Irish Huviour 133 



" I'm afraid you'll be shot, sir," said the orderly-room 

 clerk, and I gave him the same answer. The man never 

 gave any further trouble, and the militiamen in general 

 were as quiet a lot of men as I ever had to do with. 

 It is my belief that I should have been much more likely 

 to have been shot if I had not been firm and sentenced 

 the man to the punishment he deserved. Shortly before 

 I went to MuUingar, the stationmaster was shot dead 

 by a discharged porter on the platform of the station. 

 The crime was said to have been committed with a twelve- 

 chambered revolver, w-hich was also the weapon, it was 

 currently reported, that was used for most of the murders 

 in the district. And yet it had never been seen by the 

 police, and, in fact, no one reliable had ever seen a 

 twelve-chambered revolver there in their lives. How- 

 ever, some years afterwards, a man was " out for a job " 

 in the main street of MuUingar, and, by way of bravado, as 

 he could not find his victim, he had a shot at a sergeant 

 who was proceeding quietly home to barracks. He missed 

 the sergeant, but he had not reckoned on the fact that 

 following just behind him when he fired were a couple of 

 privates also going home. They promptly seized him, 

 and, helped by the sergeant, dragged their prisoner across 

 the Fair Green, and the regimental guard, seeing the 

 struggle, quickly appearing with fixed bayonets, they safely 

 lodged the man in the guardroom. They were only just 

 in time, for the " corner-boys " were bent on rescuing 

 their " pal," but as the distance to be traversed was only 

 a short one, for once they were defeated. To the surprise 

 of everyone, including the police, the weapon found on 

 the prisoner turned out to be the long-sought for, supposed 

 to be mythical, twelve-chambered revolver. 



