THE OMNISCIENTS

By LORD DUNSANY

MORNING had flashed on a town by the Irish Sea, and in its bright splendour there had been coming and going, and all the town was wakeful, towards the shore; though further inland lights winked sleepily in one or two windows, while others gazed with the apathy of a man asleep with his eyes open. For a ship had come in with the dawn, and all whose business it was, or might possibly be, to receive any passengers, were astir in the wintry morning. And the passengers came and all their luggage was carried to train or motors, and they all went away inland, and quiet came back to the town by the Irish Sea and no more lights were lit, and the active men who were a while ago handling luggage leaned quietly back against walls and looked sea- wards reflecting deeply, but spoke little; and the only move- ment I noticed there in the town was the grey smoke going slowly from early fires into the soft grey air. In that listless air and to those reflective men, so early in the morning, there briskly walked a stranger, who had not come by the boat, and whose business was unknown. He was a tall man of about thirty, wearing rubber-soled boots, with which he walked quietly as well as swiftly. And to the first of the resting porters he said: "Did Mr. O'Connor come by the boat?"

"Mr. O'Connor, is it?" said the porter.

"Yes," said the stranger.

"Sure, there is no Mr. O'Connor hereabouts," said the man.

"Did he come by the boat ? " said the other.

"He did not," said the porter.

"Are you sure?" asked the tall stranger.

"I am so," said the porter. "Don't I know all of them? And there was no Mr. O'Connor among them."

And another porter came up slowly.

"Would it be Mr. Arthur O'Connor that you were want- ing, Sir?" asked he.

"No, Mr. Patrick O'Connor," said the stranger. "Did he come?"

"He did not," said the second porter.

"How do you know ? " asked the stranger.

"Sure, no Mr. O'Connor came. Not any Mr. O'Connor at all."

"Well, was there a man in rather a long grey coat?" asked the stranger.

"Sure there was no man wearing any coat at all," said the second porter. "Nothing only a jacket."

"And he had a light grey hat," said the stranger, "with a wide dark grey band round it."

"Sure there was no one wearing any hat," said the second porter."

"There was not," said the first porter. "They were all wearing caps."

"He would have had a big green bag with him," said the stranger. "Did you see any green bag among the luggage?"

And at that a third porter came up, and all three porters testified then that there was no green bag among all the luggage they handled. It had all been piled upon one truck, and they could not have been mistaken. And a man who was not a porter, and who had indeed no particular job at all, joined the little group then, and said that he had been standing there by the wall, watching all the luggage go by, and that there was no green bag whatever among the lot of it, and no man with a grey coat or a grey hat.

"That's odd," said the stranger, "for I came here to meet Mr. O'Connor by the boat, and I was delayed by a puncture; and, if he didn't come by the boat, I can't think what has happened to him."

"What might you have been wanting with him, Sir?" asked the first porter.

"We were going to shoot snipe," said the stranger. " Snipe is it?" said the first porter.

" Begob," said the man who had no particular job, "we didn't know what you might be wanting with him." "We did not," said the other two porters.

"Sure he's hasty," said the man without a job, "and if he had a drop of drink taken, or maybe two drops, you mightn't always know what he'd do, and then there might be people asking questions about him. And, begob, the men that ask those sort of questions are apt to wear rubber-soled boots like yourself."

"Aye, it's like that," said the third porter.

"I only wear them," said the stranger, "because I can't stand pavement. I put them on whenever I come to a town. My shooting boots are waiting for me beyond at Borisa- deane."

" Begob," said the first porter, "if he was wearing a grey coat and a light grey hat and carrying a green bag, sure it must have been he."

"And who else would it be?" said the second porter.

"Doesn't everybody know Mr. Patrick O'Connor?" "Then, he came by the boat ? " said the stranger. "He did sure," said all the porters together.

"I'll tell you how it was," said the man without a job. "He came by the boat and was asking for Mr. McGill all the way along the pier from everybody he met. And wouldn't you be Mr. McGill?"

"Yes, I am," said the other.

"Very well," said the man without a job. "When he saw that your honour was not here he goes up to Mrs. Malone, who is a friend of his that he does not know very well, and he says to her, 'Would it be troubling you too much to ask you to give me a lift? For I was going to shoot at Borisadeane with Mr. McGill, and he has not come.' 'Not at all,' says Mrs. Malone, 'and would it do if I put you down at the cross-roads at Aherskeigh? For it's not half a mile from the bog of Borisadeane, and how- ever Mr. McGill comes after you he'll have to go that way.' 'It'll suit me right well,' says Mr. O'Connor. And in he gets, and the chauffeur straps on his big green bag behind, and off they go towards Aherskeigh."

"And how long are they gone?" asked Mr. McGill. "Sure, only ten minutes," said the first porter.

'And they were thinking you had a puncture," said the second porter, "and expecting you about now."

"Sure you'll easily overtake them," said the third porter. "And it'll be a great day for snipe-shooting ; for I the moon is full and they'll all 1 t in Borisadeane."