O'Grady, take Lieutenant Horton
and Mr. Haldane and two sergeants with you. Here is my purse. Go through
the town and get some bread and anything else in the way of food that you
can lay your hands upon. And, if you can, above all things get some
tobacco."
O'Grady's search was for a time unsuccessful, as the soldiers and
camp-followers had already broken into the shops and stores. In an
unfrequented street, however, they came across a large building. He
knocked at the door with the hilt of his sword. It was opened after a time
by an old man.
"What house is this?"
"It is a tobacco factory," he replied.
"Be jabers, we have come to the right place. I want about half a ton of
it. We are not robbers, and I will pay for what we take." Then another
idea struck him. "Wait a moment, I will be back again in no time. Horton,
do you stay here and take charge of the men. I am going back to the
colonel."
He found on reaching the regiment that the men were already drinking their
wine and eating their bread.
"I am afraid I shall never keep them, O'Grady," the colonel said,
mournfully. "It is scarcely in human nature to see men straggling about as
full as they can hold, and know that there is liquor to be had for taking
it and not to go for it."
"It is all right, Colonel. I know that we can never keep the men if we
turn them into the houses to sleep; but I have found a big building that
will hold the whole regiment, and the best of it is that it is a tobacco
factory.
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