ten o’clock
`` If I were you , '' said the D.I. , `` I would n't insist on any kind of legal trial about that hay . At present there 's no evidence against you , Mr. Gallaher , except that you paid a perfectly absurd price for some hay that you did n't want , and I 'm not inclined to press the matter now . I 've got what I wanted ; but if you insist on dragging the matter into Court -- '' `` I do not , '' said Gallaher . At ten o'clock that evening Dan Gallaher and James McNiece sat together in the private room behind the bar of Sam Twining 's public-house . The house was neutral ground used by Orangemen and Nationalists alike , a convenient arrangement , indeed a necessary arrangement , for there was no other public-house nearer than Curraghfin . `` Dan , '' said James McNiece , `` I 'm an Orangeman and a Protestant and a loyalist , and what I 've always said about Home Rule and always will say is this : -- We 'll not have it and to Hell with the rebels . But I 'm telling you now I 'd rather you had them , papist and rebel and all as you are , than see them swept off that way by the police .