There was
acknowledgement of failure, but I knew he was thinking chiefly of
himself; and there was gratitude, and that was for the men about him,
and I felt my face burn with shame; and there was petition for help,
and we all thought of Nixon, and Billy, and the men wakening from their
debauch at Slavin's this pure, bright morning. And then he asked that we
might be made faithful and worthy of God, whose battle it was. Then we
all stood up and shook hands with him in silence, and every man knew a
covenant was being made. But none saw his meeting with Nixon. He sent us
all away before that.
Nothing was heard of the destruction of the hotel stock-in-trade.
Unpleasant questions would certainly be asked, and the proprietor
decided to let bad alone. On the point of respectability the success of
the ball was not conspicuous, but the anti-League men were content, if
not jubilant.
Billy Breen was found by Geordie late in the afternoon in his own
old and deserted shack, breathing heavily, covered up in his filthy,
mouldering bed-clothes, with a half-empty bottle of whisky at his side.
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