The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1895-06-01

is !, Owen, son Of Aodh. who tell you
these things. And now you know what
you have to dol"
Murtogh turned slowly to the lady. She
lay, without motion, IN her chair, her head
limp upon her shoulder, and the whlteness
of sea foam on her cheek. Thoughts
came again into his brain.
II have the wisest mind Of all in my
family" he said. II know what 1t is /
will be doing"
He drew the short sword from his girdls.
and put his nail along Its edge.
"Donogh baoth" he said to his son. "go
below and seek out Conogher tauthal and
Shane buidhe and bid them seize the
latham priest between them and bring him
to me here where I am. And you will
take some sleep for yourself then, for it Is
a late hour"
The lad looked at the pale lady with the
closed eyes, and at the sword In his IA
ther's hands. He set his teeth together.
and lifted his head.
Il am Of years enough to see 1t ALL" he
said Il have no sleep on my eyes"
Murtogh bent over the corpse at his feet.
and caressed the boys head with his hand.
Il will not call you baoth (simple) any
MORE" he said. fondly you are my true
son, and here Is my ring for your finger,
ana you may return with them when they
fetch me my liathan cousin"
Next morning young Donogh gave his
Word to the men Of Dunlogher, and they
obeyed him. for In the one night he had
thrown aside his sluggish boyhood, and
they saw his fathers ring on his finger,
ana heard good authority in his voice.
ihey came out from the western gate at
MS command, three score and more, and
STOOD from the brink Of the cliff inward.
WIN their in 4batr h.p III.
maze path between them. But the
women and children Donogh bade remain
"ithin the bawn. and he shut the inner
gaze upon them. 1t was as IL the smell OF
Diood came to them there, for the old
women put up lamentation of death and
the others cried aloud. till the noise spread
10 the men on the cliff. These looked one
70 another and held their silence.
Ihey did not clash their spears together.
wheh' after a long waiting, Murtogh
came from the gate and walked toward
them. A fine rain was in the air and the
skies and sea were gray. and the troubI.d
man would have no spirit for such greet
ing.
He bore upon his broad back a great
shapeless bundle thrice his own bulk. The
weight or 1t bent his body and swayed his
footsteps as he came. The cover of It was
OF skins of wild beasts, sewn rudeIy with
thongs, and through the gaps In this cover
some OF the men saw stained foreign
clothes and the plume of hat, and some
a shoe with a priests buckle, and some
the marble hand of fair woman. But no
word was spoken, and Murtogh, coming
to the edge, heaved his huge shoulders up
ward. and the bundle leaped out of sight.
Then Murtogh turned and looked all his
lighting men in their faces, and smiled in
gentleness upon them, and they saw that
In that same night, while the little peo-
ple' had changed Donogh into a man,
they had made Murtogh child again.
She came up from the water" he said
TO them, in a voice no man knew. 1t was
l who brought her out of the water and
fought for her with the demons under the
rocks, and beat all of them off. But one
of them / did not make the sign of the
cross before, and that one is the king Of
Spain; and so he has wrought me this
mischief, and made my labor as nothing;
and she is in the water again, and must
be going TO fetch her out rightly this time"
Murtogh sprang like a deer into the air,
with mighty bound which bore him far
over the edge of the cliff. Some there was
In the throng that sprang forward agile
enough to be looking down the abyss be-
fore his descent was finished. These to
their amazement, beheld miracle For
the great fall did not kill Murtogh Mordha,
but the waters boiled and rose to meet
him, and held him up on their tossing cur
rents as he swan forward, and marked
with pallid breadth of foam his path out
to sea, farther and farther out, till the
mists hid him from human view.
The wailing song of Owny Hea rose
through the wet air above the keening Of
the women in the bawn. But louder still
was the voice Of the lad who wore his
fathers ring, and drew now from beneath
his mantle his fathers sword.
Il am Donogh. son of Murtogh Mordha,"
he shouted, "and l am lord in Dunlogher.
and when l am of my full strength / will
kill the king Of Spain, and give his castles
and all his lands and herds and women to
You for your own!'
The three towers Of Dunlogher are
broken, and the witch has fed from its
gray lake, and no man knows where the
bones of its forgotten sept are buried.
But the evil currents will never tire Of
writhing, and the shadows which are no
shadows are for ever changing, in the
Path of Murty the Proud.