THE LOST CROWN OF GOLD.
“Well, in the ould ancient times, before St. Patrick banished the
shnakes from out iv Ireland, the hill beyant was a mighty important
place intirely. For more betoken, none other lived in it than the King
iv the Shnakes himself. In thim times there was up at the top iv the
hill a wee bit iv a lake wid threes and sedges and the like growin’
round it; and ’twas there that the King iv the Shnakes made his nist—or
whativer it is that shnakes calls their home. Glory be to God! but none
of us knows anythin’ of them at all, at all, since Saint Patrick tuk
them in hand.”
Here an old man in the chimney corner struck in:—
“Thrue for ye, Acushla; sure the bit lake is there still, though more
belike it’s dhry now it is, and the threes is all gone.”
“Well,” went on Jerry, not ill-pleased with this corroboration of his
story, “the King iv the Shnakes was mighty important intirely. He was
more nor tin times as big as any shnake as any man’s eyes had iver saw;
an’ he had a goolden crown on to the top of his head, wid a big jool
in it that tuk the colour iv the light, whether that same was from the
sun or the moon; an’ all the shnakes had to take it in turns to bring
food, and lave it for him in the cool iv the evenin’, whin he would
come out and ate it up and go back to his own place. An’ they do say
that whiniver two shnakes had a quarr’ll they had to come to the King,
an’ he decided betune them; an’ he tould aich iv them where he was to
live, and what he was to do. An’ wanst in ivery year there had to be
brought to him a live baby; and they do say that he would wait until
the moon was at the full, an’ thin would be heerd one wild wail that
made every sowl widin miles shuddher, an’ thin there would be black
silence, and clouds would come over the moon, and for three days it
would never be seen agin.”
“Oh, Glory be to God!” murmured one of the women, “but it was a
terrible thing!” and she rocked herself to and fro, moaning, all the
motherhood in her awake.
“But did none of the min do nothin’?” said a powerful-looking young
fellow in the orange and green jersey of the Gaelic Athletic Club, with
his eyes flashing; and he clenched his teeth.
“Musha! how could they? Sure, no man ever seen the King iv the Shnakes!”
“Thin how did they know about him?” he queried doubtfully.
“Sure, wasn’t one of their childher tuk away iv’ry year? But, anyhow,
it’s all over now! an’ so it was that none iv the min iver wint. They
do say that one woman what lost her child, run up to the top of the
hill; but what she seen, none could tell, for, whin they found her she
was a ravin’ lunatic, wid white hair an eyes like a corpse—an’ the
mornin’ afther they found her dead in her bed wid a black mark round
her neck as if she had been choked, an’ the mark was in the shape iv a
shnake. Well! there was much sorra and much fear, and whin St. Pathrick
tuk the shnakes in hand the bonfires was lit all over the counthry.
Never was such a flittin’ seen as whin the shnakes came from all parts
wrigglin’ and crawlin’ an shkwirmin’.”
Here the narrator dramatically threw himself into an attitude, and with
the skill of a true improvisatore, suggested in every pose and with
every limb and in every motion the serpentine movements.
“They all came away to the West, and seemed to come to this wan
mountain. From the North and the South and the East they came be
millions an’ thousands an’ hundhreds—for whin St. Patrick ordhered them
out he only tould them to go, but he didn’t name the place—an there was
he up on top of Brandon mountain wid his vistments on to him an’ his
crozier in his hand, and the shnakes movein’ below him, all goin up
North, an’, sez he to himself:—
“‘I must see about this.’ An’ he got down from aff iv the mountain, and
he folly’d the shnakes, and he see them move along to the hill beyant
that they call Knockcalltecrore. An’ be this time they wor all come
from all over Ireland, and they wor all round the mountain—exceptin’
on the say side—an’ they all had their heads pointed up the hill, and
their tails pointed to the Saint, so that they didn’t see him, an’
they all gave wan great hiss, an’ then another, an’ another, like wan,
two, three! An’ at the third hiss the King of the Shnakes rose up out
of the wee fen at the top of the hill, wid his gold crown gleamin’—an’
more betoken it was harvest time, an’ the moon was up, an’ the sun was
settin’, so the big jool in the crown had the light of both the sun an’
the moon, an’ it shone so bright that right away in Lensther the people
thought the whole counthry was afire. But whin the Saint seen him, his
whole forrum seemed to swell out an’ get bigger an’ bigger, an’ he
lifted his crozier, an’ he pointed West, an’ sez he, in a voice like a
shtorm, ‘To the say all ye shnakes! At wanst! to the say!’
