Mostly no charges accrued. A complaint from one side meant a summons from the other. He kept a neutral stance between the two. Then both parties waited while he went through the paperwork. Those days it seemed the stations were always damp. He could smell the wet from the bodies of the Cavan Specials as they sat puffy-faced and small-eyed for want of sleep. Back across the border their animals were waiting to be fed. Beside them the Fenians looked into their hands. They waited. Then after a while he let them go.

The B-Specials and the Republicans stepped onto the street and went their separate ways. This fighting too would end. And soon it did. Peaceful times returned to the province. Money intended for new council homes was instead spent on roads. The smell of tar crossed the province. Ulster began preparing to become an industrial miracle. Jonathan Adams became sergeant. Moved in alone to the married quarters. And here on winter nights he gave tuition in all manner of subjects to young scholars from the village, wrote out their job applications and filled in forms that their fathers could not understand.

He drew up schedules, entered his observations in the daybook and placed each policeman’s wage in a brown envelope in the desk in the day-room. On each he wrote in pen the policeman’s name, the overall figure, tax reductions, special charges, certain fees.

It was because of his fluency in the world of figures – exact figures – that Jonathan Adams eventually got preferment. The other policemen might consider him an oddity, an outsider, but he earned the rank of sergeant because his paperwork was always fastidious. The reports he drew up in the barracks were minutely detailed, dated correctly and coolly observed. His initials on a piece of paper meant all contained therein was exact. He was a man the judges liked to see in court. He may have been a poor preacher, but explaining facts came easily to him. His evidence was trustworthy. They understood each other, the judges and Jonathan Adams. The judges appreciated the discreet scholarly aside. The evangelical turn of phrase.