第50章

The LeprechaunTHE SHELL carried us straight back to the house of Yolara.

Larry was awaiting me.We stood again before the tenebrous wall where first we had faced the priestess and the Voice.

And as we stood, again the portal appeared with all its dis-concerting, magical abruptness.

But now the scene was changed.Around the jet table were grouped a number of figures--Lugur, Yolara beside him;seven others-all of them fair-haired and all men save one who sat at the left of the priestess--an old, old woman, how old I could not tell, her face bearing traces of beauty that must once have been as great as Yolara's own, but now ravaged, in some way awesome; through its ruins the fear-ful, malicious gaiety shining out like a spirit of joy held within a corpse!

Began then our examination, for such it was.And as it progressed I was more and more struck by the change in the O'Keefe.All flippancy was gone, rarely did his sense of humour reveal itself in any of his answers.He was like a cautious swordsman, fencing, guarding, studying his op-ponent; or rather, like a chess-player who keeps sensing some far-reaching purpose in the game: alert, contained, watchful.Always he stressed the power of our surface races, their multitudes, their solidarity.

Their questions were myriad.What were our occupations?

Our system of government? How great were the waters? The land? Intensely interested were they in the World War, querying minutely into its causes, its effects.In our weapons their interest was avid.And they were exceedingly minute in their examination of us as to the ruins which had excited our curiosity; their position and surroundings--and if others than ourselves might be expected to find and pass through their entrance!

At this I shot a glance at Lugur.He did not seem unduly interested.I wondered if the Russian had told him as yet of the girl of the rosy wall of the Moon Pool Chamber and the real reasons for our search.Then I answered as briefly as possible--omitting all reference to these things.The red dwarf watched me with unmistakable amusement--and Iknew Marakinoff had told him.But clearly Lugur had kept his information even from Yolara; and as clearly she had spoken to none of that episode when O'Keefe's automatic had shattered the Keth-smitten vase.Again I felt that sense of deep bewilderment--of helpless search for clue to all the tangle.

For two hours we were questioned and then the priestess called Rador and let us go.

Larry was sombre as we returned.He walked about the room uneasily.

"Hell's brewing here all right," he said at last, stopping before me."I can't make out just the particular brand--that's all that bothers me.We're going to have a stiff fight, that's sure.What I want to do quick is to find the Golden Girl, Doc.Haven't seen her on the wall lately, have you?"he queried, hopefully fantastic.

"Laugh if you want to," he went on."But she's our best bet.It's going to be a race between her and the O'Keefe banshee--but I put my money on her.I had a queer experi-ence while I was in that garden, after you'd left." His voice grew solemn."Did you ever see a leprechaun, Doc?" I shook my head again, as solemnly."He's a little man in green,"said Larry."Oh, about as high as your knee.I saw one once --in Carntogher Woods.And as I sat there, half asleep, in Yolara's garden, the living spit of him stepped out from one of those bushes, twirling a little shillalah.

"'It's a tight box ye're gettin' in, Larry avick,' said he, 'but don't ye be downhearted, lad.'

"'I'm carrying on,' said I, 'but you're a long way from Ireland,' I said, or thought I did.

"'Ye've a lot o' friends there,' he answered.'An' where the heart rests the feet are swift to follow.Not that I'm sayin' I'd like to live here, Larry,' said he.

"'I know where my heart is now,' I told him.'It rests on a girl with golden eyes and the hair and swan-white breast of Eilidh the Fair--but me feet don't seem to get me to her,'

I said."

The brogue thickened.

"An' the little man in green nodded his head an' whirled his shillalah.

"'It's what I came to tell ye,' says he.'Don't ye fall for the Bhean-Nimher, the serpent woman wit' the blue eyes;she's a daughter of Ivor, lad--an' don't ye do nothin' to make the brown-haired coleen ashamed o' ye, Larry O'Keefe.Iknew yer great, great grandfather an' his before him, aroon,'

says he, 'an' wan o' the O'Keefe failin's is to think their hearts big enough to hold all the wimmen o' the world.Aheart's built to hold only wan permanently, Larry,' he says, 'an' I'm warnin' ye a nice girl don't like to move into a place all cluttered up wid another's washin' an' mendin' an'

cookin' an' other things pertainin' to general wife work.Not that I think the blue-eyed wan is keen for mendin' an'

cookin'!' says he.

"'You don't have to be comin' all this way to tell me that,' I answer.

"'Well, I'm just a tellin' you,' he says.'Ye've got some rough knocks comin', Larry.In fact, ye're in for a devil of a time.But, remember that ye're the O'Keefe,' says he.'An'

while the bhoys are all wid ye, avick, ye've got to be on the job yourself.'

"'I hope,' I tell him, 'that the O'Keefe banshee can find her way here in time--that is, if it's necessary, which I hope it won't be.'