“An’ in the instant, wid wan movement, an’ wid a hiss that made the
air seem full iv watherfalls the whole iv the shnakes that was round
the hill wriggled away into the say as if the fire was at their tails.
There was so many iv them that they filled up the say out beyant to
Cusheen Island, and them that was behind, had to shlide over their
bodies. An’ the say piled up till it sent a wave mountains high
rollin’ away across the Atlantic till it sthruck upon the shore iv
America—though more betoken it wasn’t America thin, for it wasn’t
discovered till long afther. An’ there was so many shnakes that they
do say that all the white sand that dhrifts up on the coast from the
Blaskets to Achill Head is made from their bones.” Here Andy cut in:—
“But, Jerry, you haven’t tould us if the King iv the Shnakes wint too.”
“Musha! but it’s in a hurry ye are. How can I tell ye the whole laygend
at wanst; an’, moreover, when me mouth is that dhry I can hardly spake
at all—an’ me punch is all dhrunk——”
He turned his glass face down on the table, with an air of comic
resignation. Mrs. Kelligan took the hint and refilled his glass whilst
he went on:—
“Well! whin the shnakes tuk to say-bathin’ an’ forgot to come in to
dhry themselves, the ould King iv thim sunk down agin into the lake,
an’ Saint Pathrick rowls his eyes, an’ sez he to himself:—
“‘Musha! is it dhramin’ I am, or what? or is it laughin’ at me he is?
Does he mane to defy me?‘ An’ seein’ that no notice was tuk iv him at
all, he lifts his crozier, and calls out:—
“‘Hi! Here! You! Come here! I want ye!’—As he spoke, Jerry went through
all the pantomime of the occasion, exemplifying by every movement the
speech of both the Saint and the Snake.
“Well! thin the King iv the Shnakes puts up his head, out iv the lake,
an’ sez he:—
“‘Who calls?’
“‘I do,’ says Saint Pathrick, an’ he was so much mulvathered at the
Shnake presumin’ to sthay, afther he tould thim all to go, that for a
while he didn’t think it quare that he could sphake at all.
“‘Well, what do ye want wid me?’ sez the Shnake.
“‘I want to know why you didn’t lave Irish soil wid all th’ other
Shnakes,’ sez the Saint.
“‘Ye tould the Shnakes to go,’ sez the King, ‘an’ I am their King, so I
am; and your wurrds didn’t apply to me!’ an’ with that he dhrops like a
flash of lightnin’ into the lake agin.
“Well! St. Patrick was so tuk back wid his impidence that he had to
think for a minit, an’ then he calls again:—
“‘Hi! here! you!’
“‘What do you want now?’ sez the King iv the Shnakes, again poppin’ up
his head.
“‘I want to know why you didn’t obey me ordhers?’ sez the Saint. An’
the King luked at him an’ laughed; and he looked mighty evil, I can
tell ye—for be this time the sun was down and the moon up, and the jool
in his crown threw out a pale cold light that would make you shuddher
to see. ‘An’,’ says he, as slow an’ as hard as an attorney (saving your
prisence) when he has a bad case:—
“‘I didn’t obey,’ sez be, ‘because I thraverse the jurisdiction.’
“‘How do ye mane?’ asks St. Pathrick.
“‘Because,’ sez he, ‘this is my own houldin’,’ sez he, ‘be perscriptive
right,’ sez he. ‘I’m the whole govermint here, and I put a nexeat on
meself not to lave widout me own permission,’ and he ducks down agin
into the pond.
