THE O'FARRELLY FEUD

Wairarapa Times-Age, 1 June 1940, Page 10

THE O'FARRELLY FEUD

COPYRIGHT. PUBLISHED BY SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT.

By

GEORGE A. BIRMINGHAM.

Author of “General John Regan,” “Up the Rebels,” etc., etc.

CHARTER VII. iContinued). “There’s the strawberry net, of course,”' said Daphne. “I wonder if Mousic has finished being sick yet. I can’t get it myself, at least not in time to have it set before O’Farrelly comes. If Mousie is still being sick and I shouldn't wonder if she was, she’ll not be fit to help. Anyhow she’s probably so weak by this time that she'd be no use. But perhaps,” she turned to Ronnie, “you might help.” “Help at what?” “Daphne,” explained Lady Margaret, “is planning to set a net of her own. It’s not at all a bad plan if only she doesn’t catch any mullet. But the net she bought hasn’t come yet.” “That’s why I’m suggesting the strawberry net,” said Daphne. “But it will take two of us at least to get it ready in time. We shall have to tie weights along the bottom and corks along the top and run a good strong rope along the upper part.” “All that will take time,” protested Ronnie.

“I know that,” said Daphne, “and that’s exactly why I’m asking you to help me. But I suppose you won't. Being a laywer you’d probably think it wrong.” “A strawberry net would be no use for catching mullet,” said Ronnie, ignoring the question of the legality of interfering with O’Farrelly in this way. They’d creak through. All strawberry nets are rotten. The fishermen don’t sell them off till they are.” “The rottener it is the better,” said Lady Margaret. “I don’t any more mullet caught.” “Anyhow,” said Ronnie, “there wouldn’t be nearly time to get it ready. O’Farrelly will be setting his net at high tide. And that today will be —he. did a rapid calculation, “about three o’clock. We couldn’t possibly have our net ready by that time.” “Then we l must think of another plan,” said Daphne. “And that reminds me of another lecture we bad last term which said that planning was a most frightfully good thing, much better than actually doing anything. I quite agree with that, only I couldn’t get the examiner to see it, the viva voce people I mean. I told them I had planned to pass that exam, and all they did was to grin malignantly, which shows how inconsistent that sort of man is. He tells you to plan and then when you do it he turns and rends you, like the pigs in the Bible though it is his own pearls you are offering him.” >

“Perhaps I could help you to plan,” said Ronnie.

“You could. But you wouldn't. Any plan I make is nearly sure to be against the. law and you say you won’t do anything illegal.” “I don’t think I said that.”

“You did," said Daphne. "The first day of all, when I wanted to shoot O’Farrelly, which I still think would have been far the simplest thing to do.”

“If there were any proper laws in the country,” said Lady Margaret. “It wouldn’t be illegal to shoot men like O’Farrelly.”

“Short of murder,” said Ronnie, “there’s very little I wouldn’t do.” “Very well,” said Daphne. “I’ll coutjt on you. We’ll make a plan together and then if I can revive Mousie a little we’ll make her help to do the work. Is there any Worcester sauce in the house, Aunt, Margaret? I’ve always heard it’s good for reviving people; but perhaps that’s only when they’re drunk and Mousie’s not that, poor dear.” CHAPTER VIII. Ronnie’s calculation was perfectly accurate. High tide was at three o’clock. At half past two the flow of water into the creek had almost ceased. The mullet, unconscious of the interest they were arousing had swum into the creek in large numbers. Daphne and Ronnie standing on the shore could see them moving among the rocks engaged in the pleasant task of sucking in such nourishment as they could find. "What a lot they are,” said Daphne. “Wouldn’t you tnink they’d be afraid to come in nere after our catching so many of them the other day?” “Mullet,” said Ronnie, “have no sense.”

But Daphne thought more highly of the intelligence of the creatures. “Perhaps,” she said, “they know we don’t mean to catch them today.” It was the essence of Daphne's carefully thought out plan that the mullet should not be caught that day either by herself or O’Farrelly or anyone else.

At a quarter to three O’Farrelly’s boat appeared, some distance out to sea, rowing towards the entrance of the creek.

“We'd better slip oft’ before he sees us.” said Daphne. "There’s no use arousing suspicion in his mind. And. besides. I'd better see how the miserable Mousie is getting on. You’d never think a few strawberries would make anyone as sick as she was.” “I’ll go and get my bathing dress,” said Ronnie. “It’s in the car.”

