which threatened to break in
the street door, and a loud voice called out to Flanagan to open in
the name of the Irish Republican Army.
“God save us,” said Mrs Flanagan, and dived under the bed; and
Paddy would have liked to follow his wife, but he had heard of the
unpleasant results which always followed a refusal to open to the
I.R.A. Before another blow could be struck on the door he had it
open, and at once three dark figures slipped into the shop, the last
one closing the door.
And in the darkness of the shop Paddy Flanagan listened to his fate:
it seemed that in the adjoining county, where martial law had
recently been proclaimed, the military were making life quite
unbearable for the Volunteers, and the Auxiliaries had openly
declared that they would shoot John O’Hara—the chief assassin of
policemen in that county—at sight.
Before Flanagan could realise the horror of the situation, two of the
men had disappeared into the night, and he found himself face to
face with the notorious John O’Hara, with instructions to pass him on