Hugh was suffering intensely at his defeat, and when Mary Grant
said, "I suppose you will have him put in gaol at once?" he muttered
that he would have to think it over. "It wouldn't do to prosecute
him and fail, and we have no proof that he dug up the fence."
"But why did he say that the sheep belonged to his brother-in-law?"
Hugh started. "Did he say that? Well, he--he must have wanted to
make out that he did not know whose sheep they were" but he thought
to himself, "Is Red Mick going to bring up that old scandal?"
Mick, as he watched them go, winked twice to himself, and then
stooped and patted the head of the collie pup. The other dogs, in
answer to a silent wave of his hand, had slunk off quietly. The
riders had disappeared. It had been a narrow escape, and Red Mick
knew it; and even as things had turned out, there was still ample
chance of a conviction.
On the way back to the homestead Hugh began to talk of the chance
of a conviction, and the delight it would be to give Mick seven
years, but his ideas were disturbed by thoughts of Mick's face as
he said, "Why should I steal my brother-in-law's sheep?" He looked
at the girl alongside him, and prayed that the old story might
never be resurrected.
CHAPTER XV.
A PROPOSAL AND ITS RESULTS.
The question whether Mick Donohoe should be prosecuted was not likely
to be prejudiced by his claim of kinship.
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