Danny Boy. Anne Bennett

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СКАЧАТЬ or decay or damp, it smelled of cigarettes and paraffin. She saw two lamps either side of the mantelshelf, a box of matches between them.

      The floor was packed-down mud, covered over by a large hessian rug. She crossed the room, leaving the door ajar, and lit one of the lamps for extra light. Dermot’s eyes were dancing with excitement.

      ‘Now you’ll see,’ he said as he fell to his knees and rolled the rug back.

      Rosie joined him and could plainly see the place where the floor had been cut away in a square and she kneeled beside her brother as he ran his fingers along the edge of the sizeable square and lifted the sod of earth out. Rosie leaned closer, bringing the lamp nearer, and saw that the earth below had been dug away to produce a roomy hole and she gave a sudden shiver of apprehension.

      ‘Look,’ Dermot said triumphantly and he pulled two canvas rolls from the hole and began to unwrap them. There were six rifles in each roll and Rosie sat back on her heels and let out a gasp of shock.

      She was used to guns, having been brought up on a farm. Her own father as well as Matt and Danny would often shoot rabbits, both to save their crops from being eaten and to supplement the pot, and foxes were also killed. That was normal and natural, but those guns weren’t hidden away in what had once been a derelict place.

      Dermot, still ferreting about in the hole, brought out tin boxes full of bullets and then some more pistols, again wrapped in cloth. She sat back and surveyed the cache of weapons before them. What on earth should she do?

      Suddenly the room darkened and she looked up in alarm. Phelan was standing in the doorway. ‘So,’ he said. ‘Now you know. What d’you intend to do about it?’

      Rosie looked at Phelan aghast, her mouth open in shock, her eyes troubled. ‘Phelan, I…’

      ‘If you’ve sense, and you value your life and that of our families, you will put those things back where they came from, go home and say nothing, forget all about it,’ Phelan said coldly.

      ‘Are you threatening me?’

      ‘Let’s say I’m warning you.’ Phelan said. ‘These are desperate times and anyone that is not for Ireland is against her and becomes her enemy. What cannot be borne is a spy in the camp.’

      ‘Phelan, I’m not a spy, I’m your sister-in-law,’ Rosie said hotly. ‘And Dermot is a child.’

      ‘I thought no-one knew of this place,’ Phelan said angrily. ‘It seemed a perfect place to store ammunition.’

      ‘Danny knew of it.’

      ‘God, aye, but he’d never come up here, not now. He used to meet Shay and the other lads here when they were boys. It was Shay who took me here first. Mind you,’ he added, ‘he couldn’t have used it as it was. The roof leaked like a tap, the mortar was crumbling in the stone walls and the door had rotted away. Left to itself it would be just a pile of rubble by now. We spent ages patching it up. How did you find it?’ he suddenly demanded of Dermot.

      Dermot loved and admired Phelan, but he was unused to him shouting and being cross – he was unused to anyone being cross with him, come to that – and so he replied angrily. ‘I just did, and so what, Phelan? It doesn’t belong to you.’

      The blow to the side of Dermot’s head knocked him sideways. No-one had ever struck him before and he cried out with the pain and shock of it. With an angry look at Phelan, Rosie put her arms around Dermot. ‘There was no need for that.’

      Phelan ran his fingers through his hair. His eyes looked wild and filled with fear. ‘There was every need,’ he cried. ‘For the love of God will you understand the danger you’re both in? Tell me, Dermot, how you found the place and the arms, or I’ll beat it out of you and even Rosie won’t be able to save you.’

      ‘Phelan, what’s got into you?’

      ‘Shut up, Rosie,’ Phelan yelled, and he looked at the boy. ‘Well, Dermot?’

      Dermot was scared of Phelan for the first time in his life. He saw the suppressed fury in him, his fists balled at his sides. He licked his lips nervously and told Phelan the same story he’d told Rosie about the tangled sheep. ‘I didn’t have time to explore the cottage then, I had to wait till the holidays, and I came up early this morning.’

      ‘Alone?’ Phelan demanded.

      ‘Aye, alone.’

      ‘Then what? How did you find the weapons?’

      ‘Well,’ Dermot said. ‘The place was dark because I shut the door. I knew there were paraffin lamps on the mantelshelf – I’d seen that much when I’d first opened the door – and so I made for there. But the mat must have been ruched up or something because I tripped over it and went flying. Then, when I lit the lamp and lifted the mat to straighten it, I saw the square cut in the mud and I pulled it out to look.’

      ‘Did you tell anyone?’

      Dermot shook his head. ‘There was no-one to tell. I went for Rosie. I didn’t even tell her, I brought her here.’

      ‘You told no-one else?’

      ‘No.’

      ‘You’re sure?’ Phelan demanded. ‘Swear it, Dermot, on your mother’s life.’

      ‘Aye, I swear.’

      ‘What about the day you saw a glimpse of the place? Did you mention it to your father?’

      ‘No fear,’ Dermot said. ‘I didn’t know what it was. I meant to explore it on my own. My mother never wants me out of her sight and I wouldn’t have told either of them.’

      ‘Where do they think you are now, then?’

      ‘They don’t know, I snuck away when they were busy. They’ll know I’ll make for your place. Mammy will give out to me when I go back.’

      ‘What if your Daddy comes looking for you?’ Phelan said. ‘What if he goes to the farm and Mammy tells him of you and Rosie going off and making for the hills? He could come looking for you.’

      Rosie worriedly saw Phelan had a point. ‘So what do we do?’

      ‘We put all that ammunition back just the way it was and get as far from here as possible. You never come near this place again, Dermot. Do you hear what I say?’

      The boy nodded, but Phelan was not satisfied. ‘I mean it, Dermot, and you say nothing, not to anyone. This is not a game.’

      ‘Phelan, stop it,’ Rosie said angrily, seeing the fear on Dermot’s face and feeling the way his whole body shook. ‘You’re frightening him.’

      ‘He needs frightening,’ Phelan said, dropping to his knees and wrapping the pistols up in the canvas cover the way they had been. ‘There are desperate men in the IRB and while me and Shay, Sam and Niall would try to protect you, I don’t know how much influence we’d have if they found out either you or Dermot had been here.’

      ‘Sweet Jesus, Phelan! What in God’s name have you got mixed up in? A fine organisation it must be all right, if it threatens women and weans.’

      ‘I’m СКАЧАТЬ