Page 307 - The snake's pass

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A MIDNIGHT TREASURE HUNT. 295 ! a
could see everywhere the signs of the continuous rains.
The fields were sloppy and sodden, and the bottoms
were flooded; the bogs were teeming with water; the
roads were washed clean—not only the mud but even the
sand having been swept away, and the road metal was
everywhere exposed. Often, as we went along, Dick took
occasion to illustrate his views as to the danger of the
shifting of the bog at Knockalltecrore by the evidence
around us of the destructive power of the continuous
rain.
When we came to the mountain gap where we got our
first and only view of Knockalltecrore from the G-alway
road, Andy reined in the mare, and turned to me, pointing
with his whip:
"There beyant, yer 'an'r, is Knockalltecrore—the hill
where the threasure is. They do say that a young
English gintleman has bought up the hill, an' manes
to git the threasure for himself. Begor ! perhaps he has
found it already. Here ! Gee up ! ye ould corncrake
What the divil are ye kapin' the quality waitin' for?"
and we sped down the road.
The sight of the hill filled me with glad emotion, and
I do not think that it is to be wondered at. And yet
my gladness was followed by an unutterable gloom—
gloom that fell over me the instant after my eyes took in
the well-known hill struck by the falling sunset from the
west. It seemed to me that all had been so happy and
so bright and so easy for me, that there must be in store
some terrible shock or loss to make the balance even, and,