“Well, the Saint began to get mighty angry, an’ he raises his crozier,
and he calls him agin:—
“‘Hi! here! you!’ and the Shnake pops up.
“‘Well! Saint, what do you want now? Amn’t I to be quit iv ye at all?’
“‘Are ye goin’, or are ye not?’ sez the Saint.
“‘I’m king here; an’ I’m not goin’.’
“‘Thin,’ says the Saint, ‘I depose ye!’
“‘You can’t,’ sez the Shnake, ‘whilst I have me crown.’
“‘Then I’ll take it from ye,’ sez St. Pathrick.
“‘Catch me first!’ sez the Shnake; an’ wid that he pops undher the
wather, what began to bubble up and boil. Well thin! the good Saint
stood bewildhered, for as he was lukin’ the wather began to disappear
out of the wee lake—and then the ground iv the hill began to be shaken
as if the big Shnake was rushin’ round and round it down deep down
undher the ground.
“So the Saint stood on the edge of the empty lake an’ held up his
crozier, and called on the Shnake to come forth. And when he luked
down, lo! an’ behold ye! there lay the King iv the Shnakes coiled round
the bottom iv the lake—though how he had got there the Saint could
niver tell, for he hadn’t been there when he began to summons him. Then
the Shnake raised his head, and, lo! and behold ye! there was no crown
on to it.
“‘Where is your crown?’ sez the Saint.
“‘It’s hid,’ sez the Shnake, leerin’ at him.
“‘Where is it hid?’
“‘It’s hid in the mountain! Buried where you nor the likes iv you can’t
touch it in a thousand years!’ an’ he leered agin.
“‘Tell me where it may be found?’ sez the Saint starnly. An’ thin the
Shnake leers at him again wid an eviller smile than before; an’ sez he:—
“‘Did ye see the wather what was in the lake?’
“‘I did,’ sez Saint Pathrick.
“‘Thin, when ye find that wather ye may find me jool’d crown, too,’ sez
he; an’ before the Saint could say a word, he wint on:—
“‘An’ till ye git me crown I’m king here still, though ye banish
me. An’ mayhap, I’ll come in some forrum what ye don’t suspect, for
I must watch me crown. An’ now I go away—iv me own accorrd.‘ An’
widout one word more, good or bad, he shlid right away into the say,
dhrivin’ through the rock an’ makin’ the clift that they call the
Shleenanaher—an’ that’s Irish for the Shnake’s Pass—until this day.”
“An’ now, sir, if Mrs. Kelligan hasn’t dhrunk up the whole bar’l, I’d
like a dhrop iv punch, for talkin’ is dhry wurrk,” and he buried his
head in the steaming jorum, which the hostess had already prepared.
The company then began to discuss the legend. Said one of the women:—
“I wondher what forrum he tuk when he kem back!” Jerry answered:—
“Sure, they do say that the shiftin’ bog wor the forrum he tuk. The
mountain wid the lake on top used to be the fertilest shpot in the
whole counthry; but iver since the bog began to shift this was niver
the same.”
Here a hard-faced man named McGlown, who had been silent, struck in
with a question:—
“But who knows when the bog did begin to shift?”
“Musha! Sorra one of me knows; but it was whin th’ ould Shnake druv the
wather iv the lake into the hill!”—There was a twinkle in the eyes of
the story-teller, which made one doubt his own belief in his story.
“Well, for ma own part,” said McGlown, “A don’t believe a sengle word
of it.”
“An’ for why not?” said one of the women. “Isn’t the mountain called
‘Knockcalltecrore,’ or ‘The Hill of the Lost Crown iv Gold,’ till this
day?” Said another:—
“Musha! how could Misther McGlown believe anythin’, an’ him a
Protestan’.”
“A’ll tell ye that A much prefer the facs,” said McGlown. “Ef hestory
es till be believed, A much prefer the story told till me by yon old
man. Damn me! but A believe he’s old enough till remember the theng
itself.”
