Page 309 - The snake's pass

297

CHAPTEK XVI

A GRIM WARNING.
I cannot say the night was a happy one. There were
moments when I seemed to lose myself and my own
anxieties in thoughts of Norah and the future, and such
moments were sweet to look back on—then as they are
now ; but I slept only fitfully and dreamt frightfully.
It was natural enough that my dreams should centre
around Knockcalltecrore ; but there was no good reason
why they should all be miserable or terrible. The
Hill seemed to be ever under some uncomfortable or un-
natural condition. When my dreams began, it was
bathed in a flood of yellow moonlight, and at its summit
was the giant Snake, the jewel of whose crown threw
out an unholy glare of yellow light, and whose face and
form kept perpetually changing to those of Murtagh
Murdock.
I can now, with comparatively an easy effort, look back
on it all, and disentangle or give a reason for all the
"
phases of my thought. The snake " wid side whiskers
was distinctly suggested the first night I heard the legend
at Mrs. Kelligan's ; the light from the jewel was a part