“Very well," said Daphne. “There’s lots of time. We shan’t do anything till after tea.” Ronnie had heard and heartily approved of Daphne’s new plan for dealing with O’Farrelly. He had even promised to help in carrying it out. That was why he fetched his bathing dress from the car, for the plan involved a good deal of swimming. It was lucky, so he felt, that his bathing dress was in the back of the car. It was a fine day and warm. He had intended in any case to bathe on his way Home and was all the more ready to take part in Daphne’s plan because it gave him the chance of swimming : n her company. Peter O’Farrelly beached his boat at the mouth of the creek. He and his boy Danny landed and went to work

at the task of setting the net. Ronnie, leaving his bathing dress behind a stone, strolled along the shore and watched the O’Farrellys at work. Peter O’Farrelly after one glance, ignored him. The father and son worked quickly and well. Long practice had made them experts in stretching their net and making the ends fast to the posts and shore. It was not until the work was nearly finished that Ronnie addressed them.

“Fishing again!” he said with a grin. “I hope you’ll do better today than you did last time. You didn’t get a single fish that day, did you?” O’Farrelly scowled, but made no answer.

“Rather bad luck,” said Ronnie, “bringing that net of yours all the way round from Ballycon and then not getting a single fish. I wonder if you care to try again.”

“I’ll be getting some today, I’m thinking,” said O’Farrelly. He seemed very confident. It was plain to Ronnie that he, like Daphne and all advanced economists, had been planning. It would be a satisfactory thing to know what his plan was. Ronnie waited. O’Farrelly finished tying his knot and surveyed his work with satisfaction. The net was stretched across the entrance of the creek. The floats lay in an even line. The weighted bottom of the net kept its lower edge along the sand. The two ends were firmly fastened in neat, seaman’s knots.

"That looks all right,” said Ronnie. “And there are plenty of mullet in the creek. All you have to do now is to go home to tea and come back at low tide. That’ll be about nine o’clock or a little later. I don’t suppose the two young ladies will be bathing at that hour.

“They will not,” said O’Farrelly. “They’ll not bathe here today, not till I’ve got my fish safe. I’ve had enough of their interference, and I’ll stand no more of it. Believe me, neither them two nor any other young ladies will bathe today. Not here anyway.” ' He seemed extremely confident. Ronnie knew that it was part of Daphne’s plan to bathe at about six o’clock, when the tide was at half ebb. He wondered how O’Farrelly intended to stop her. He did not at once grasp what O’Farrelly meant even after he had spoken and spoken sternly to the boy Danny. “Take the clothes off you, Dan.” he said.

Dan was a good deal astonished; but much too wise either to disobey or to argue. He slipped off his shoes and stockings and then his coat. Having got so far he looked at his father for approval. It was evident at once from Peter O’Farrelly’s face that he had not done enough. After a moment’s hesitation he pulled off his shirt. “Will that do?” he asked anxiously. “It will not,” said his father, “take the trousers off you too." “What for?” said Dan goaded into protest by the indignity of such an order. “Because I tell you to. That’s why for.” Danny considered this reason and found it good enough to act on. He sat down on a stone and pulled off his trousers. His father gathered the boy’s clothes into a bundle and flung them into the boat. It was plain that Danny was not to have the chance of dressing himself again for some time. Then Peter O’Farrelly got into the boat and pulled a few yards from the shore. “You’ll stay there, Dan,” he commanded. “till I come back for you at low water.”

Dan, a boy brought up beside the sea, knew exactly how long it takes the tide to ebb. He forsaw that he would have to sit naked as a rock for six hours. It was not a pleasant prospect and he shrank from it.

“Is it stay here without my clothes on me,” he asked in a querulous protest.

“Without a rag on you,” said his father firmly. “It is a fine warm evening and it’ll do you no harm. If you feel a bit cold you can take a run along the grass and warm yourself?” But it was not the thought of cold or even possible hunger, which was troubling Danny. It was, as his father said, a fine warm evening and six hours without food meant very little to a hardy boy. What made Danny shrink was his sense of modesty, an infirmity which afflicts boys quite as much as it does girls. “I'd be ashamed to be sitting here naked,” he said. “What should I do if the two young ladies were to come and me this way.” "If you see them coming.” said his father. “Yotfll stand up on the highest bit of rock you can find and wave your hand to them.” “I'd be ashamed,” pleaded Dan. now on the verge of tears. His father took no notice of this. He turned to Ronnie and spoke in a tone of triumphant satisfaction. “That’ll put a stop to their bathing here." he said. "They’ll not step down into the waler with Danny standing there in front of them naked. No young lady would."

Ronnie was not so sure about that. Mousie might shrink and go away, but he doubted whether Daphne would be turned from her plan by a naked boy or half a dozen naked boys. "I wouldn’t bet heavily on that," he said. “The modern young lady isn’t exactly what you’re accustomed to in this country." "If they do it,' said O’Farrelly, “it’ll be a disgrace to them, and it will be them that will be to blame for indecency of conduct and not me. So old Quinn will have to stop accusing me of what I never did nor wouldn't and that's indecency."

“It’s an ingenious plan," said Ronnie thoughtfully. "I’ll say that for you. Peter. A damned ingenious plan. I| couldn't have thought of a better one! myself. How did you hit on it?” ! (To be Continued). I