He pointed as he spoke to old Moynahan, who, shrivelled up and
white-haired, crouched in a corner of the inglenook, holding close to
the fire his wrinkled shaky hands.
“What is the story that Mr. Moynahan has, may I ask?” said I. “Pray
oblige, me, won’t you? I am anxious to hear all I can of the mountain,
for it has taken my fancy strangely.”
The old man took the glass of punch, which Mrs. Kelligan handed him as
the necessary condition antecedent to a story, and began:—
“Oh, sorra one of me knows anythin’ except what I’ve heerd from me
father. But I oft heerd him say that he was tould, that it was said,
that in the Frinch invasion that didn’t come off undher Gineral
Humbert, whin the attimpt was over an’ all hope was gone, the English
sodgers made sure of great prize-money whin they should git hould of
the threasure chist. For it was known that there was much money goin’
an’ that they had brought a lot more than iver they wanted for pay
and expinses in ordher to help to bribe some of the people that was
houldin’ off to be bought by wan side or the other—if they couldn’t
manage to git bought be both. But sure enough they wor all sould, bad
cess to thim! and the divil a bit of money could they lay their hands
on at all.”
Here the old man took a pull at his jug of punch, with so transparent a
wish to be further interrogated that a smile flashed round the company.
One of the old crones remarked, in an audible _sotto voce_:—
“Musha! But Bat is the cute story-teller intirely. Ye have to dhrag it
out iv him! Go on, Bat! Go on! Tell us what become iv the money.”
“Oh, what become iv the money? So ye would like to hear! Well, I’ll
tell ye.—Just one more fill of the jug, Mrs. Kelligan, as the
gintleman wishes to know all about it.—Well! they did say that the
officer what had charge of the money got well away with some five or
six others. The chist was a heavy wan—an iron chist bang full up iv
goold! Oh, my! but it was fine! A big chist—that high, an’ as long as
the table, an’ full up to the led wid goolden money an’ paper money,
an’ divil a piece of white money in it at all! All goold, every pound
note iv it.”
He paused, and glanced anxiously at Mrs. Kelligan, who was engaged in
the new brew.
“Not too much wather if ye love me, Katty. You know me wakeness!—Well,
they do say that it tuk hard work to lift the chist into the boat;
an’ thin they put in a gun carriage to carry it on, an’ tuk out two
horses, an’ whin the shmoke was all round an’ the darkness of night was
on they got on shore, an’ made away down South from where the landin’
was made at Killala. But, anyhow, they say that none of them was ever
heerd of agin. But they was thraced through Ardnaree an’ Lough Conn,
an’ through Castlebar Lake an’ Lough Carra, an’ through Lough Mask an’
Lough Corrib. But they niver kem out through Galway, for the river was
watched for thim day an’ night be the sodgers; and how they got along
God knows! for ’twas said they suffered quare hardships. They tuk the
chist an’ the gun carriage an’ the horses in the boat, an’ whin they
couldn’t go no further they dhragged the boat over the land to the next
lake, an’ so on. Sure one dhry sayson, when the wathers iv Corrib was
down feet lower nor they was iver known afore, a boat was found up at
the Bealanabrack end that had lay there for years; but the min nor the
horses nor the treasure was never heerd of from that day to this—so
they say,” he added, in a mysterious way, and he renewed his attention
to the punch, as if his tale was ended.
“But, man alive!” said McGlown, “that’s only a part. Go on, man dear!
an’ fenesh the punch after.”
“Oh, oh! Yes, of course, you want to know the end. Well! no wan knows
the end. But they used to say that whin the min lift the boat they
wint due west, till one night they sthruck the mountain beyant; an’
that there they buried the chist an’ killed the horses, or rode away
on them. But anyhow, they wor niver seen again; an’ as sure as you’re
alive, the money is there in the hill! For luk at the name iv it! Why
did any wan iver call it ‘Knockcalltore’—an’ that’s Irish for ‘the Hill
of the Lost Gold’—if the money isn’t there?”
