Page 46 - The snake's pass

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34 THE snake's pass. ;
an' there foreninst him ! right up the hill side he seen
two min carryin' the chist, an' it nigh weighed thim
down. But the horses an' the gun carriage was no-
where to be seen. Well ! me father was stealin' out
to folly thim, when he loosened a sthone an' it clattered
down through the rocks at the Shnake's Pass wid a
noise like a dhrum, an' the two min sot down the chist
an' they turned ; an' whin they seen me father one of
them runs at him, and he turned an' run. An' thin
another black cloud "crossed the moon ; but me father
knew ivery foot of the mountain side, and he run on
through the dark. He heerd the footsteps behind him
for a bit, but they seemed to get fainter an' fainter
but he niver stopped runnin' till he got to his own
cabin.—An' that was the last he iver see iv the men or
the horses or the chist. Maybe they wint into the air
or the say, or the mountain ; but anyhow they vanished,
and from that day to this no sight or sound or word
iv them was ever known !
There was a universal, ' Oh ! ' of relief as he concluded,
whilst he drained his glass.
I looked round again at the little window—but the
dark face was gone.
Then there arose a perfect bable of sounds. All
commented on the story, some in Irish, some in
English, and some in a speech, English indeed, but so
purely and locally idiomatic that I could only guess at
what was intended to be conveyed. The comment
generally took the form that two men were to be