290 GARRYOWEN 



car to look after herseK and going back to the 

 cottage on foot ; but I couldn't do that as I'd never 

 have been able to come back for her, and she's 

 worth eight or nine hundred. So I just sat in her 

 and smoked a pipe and waited. I tell you I was 

 in a stew, for I didn't know if I'd made the fishing- 

 line too tight for Giveen's wrists, and if they 

 swelled mortification or goodness knows what 

 might have come on; and I began to think of 

 having to support him for hfe if his hands had to 

 be cut off; and then I began to think that maybe 

 he might die of it and I'd be hanged for murder 

 or gaoled for hfe. 



" Presently a big touring car came along with 

 a young fellow and a chauffeur in it, and I signalled 

 them to stop, and it pulled up, and who should 

 it be but Billy Bones ! He's Lord St Ivel's second 

 son, you know ; they call him BiUy Bones because 

 they say he never eats anything else but grilled 

 bones at three o'clock in the morning. Last time 

 I'd seen him was at the Rag-Tag Club, in Cork 

 Street, at two o'clock of a Sunday morning, play- 

 ing bridge with one eye shut to see the pips on the 

 cards. Billy is one of those men who know every- 

 thing, and he knows all about the inside of a motor 

 car — or thinks he does. 



" ' HeUo,' said BiUy, ' what's up? ' 



" I told him, and he hopped out of his car and 



said he'd have everything right in a minute. He 



got out his repairing tools, whipj)ed off his coat 



and got right under the car with his tools, lying 