“Thrue for ye!” murmured an old woman with a cutty pipe. “For why,
indeed? There’s some people what won’t believe nothin’ altho’ it’s
undher their eyes!” and she puffed away in silent rebuke to the spirit
of scepticism—which, by the way, had not been manifested by any person
present.
There was a long pause, broken only by one of the old women, who
occasionally gave a sort of half-grunt, half-sigh, as though
unconsciously to fill up the hiatus in the talk. She was a ‘keener’ by
profession, and was evidently well fitted to, and well drilled in, her
work. Presently old Moynahan broke the silence:—
“Well! it’s a mighty quare thing anyhow that the hill beyant has
been singled out for laygends and sthories and gossip iv all kinds
consarnin’ shnakes an’ the like. An’ I’m not so sure, naythur, that
some iv thim isn’t there shtill—for mind ye! it’s a mighty curious
thin’ that the bog beyant keeps shiftin’ till this day. And I’m not so
sure, naythur, that the shnakes has all left the hill yit!”
There was a chorus of “Thrue for ye!”
“Aye, an’ it’s a black shnake too!” said one.
“An’ wid side-whishkers!” said another.
“Begorra! we want Saint Pathrick to luk in here agin!” said a third.
I whispered to Andy the driver:—
“Who is it they mean?”
“Whisht!” he answered, but without moving his lips; “but don’t let on I
tould ye! Sure an’ it’s Black Murdock they mane.”
“Who or what is Murdock?” I queried.
“Sure an’ he is the Gombeen Man.”
“What is that? What is a gombeen man?”
“Whisper me now!” said Andy; “ax some iv the others. They’ll larn it ye
more betther nor I can.”
“What is a gombeen man?” I asked to the company generally.
“A gombeen man is it? Well! I’ll tell ye,” said an old, shrewd-looking
man at the other side of the hearth. “He’s a man that linds you a few
shillin’s or a few pounds whin ye want it bad, and then niver laves ye
till he has tuk all ye’ve got—yer land an’ yer shanty an’ yer holdin’
an’ yer money an’ yer craps; an’ he would take the blood out of yer
body if he could sell it or use it anyhow!”
“Oh, I see, a sort of usurer.”
“Ushurer? aye that’s it; but a ushurer lives in the city an’ has laws
to hould him in. But the gombeen has nayther law nor the fear iv law.
He’s like wan that the Scriptures says ‘grinds the faces iv the poor.’
Begor! it’s him that’d do little for God’s sake if the divil was dead!”
“Then I suppose this man Murdock is a man of means—a rich man in his
way?”
“Rich is it? Sure an’ it’s him as has plinty. He could lave this place
if he chose an’ settle in Galway—aye or in Dublin itself if he liked
betther, and lind money to big min—landlords an’ the like—instead iv
playin’ wid poor min here an’ swallyin’ them up, wan be wan.—But he
can’t go! He can’t go!” This he said with a vengeful light in his eyes;
I turned to Andy for explanation.
“Can’t go! How does he mean? What does he mean?”
“Whisht! Don’t ax me. Ax Dan, there. He doesn’t owe him any money!”
“Which is Dan?”
“The ould man there be the settle what has just spoke, Dan Moriarty.
He’s a warrum man, wid money in bank an’ what owns his houldin’; an’
he’s not afeerd to have his say about Murdock.”
“Can any of you tell me why Murdock can’t leave the Hill?” I spoke out.
“Begor’ I can,” said Dan, quickly. “He can’t lave it because the Hill
houlds him!”
“What on earth do you mean? How can the Hill hold him?”
“It can hould tight enough! There may be raysons that a man
gives—sometimes wan thing, an’ sometimes another; but the Hill
houlds—an’ houlds tight all the same!”
Here the door was opened suddenly, and the fire blazed up with the rush
of wind that entered. All stood up suddenly, for the new comer was a
priest. He was a sturdy man of middle age, with a cheerful countenance.
Sturdy as he was, however, it took him all his strength to shut the
door, but he succeeded before any of the men could get near enough to
help him. Then he turned and saluted all the company:—
“God save all here.”
All present tried to do him some service. One took his wet great coat,
another his dripping hat, and a third pressed him into the warmest seat
in the chimney corner, where, in a very few seconds, Mrs. Kelligan
handed him a steaming glass of punch, saying, “Dhrink that up, yer
Riv’rence. ’Twill help to kape ye from catchin’ cowld.”
“Thank ye, kindly,” he answered, as he took it. When he had half
emptied the glass, he said:—
“What was it I heard as I came in about the Hill holding some one?” Dan
answered:—
“‘Twas me, yer Riverence, I said that the Hill had hould of Black
Murdock, and could hould him tight.”
“Pooh! pooh! man; don’t talk such nonsense. The fact is, sir,” said
he, turning to me after throwing a searching glance round the company,
“the people here have all sorts of stories about that unlucky Hill—why,
God knows; and this man Murdock, that they call Black Murdock, is a
money-lender as well as a farmer, and none of them like him, for he is
a hard man and has done some cruel things among them. When they say
the Hill holds him, they mean that he doesn’t like to leave it because
he hopes to find a treasure that is said to be buried in it. I’m not
sure but that the blame is to be thrown on the different names given
to the Hill. That most commonly given is Knockcalltecrore, which is
a corruption of the Irish phrase Knock-na-callte-crōin-ōir, meaning,
‘The Hill of the Lost Golden Crown;’ but it has been sometimes called
Knockcalltore—short for the Irish words Knock-na-callte-ōir, or ‘The
Hill of the Lost Gold.’ It is said that in some old past time it was
called Knocknanaher, or ‘The Hill of the Snake;’ and, indeed, there’s
one place on it they call Shleenanaher, meaning the ‘Snake’s Pass.’ I
dare say, now, that they have been giving you the legends and stories
and all the rubbish of that kind. I suppose you know, sir, that in most
places the local fancy has run riot at some period and has left a good
crop of absurdities and impossibilities behind it?”
I acquiesced warmly, for I felt touched by the good priest’s desire to
explain matters, and to hold his own people blameless for crude ideas
which he did not share. He went on:—
“It is a queer thing that men must be always putting abstract ideas
into concrete shape. No doubt there have been some strange matters
regarding this mountain that they’ve been talking about—the Shifting
Bog, for instance; and as the people could not account for it in
any way that they can understand, they knocked up a legend about
it. Indeed, to be just to them, the legend is a very old one, and
is mentioned in a manuscript of the twelfth century. But somehow it
was lost sight of till about a hundred years ago, when the loss of
the treasure-chest from the French invasion at Killala set all the
imaginations of the people at work, from Donegal to Cork, and they
fixed the Hill of the Lost Gold as the spot where the money was to
be found. There is not a word of fact in the story from beginning to
end, and”—here he gave a somewhat stern glance round the room—“I’m a
little ashamed to hear so much chat and nonsense given to a strange
gentleman like as if it was so much gospel. However, you mustn’t be too
hard in your thoughts on the poor people here, sir, for they’re good
people—none better in all Ireland—in all the world for that—but they
talk too free to do themselves justice.”
All those present were silent for awhile. Old Moynahan was the first to
speak.
“Well, Father Pether, I don’t say nothin’ about Saint Pathrick an’ the
shnakes, meself, because I don’t know nothin’ about them; but I know
that me own father tould me that he seen the Frinchmin wid his own eyes
crossin’ the sthrame below, an’ facin’ up the mountain. The moon was
risin’ in the west, an’ the hill threw a big shadda. There was two min
an’ two horses, an’ they had a big box on a gun carriage. Me father
seen them cross the sthrame. The load was so heavy that the wheels sunk
in the clay, an’ the min had to pull at them to git them up again. An’
didn’t he see the marks iv the wheels in the ground the very nixt day?”
