Page 334 - The snake's pass

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322 THE snake's pass.
up even at this hour. There must be some villainy
"
afloat !
When we got up a little farther he called to me again
in the same way.
" The nearest point of the bog is here ; let us look at
it." We diverged to the left, and in a few minutes were
down at the edge of the bog.
It seemed to us to be different from what it had been.
It was raised considerably above its normal height, and
seemed quivering all over in a very strange way. Dick
said to me very gravely:
" We are just in time. There's something going to
happen here."
" Let us hurry to Joyce's," I said, " and see if all is safe
there."
"We should warn them first at Murdoch's," he said.
" There may not be a moment to lose." We hurried
back to the boreen and ran on to Murdock's, opened the
gate, and ran up the path. We knocked at the door,
but there was no answer. We knocked more loudly still,
but there came no reply.
" We had better make certain," said Dick, and I could
hear him more easily now, for we were in the shelter of
the porch. We opened the door, which was only on the
latch, and went in. In the kitchen a candle was burn-
ing, and the fire on the hearth was blazing, so that it
could not have been long since the inmates had left.
Dick wrote a line of warning in his pocket-book, tore
out the leaf, and placed it on the table where it could