180 AN IRISH SALMON-RIVER 



thrashing upon the road like a grievous mount-the- 

 bank." 



'I knew him for the inspector, sure enough; but I 

 wasn't a hair in dread of his bad word, the way I knew 

 his Excellency was well pleased with the sport he had, 

 so I spoke up to the fellow, being ready to give him 

 all the Mamelukes in the dictionary if I had any more 

 of his hectoring. 



'"I'm a detective officer," says he, "and I want to 

 know what ye 've done with his Excellency." 



' " And what would I do wid him," says I, " but bring 

 him the soonest way to Cliff the time he was past wid the 

 fishing. It 's little ye '11 be afther detecting, Mr. Detective, 

 if ye 're onawares that his Excellency makes Cliff his 

 residence the time he 's got the fishing." 



'"Then what in thunder made ye direct the escort 

 to hould the highroad ? " says he. 



' " Be the same rason that the side-cars wouldn't thravel 

 convanient by the water-side," says I. 



' " And is his Excellency in Cliff' at the present ? " 

 says he. 



'"Divil another roof will ye find over his head this 

 blessed minute," says I, "and small blame to him, for 

 it 's a lodging fit for the Emperor of Roossia," says I. 



'Wid that he turns his horse and is battering along 

 the road to Cliff'. Sure your honour may believe the 

 chat we had in Ballyshannon that night about the lost 

 Lord-Lieutenant ! ' 



On a subsequent day Rogan treated me to some recol- 

 lections, bewildering in their variety, about another noble 

 lord. I had been fishing the cast, or 'throw,' as they 

 have it in Ireland, which, from the left bank, is called the 



