Stingaree
believe it, perhaps? You'd better ask Mr. Macbean!"
And before it had occurred to him to stir from where he stood agape, the floor fell from under the feet of Fergus, his body lurched forward, and came down flat and heavy on the hard earth eight feet below. Not entirely stunned, though shaken and hurt from head to heel, he was still collecting his senses when the pit blackened as the trap-door shut in implicit obedience to its weights and springs. And in the clinging velvet darkness the young man heard a groan.
"Is that yoursel', Fergy?"
"And are you there, Mr. Macbean?"
"Mon, didn't it shut just fine!"
Curiously blended with the physical pain in the manager's voice was a sodden philosophic humor which maddened the younger man. Fergus swore where he lay writhing on his stomach. Macbean chuckled and groaned again.
"It's Stingaree," he said, drawing a breath through his teeth.
"Of course it is."
"I never breathed it to a soul."
"No more did I."
Fergus spoke with ready confidence, and yet the words left something on his mind. It was
50
