Page 162 - The snake's pass

150 — — THE SNAKE'S PASS.
At dinner-time I went up and sat all the time. I
was bitterly disappointed, and also began to be seriously
alarmed. I seemed to have lost my unknown.
When the men got back to their work, and I saw Andy
beginning to climb the hill in an artless, purposeless
manner, I thought I would kill two birds with one stone,
and, whilst avoiding my incubus, make some inquiries.
As I could easily see from the top of the hill, there were
only a few houses all told in the little hamlet ; and
including those most isolated, there were not twenty in
all. Of these I had been in the sheebeen and in old
Sullivan's, so that a stroll of an hour or two, properly
organized, would cover the whole ground; and so I set
out on my task to try and get some sight or report of my
unknown. I knew I could always get an opportunity of
opening conversation by asking for a light for my cigar.
It was a profitless task. Two hours after I had started
I returned to the top of the hill as ignorant as I had
gone, and the richer only by some dozen or more drinks
of milk, for I found that the acceptance of some form of
hospitality was an easy opening to general conversation.
The top was still empty, but I had not been there a
quarter of an hour when I was joined by Andy. His
first remark was evidently calculated to set me at
ease :
"Begor, yer 'an'r comes to the top iv this hill nigh
as often as I do meself."
I felt that my answer was inconsequential as well
as ill-tempered: