Page 141 - The snake's pass

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heard a step coming up the path at the far side. My
heart beat strangely. I sat silent, and did not pretend
to hear. She was walking more slowly than usual, and
with a firmer tread. She was coming. I heard the steps
on the plateau, and a voice came :
"Och! an' isn't it a purty view, yer 'an'r?" I leaped
to my feet with a feeling that was positively murderous.
The revulsion was too great, and I broke into a burst
of semi-hysterical laughter. There stood Andy—with
ragged red head and sun- scorched face—in his garb of
eternal patches, bleached and discoloured by sun and
rain into a veritable coat of many colours — gazing at
the view with a rapt expression, and yet with one eye
half- closed in a fixed but unmistakable wink, as though
taking the whole majesty of nature into his confidence.
When he heard my burst of laughter he turned to
me quizzically:
" Musha
! but it's the merry gentleman yer 'an'r is this
day. Shure the view here is the laughablest thing I ever
!
see " and he affected to laugh, but in such a soulless,
unspontaneous way that it became a real burlesque. I
waited for him to go on. I was naturally very vexed,
but I was afraid to say anything lest I might cause him
to interfere in this affair—the last thing on earth that I
wished for.
He did go on ; no one ever found Andy abashed or
ill at ease :
" Begor ! but yer 'an'r lepped like a deer when ye heerd
me shpake. Did ye think I was goin' to shoot ye?
E