Page 234 - The snake's pass

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222 — — THE shake's pass.
Dick stood up with a look of disgust on his handsome
face :
" Come away, Art ; it's too terrible to see a man
degraded to this pitch. Leave the wretch alone with
!
his god " Murdock turned to us, and said with savage
glee :
" No ! shtay ! Sthay an' see me threasure ! It'll make
ye happy to think of afther ! An' ye can tell Phelim
Joyce what I found in me own land—the land what I
tuk from him." We stayed.
Murdock took his spade and began to remove the
filth and rubbish from the mass. And in a very few
moments his discovery proclaimed itself.
There lay before us a rusty iron gun-carriage ! This
was what we had dragged with so much effort from the
bottom of the bog; and beside it Murdock sat down
with a scowl of black disappointment.
" Come away ! " said Dick. " Poor devil, I pity him
!
It. is hard to find even a god of that kind worthless!"
And so we turned and left Murdock sitting beside the
gun-carriage and the slime, with a look of baffled greed
which I hope never to see on any face again.
We went to a brook at the foot of the hill, Andy
being by this time in the sheebeen about half a mile
off. There we cleansed ourselves as well as we could
from the hideous slime and filth of the bog, and then
walked to the top of the hill to let the breeze freshen
us up a bit if possible. After we had been there for
a while, Dick said: