I was about to shout when the mist a little in advance of me was brightened, as if a light were thrown on it. Instinctively I advanced in the direction of the luminous haze, when I felt myself caught by the neck by a firm grasp, and I was flung forward. My feet slipped on some projection, and I fell headlong.
When I managed to raise myself I saw I was in a dwelling of some kind, partially lighted by the blaze of a turf fire. Several men were present, and I distinctly saw the flash of firearms. There was at once a confusion of voices, and I was pulled to my feet by one of the men, who presented a horse-pistol at my head.
"Shoot him! He is a Sassenach spy!" came in a hoarse chorus from the men around the fire.
"No Sassenach am I," I answered back, endeavouring to shake myself free from the grip of the man who held me.
"And who are you? And whence come you?" he asked, fiercely.
"Frank O'Mahony," I said, "the son of Shaun O'Mahony, of the Glen."
"Let me look at him," cried an old woman, whom I had not previously noticed, and she shook off the grip of my captor and brought me towards the fire.
With a corner of her shawl she rubbed my face, and then she caught me in her arms.
"Ah, then, 'tis Frank--Frank O'Mahony," said she. "Shure I nursed your mother, avourneen, on my knee. But 'tis no wondher the boys didn't know you, for your own mother wouldn't know you with the wet clay of the mountain plastered over your face, and 'tis you are welcome, Frank avourneen, in daylight or in dark, and shure no true Rapparee need close the doore again your father's son."
When the old woman had done speaking, the man who had seized me clasped my hand.
"Frank, my boy," said he, "you're welcome--welcome as the flowers of May. Make room for him there, comrades; don't you see the boy is cowld and wet."
And they made a place for me, and the old woman brewed a steaming jug of poteen, and she said to the others that I wasn't to be asked a question until I had taken some of her mountain medicine.
Hardly had I taken the medicine when I felt pretty comfortable, and then when I got time to look about me I saw I was in something like a cave of large dimensions, half of which was in shadow owing to the imperfect light.