RONDO AT CARRAROE

By KAY BOYLE TIIERE was a pattern at Carraroc, and Rondo was there with a rille-range -and a- roulette-table. It 'was after the day's work was finished with that he went down the road to Flaherty's house for oil and petrol, and in the darkness that was beginning to fall he saw three or four young men coming towards him, and it was then, so he swore on the Bible in court, that lie was stabbed.

" One of these men was swinging his arms around in the dark," said Rondo to His Lordship, " and when he passed me by he swung his arm out to the one side and struck me in the back with what I took to be either his doubled-up fist or a stone. I thought some of my ribs were broken in half, so I put my hand under my vest at the back and there I found' blood pouring out of a wound. My God, I've been stabbed,' I called out, and then I fell down."

" Acre was my client," said Mr. Keeley with a tear in his voice, " left lying there in the centre of the road, and these ruffians -making for Lettermuckoo and never caring whether they'd left him dead or dying. It's cnough to break your heart."

" God knows it's a terrible story," said His Lordship, " and we nutst get to the truth of it all, come what may. Now, Rondo," his Lordship said,-" did you see the face of the man who struck you and would you be able to point Lim out to the rest of us here " ? • " Well, now;" said Rondo, smoothing the lick of his Lair on his forehead, " I can't say I saw him actually striking me, but I saw him looking back over his shoulder just before it. There was no one but these three or four men passing at the time, and there's no question in my mind anyway. They must have been drinking for what they did to me, and leaving me there with the blood soaking out through my clothes."

His Lordship then called a parade of the men they had picked up on the road on Sunday night, and Rondo looked straight into Bartley's face and said : " Right there's the man that stabbed me."

" Now -that's a lie," said Bartley at once, and Mr. Keeley said with scorn : " Well, then, perhaps you will tell the court, Bartley, where you were last Sunday night." • " There was a pattern at Carraroc," Bartley began, " and I was with friends in a publichouse. We went. home by the road about ten in the evening. The first. I knew of anything at all was when the guards stopped us at the crossways and showed us Rondo in an ambulance. I -couldn't say who had attacked him, but the guards said we were to step over to the barracks. ' What for ? ' says I. • `.Whyr you're accused of stabbing Rondo,' they says. Sure,' says I, put it on me. .You've been after Inc a year now since my brother went off without paying a poteen fine I ' " "Now you're making a serious charge against the guards," Fa ittifis Lordship sternly. " You're suggesting the guards have brought you into the dock on a charge they know you're innocent of. Now if there'S no . foundation for these charges you're making against the guards, then we'll have to arrive at the conelusion•that you have no regard for the truth."

" You'll never get a story straight from a Letterninekoo man," said Mr. Keeley, smiling quietly at-Ms Lordship.

" Is this a court of justice ? " Bartley cried out, and his eyes were flashing and the curls were wringing wet on his head.

" Order ! " Ilis Lordship cried out.

" Now what.-did you find on the prisoner ? " asked Mr. Keeley, turning to the guards.

" lie had a cut of tobacco in one pocket and a pipe in the other," said Sergeant Conroy with a grin. " Now a man won't carry tobacco around without a knife to cut it with.- It's certain he felt weak after the stabbing and tossed the knife away."

" Well, now," said. Bartley, holding his temper _in, " the truth of the matter is that I've never owned a penknife in my life. I've been smoking a pipe for over a year now, but I cut my tobacco at home with my old dad's knife. It's not people like mine that can afford two penknives under the one roof. On Sunday night_ I got the loan of a knife from a man called Conneely at. Carraroe, and I cut my tobacco there.".

" Now Conneely's in court," said His Lordship, and he called him to•the stand.

" Well, Bartley," said Connecly once they had- "sworn him in, " had the loan of my penknife on Sunday .evening and he cuthis tobacco with it after the pattern at•Carraroe. He gave it hack to me at eight at night,- and there Was nothing at all like blood on it. I know his brother is wanted by the guards for absconding without paying a poteen fine, and there are some who believes the law has it in for him on this account."

" Keep to your story," His Lordship said, and Conned): went on.

" I came down the road behind Bartley on the Sunday night," he said. " lIe was walking three. yards ahead of me all the way to the crossroads. I never laid eyes. on Rondo.that night and..nothing happened at all. I think the whole thing's-a fabrication."

." It's enough to break your heart," said Mr. Kecley,. " the way blackguards of the worst description will hang together ! "

" Now," said His Lordship, striking the table,. "Tin determined to reach the bottom. of this terrible affair! If the guards of Carraroe barracks-.are worth anything, then they're capable of keeping the roads- safe at night. Now Patrick Mulligan was coming up from the other side, and it was Mulligan found Rondo lying in the road." So :Mulligan took the oath in court and began to tell his -story:: .

".On Sunday;" said he, " there was a pattern at Carraroe, but- •I couldn't get to it because my wife's brother Was sick in Galway and we spent the day there with him. My wife made up her mind to stay the night, and I tame home alone and was walking up the road when I heard someone moaning away on the side of the road, and when I went to it, I found Rondo was lying there. It was clear the man had been drinking, the way he was carrying on."

" They've all been bought ! " cried out Mr. Keeley. " It's a shame the way the ease is turning ! " .

" I lifted him out of it," Mulligan Went on," and took him in the state he was in to Dr. Lydon's. That was a good mile away. He kept calling out there was blood coming: out of his back, and even in the dark it was plain that his clothes were sopping wet. I asked him if he had been carrying a bottle in his pocket to the back, and lie started, crying that he'd been stabbed in the ribs."

suppose 'he didn't mention seeing snakes ? " said Mr. Keeley with fine scorn. " Better make it a good one while, you're about it ! "

",Snakes never came. into it at all," said Mulligan. " The doctor got Rondo's clothes off him, and sure enough, there waS'a hole in his back as big as the head of a pin," and the 'court burst into laughter.

" So you're trying to tell us it was for that Dr. Lydon called the ambulance ? " said Mr. Keeley with a jeer.

• `,`:No.w I didn't say that," said Mulligan. " The truth of it is there was no holding Rondo quiet. Dr. Lydon called in his brother and nephew, but the four of us to- gether ivere. like helpless babes in arms. He was in the throes of drink for fair, and the doctor had a sick wife upstairsandthe noise was bringing the roof down."

" I examined Rondo," said old Dr. Lydon, " on Sunday night and found him suffering from shock and a slight Wound in the lumbar region. From the nature of it, I -Couldn't say whether it had been done with a penknife' ora bit of glass. He was bleeding a little, but his clothes were soaked through with some other liquid. A feW bits of broken glass were there in the pocket of his vest in the back, and Rondo said the blackguards had broken to pieces a bottle of scent lie was taking home to his wife from the pattern at Carraroe."

" Well, now, there's one thing sure," cried out Mr. Keeley, " and not a soul can deny the truth of it ! "

His face was livid red with his anger and his legal papers were shaking in his hand. " You all agree that there was a pattern at Carraroc and that my client was there with a rifle-range and a roulette-table . . . "

" That he was not ! " a woman cried out from the benches. " My husband was home in bed all Sunday with a toothache. that never let up till the Monday morning, and his brother went off to the pattern instead . . . " " Now this is one of the worst cases I've ever heard of in the whole country," said His Lordship, and he adjourned the trial until the next session of the Court of Galway.