My immediate part was a little hard after the excitement of those
small hours. I will only say that we had agreed that it would be
wisest for me to lie like a log among the rest for half an hour,
before staggering to my feet and rousing house and police; and that
in that half-hour Barney Maguire crashed to the floor, without
waking either himself or his companions, though not without
bringing my beating heart into the very roof of my mouth.
It was daybreak when I gave the alarm with bell and telephone. In
a few minutes we had the house congested with dishevelled domestics,
irascible doctors, and arbitrary minions of the law. If I told my
story once, I told it a dozen times, and all. on an empty stomach.
But it was certainly a most plausible and consistent tale, even
without that confirmation which none of the other victims was as
yet sufficiently recovered to supply. And in the end I was permitted
to retire from the scene until required to give further information,
or to identify the prisoner whom the good police confidently
expected to make before the day was out.
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