Page 302 - The snake's pass

290 THE snake's pass. —
eyes for the first time on the man he had tried to murder.
I left him with a number of others in the shebeen, and
went back to bring Moynahan, but found, when I got to
Joyce's that he had already gone back to Murdock's
house. Joyce had told him, as we had arranged, that
when Murdock had come asking for him he had been
alarmed, and had gone out to look for him ; had found
him asleep on the hill- side, and had brought him home
with him. As I found that my scheme of facing Murdock
with his victim was frustrated, I took advantage of
Murdock's absence to remove the stones which he had
placed to mark the spot where the treasure was last seen.
I found them in the form of a cross, and moving them,
replaced them at a spot some distance lower down the
line of the bog. I marked the place, however, with a
mark of my own—four stones put widely apart at the
points of a letter Y—the centre marking the spot where
the cross had been. Murdock returned to his house
not long after, and within a short time ran down
to tell that Moynahan had found his way home, and
was all safe. They told me that he was then white
and scared-looking." Here Dick paused :
" Now, my difficulty is this. I know he tried to
murder the man, but I am not in a position to prove
it. No man could expect his word to be taken in such
a matter and under such circumstances. And yet I am
morally certain that he intends to murder him still.
What should I do ? To take any preventive steps
would involve making the charge which I cannot prove.