_ BOOK V. THE POLICEMEN
CHAPTER XV
BY reason of the many years which he had spent in the gloomy pine wood,
the Philosopher could see a little in the darkness, and when he found
there was no longer any hold on his coat he continued his journey
quietly, marching along with his head sunken on his breast in a deep
abstraction. He was meditating on the word "Me," and endeavouring to
pursue it through all its changes and adventures. The fact of "me-ness"
was one which startled him. He was amazed at his own being. He knew that
the hand which he held up and pinched with another hand was not him
and the endeavour to find out what was him was one which had frequently
exercised his leisure. He had not gone far when there came a tug at
his sleeve and looking down he found one of the Leprecauns of the Gort
trotting by his side.
"Noble Sir," said the Leprecaun, "you are terrible hard to get into
conversation with. I have been talking to you for the last long time and
you won't listen."
"I am listening now," replied the Philosopher.
"You are, indeed," said the Leprecaun heartily. "My brothers are on the
other side of the road over there beyond the hedge, and they want to
talk to you: will you come with me, Noble Sir?"
"Why wouldn't I go with you?" said the Philosopher, and he turned aside
with the Leprecaun.
They pushed softly through a gap in the hedge and into a field beyond.
"Come this way, sir," said his guide, and the Philosopher followed him
across the field. In a few minutes they came to a thick bush among the
leaves of which the other Leprecauns were hiding. They thronged out to
meet the Philosopher's approach and welcomed him with every appearance
of joy. With them was the Thin Woman of Inis Magrath, who embraced her
husband tenderly and gave thanks for his escape.
"The night is young yet," remarked one of the Leprecauns. "Let us sit
down here and talk about what should be done."
"I am tired enough," said the Philosopher, "for I have been travelling
all yesterday, and all this day and the whole of this night I have been
going also, so I would be glad to sit down anywhere."
They sat down under the bush and the Philosopher lit his pipe. In the
open space where they were there was just light enough to see the smoke
coming from his pipe, but scarcely more. One recognized a figure as a
deeper shadow than the surrounding darkness; but as the ground was dry
and the air just touched with a pleasant chill, there was no discomfort.
After the Philosopher had drawn a few mouthfuls of smoke he passed his
pipe on to the next person, and in this way his pipe made the circuit of
the party.
"When I put the children to bed," said the Thin Woman, "I came down the
road in your wake with a basin of stirabout, for you had no time to take
your food, God help you! and I was thinking you must have been hungry."
"That is so," said the Philosopher in a very anxious voice: "but I don't
blame you, my dear, for letting the basin fall on the road--"
"While I was going along," she continued, "I met these good people and
when I told them what happened they came with me to see if anything
could be done. The time they ran out of the hedge to fight the policemen
I wanted to go with them, but I was afraid the stirabout would be
spilt."
The Philosopher licked his lips.
"I am listening to you, my love," said he.
"So I had to stay where I was with the stirabout under my shawl--"
"Did you slip then, dear wife?"
"I did not, indeed," she replied: "I have the stirabout with me this
minute. It's rather cold, I'm thinking, but it is better than nothing at
all," and she placed the bowl in his hands.
"I put sugar in it," said she shyly, "and currants, and I have a spoon
in my pocket."
"It tastes well," said the Philosopher, and he cleaned the basin so
speedily that his wife wept because of his hunger.
By this time the pipe had come round to him again and it was welcomed.
"Now we can talk," said he, and he blew a great cloud of smoke into the
darkness and sighed happily.
"We were thinking," said the Thin Woman, "that you won't be able to come
back to our house for a while yet: the policemen will be peeping about
Coille Doraca for a long time, to be sure; for isn't it true that if
there is a good thing coming to a person, nobody takes much trouble to
find him, but if there is a bad thing or a punishment in store for a
man, then the whole world will be searched until he be found?"
"It is a true statement," said the Philosopher.
"So what we arranged was this--that you should go to live with these
little men in their house under the yew tree of the Gort. There is not a
policeman in the world would find you there; or if you went by night to
the Brugh of the Boyne, Angus Og himself would give you a refuge."
One of the Leprecauns here interposed.
"Noble Sir," said he, "there isn't much room in our house but there's no
stint of welcome in it. You would have a good time with us travelling on
moonlit nights and seeing strange things, for we often go to visit the
Shee of the Hills and they come to see us; there is always something
to talk about, and we have dances in the caves and on the tops of the
hills. Don't be imagining now that we have a poor life for there is fun
and plenty with us and the Brugh of Angus Mac an Og is hard to be got
at."
"I would like to dance, indeed," returned the Philosopher, "for I do
believe that dancing is the first and last duty of man. If we cannot be
gay what can we be? Life is not any use at all unless we find a laugh
here and there--but this time, decent men of the Gort, I cannot go with
you, for it is laid on me to give myself up to the police."
"You would not do that," exclaimed the Thin Woman pitifully: "You
wouldn't think of doing that now!"
"An innocent man," said he, "cannot be oppressed, for he is fortified
by his mind and his heart cheers him. It is only on a guilty person that
the rigour of punishment can fall, for he punishes himself. This is what
I think, that a man should always obey the law with his body and always
disobey it with his mind. I have been arrested, the men of the law had
me in their hands, and I will have to go back to them so that they may
do whatever they have to do."
The Philosopher resumed his pipe, and although the others reasoned with
him for a long time they could not by any means remove him from his
purpose. So, when the pale glimmer of dawn had stolen over the sky,
they arose and went downwards to the cross-roads and so to the Police
Station.
Outside the village the Leprecauns bade him farewell and the Thin Woman
also took her leave of him, saying she would visit Angus Og and implore
his assistance on behalf of her husband, and then the Leprecauns and the
Thin Woman returned again the way they came, and the Philosopher walked
on to the barracks. _