Page 327 - The snake's pass

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A GRIM WARNING?. 315
You may set your mind
" Quite certain, old fellow.
at rest on that score. In so far as the bog is concerned,
she and her father are in no danger. The only way
they could run any risk of danger would be by their
going to Murdock's house, or by being by chance lower
down on the hill, and I do not think that such a
thing is likely to happen."
This set my mind more at ease, and while Dick sat
down to write some letters I continued to look at the
rain.
By-and-by I went down to the tap-room, where there
were always a lot of peasants, whose quaint speech
amused and interested me. When I came in one of
them, whom I recognized as one of our navvies at Knock-
nacar, was telling something, for the others all stood
round him. Andy was the first to see me, and said as
I entered:
"Ye'll have to go over it all agin, Mike. Here's his
'an'r, that is just death on to bogs—an' the like," he
added, looking at me slyly.
"What is it?" I asked.
"Oh, not much, yer 'an'r, except that the bog up at
Knocknacar has run away intirely. Whin the wather
rose in it, the big cuttin' we med tuk it all out, like
butthermilk out iv a jug. Begor ! there never was seen
such a flittin' since the wurrld begun. An' more betoken,
the quare part iv it is that it hasn't left the bit iv a
hole behind it at all, but it's all mud an' wather at the
prisint minit."