“Bartholomew Moynahan, are you telling the truth?” interrupted the
priest, speaking sternly.
“Throth an I am, Father Pether; divil a word iv a lie in all I’ve said.”
“Then how is it you’ve never told a word of this before?”
“But I have tould it, Father Pether. There’s more nor wan here now what
has heered me tell it; but they wor tould as a saycret!”
“Thrue for ye!” came the chorus of almost every person in the room.
The unanimity was somewhat comic and caused amongst them a shamefaced
silence, which lasted quite several seconds. The pause was not wasted,
for by this time Mrs. Kelligan had brewed another jug of punch, and
glasses were replenished. This interested the little crowd and they
entered afresh into the subject. As for myself, however, I felt
strangely uncomfortable. I could not quite account for it in any
reasonable way.
I suppose there must be an instinct in men as well as in the lower
orders of animal creation—I felt as though there were a strange
presence near me.
I quietly looked round. Close to where I sat, on the sheltered side of
the house, was a little window built in the deep recess of the wall,
and, further, almost obliterated by the shadow of the priest as he sat
close to the fire. Pressed against the empty lattice, where the glass
had once been, I saw the face of a man—a dark, forbidding face it
seemed in the slight glimpse I caught of it. The profile was towards
me, for he was evidently listening intently, and he did not see me. Old
Moynahan went on with his story:—
“Me father hid behind a whin bush, an’ lay as close as a hare in
his forrum. The min seemed suspicious of bein’ seen and they looked
carefully all round for the sign of anywan. Thin they started up the
side of the hill; an’ a cloud came over the moon so that for a bit
me father could see nothin’. But prisintly he seen the two min up on
the side of the hill at the south, near Joyce’s mearin’. Thin they
disappeared agin, an’ prisintly he seen the horses an’ the gun carriage
an’ all up in the same place, an’ the moonlight sthruck thim as they
wint out iv the shadda; and men an’ horses an’ gun carriage an’ chist
an’ all wint round to the back iv the hill at the west an’ disappeared.
Me father waited a minute or two to make sure, an’ thin he run round as
hard as he could an’ hid behind the projectin’ rock at the enthrance
iv the Shleenanaher, an’ there foreninst him! right up the hill side
he seen two min carryin’ the chist, an’ it nigh weighed thim down.
But the horses an’ the gun carriage was nowhere to be seen. Well! me
father was stealin’ out to folly thim, when he loosened a sthone an’ it
clattered down through the rocks at the Shnake’s Pass wid a noise like
a dhrum, an’ the two min sot down the chist an’ they turned; an’ whin
they seen me father one of them runs at him, and he turned an’ run. An’
thin another black cloud crossed the moon; but me father knew ivery
foot of the mountain side, and he run on through the dark. He heerd
the footsteps behind him for a bit, but they seemed to get fainter an’
fainter; but he niver stopped runnin’ till he got to his own cabin.—An’
that was the last he iver see iv the men or the horses or the chist.
Maybe they wint into the air or the say, or the mountain; but anyhow
they vanished, and from that day to this no sight or sound or word iv
them was ever known!”
There was a universal, ‘Oh!’ of relief as he concluded, whilst he
drained his glass.
I looked round again at the little window—but the dark face was gone.
Then there arose a perfect babble of sounds. All commented on the
story, some in Irish, some in English, and some in a speech, English
indeed, but so purely and locally idiomatic that I could only guess at
what was intended to be conveyed. The comment generally took the form
that two men were to be envied, one of them, the gombeen man, Murdock,
who owned a portion of the western side of the hill, the other one,
Joyce, who owned another section of the same aspect.
In the midst of the buzz of conversation the clattering of hoofs was
heard. There was a shout, and the door opened again and admitted a
stalwart stranger of some fifty years of age, with a strong, determined
face, with kindly eyes, well dressed but wringing wet, and haggard, and
seemingly disturbed in mind. One arm hung useless by his side.
“Here’s one of them!” said Father Peter.