George A. Birmingham

“ Eccles at the door. Michael Geraghty, who was standing disconsolately near the doctor's house, took off his hat and bowed humbly as Mr. Eccles passed him. Then he joined Dr. Whitty.
"Did you get him persuaded, doctor?"
"I did not. I tried my best with him, Michael, but I failed."
"It couldn't be expected that you'd do anything else," said Michael. "He's a hard man that, as hard as e'er a one ever I met."
"Don't give up heart, Michael. We're not beat yet by a long way."
"It's not easy to see what more we can do." ”

“ Come on out of this, Eccles. I suppose, after the way you've behaved to poor Geraghty, you'd hardly care to bathe off the end of his pier. It wouldn't be decent."
"If I'm hanged for it after," said Michael Geraghty, "I'll make Thady Glynn sorry for himself. If I don't——"
"Be quiet, can't you, Michael?" said a man from the crowd. "Be quiet, when the doctor bids you. Don't you see him taking the inspector by the arm and talking to him? It'll be all right, I tell you. The doctor'll manage him if you don't get putting the man's back up against you with the like of that murdering talk." ”

“ There's nothing a Government hates more than an official who can't see beyond the letter of what he has written down for him. All the great worries that Governments have are the results of pig-headed literalness of stupid officials. Look at the case of the king who had Thomas Becket murdered. Did he mean to murder him? Not at all. Some fool of an official, a fellow very like you, Eccles, went and did literally what he was told, instead of considering what the king really meant. ”

“ Eccles must be an engineer, and had probably come to report on the pier which Michael Geraghty had built. Mr. Eccles repeated his inquiry for Dr. Whitty.
"Is it the doctor you want to see?"
Thady was a little puzzled. He could not imagine why a Board of Works engineer should want to visit Dr. Whitty.
"Yes," said Mr. Eccles; "where does he live?"
"If it's a tooth that's troubling you," said Thady, "you couldn't go to a better man than Dr. Whitty. He'll whip it out for you before you'll rightly know he has a grip on it. There isn't a proper dentist would do it quicker." ”

“ He didn't make the least attempt to stick you there."
"If there'd been any other material in the country cheaper than stones," said Eccles, "I haven't the least doubt he'd have used it, and tried to persuade me afterwards it was stone, otherwise I dare say he's decent enough."
"Thady Glynn is a horrid blackguard," said the doctor. "He's a blood-sucking money-lender, for one thing, and has half the people in the country round in his power. He's the sort of man that the devil himself will be squeamish about making a bonfire of for fear of the smell there'll be afterwards." ”

“ Eccles. "I'm not asking you for any information."
"I will do it. I'm an honest man, and it goes against me to see cheating and robbery going on, even if it's only the Government that's at the loss of the money. It's the curse of this country the way men'll go behind their bargains for the sake of trying to make a pound or two."
"Those opinions do you the greatest credit."
"Michael Geraghty is a friend of mine," said Thady Glynn, "an old friend that I've known since the both of us were barefooted gossures running in and out of the school beyond. ”

“ Eccles. "Do I look like a man who'd come all the way to Ballintra because he had toothache?"
"You do not," said Thady judicially. "When I take a good look at you I can see well that you're not that sort of man."
"Dr. Whitty and I are old friends," said Mr. Eccles. "He and I lived in the same lodgings when he was walking the hospitals and I was going through the engineering school."
Thady Glynn was satisfied. He started his guest on the way to Dr. Whitty's house and then returned to his own bar. He found Michael Geraghty there. ”

“ I ask out of pure curiosity. As a matter of fact, I'm glad the poor fellow has got paid. Don't waste paper and a postage stamp telling me he built the twenty-seven feet on to the pier, for I shouldn't believe it. It couldn't be done in the time."
To this Dr. Whitty replied by return of post.
"Dear Eccles,—I had the whole matter settled before you left Ballintra that day. It was perfectly simple, and anybody except a hide-bound official would have hit on the dodge at once. We added the twenty-seven feet to the shore end of the pier. It cost Michael Geraghty next to nothing. ”

“ But I wouldn't let him being my friend stop me in doing my duty. There was talk one time of his marrying a sister of mine, though it didn't come off, owing to a falling out there was over the girl's fortune. ”