The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1897-07-20
THE BETTER MAN
Mike sh chan tossed awake in the moon.

well i'm request at the country gatherings
but of late, said the folk, the man had
turned queer. In that melancholy, stately
country by the sea madness-espccinll of
the quiet, mclancholic kinds thing
very common A year ago a wrestling
match between him and Jack Tierney had
gathered two counties to see it. No man
could say which was the champion. Now
one was the victor, again the other. They
kept steady pace in their victories. Jack
too, was the captain of the Kilsallagh team
of hurlcrs Mike of the Clonegalla That
would he great day for the men and
women of his following when either cham
pion should decisiycly lead
The country people scarcely guessed at
the time their champions became enemies.
Indeed 1t was a secret locked In their own
breasts, scarcely acknowledged even when
in his most hidden moments each man
locked ut the desires of his heart. 1t only
showed itself in new tiercencss and de-
termination in their encounters. Each
had sworn 60 himself to conquer the other.
The soreness between them came about
when, by some sad mischance. they fell
in love with the same girl. Worse luck,
she wanted neither of them, for she was
vowed to the convent. In the long run
one or the other might have tempted her
to an earthly bridal, but she made no
choice between them, and each mans
chance seemed equal when she slipped
from them both into Kilbride churchyard.
When she lny there, neither man could say
she had distinguished him by special kind
ness from the other, and their rivalry
waxCd more furious with the woman in
her grave.
But six months later, and their battles
still undecided, Jack Tierney fell sick and
followed Ellen to Kilbride. Then Mike
| SheehaD was without an equal for many
miles. But little comfort 1t was to him,
with the girl of his heart dead and the one
man he had desired to overthrow dead
and unconquored. He secluded himself
| from the sports and pastimes and lived
! lonely in his cabin among the gul!s, eat.
! ing out his unsatisfed heart None other
would satisfy him to wrestle with but his
dead rival, and indeed he, in common
with the country people, thought that no
other might be found fit for him to meet.
Kilbrile churchyard is high on the
mainland and lies dark within it's four
stone walls. The road to it is by a tunnel
of trees that make shade velvety black
even when the moon is turning all the sea
silver. The churchyard is very old and
has no monuments of Importance, only
green headstones bent sideways and sunk
to their neck and shoulders in the earth.
A postern gate, with n flight of stone
| steps, opens from Kilbride lane. Here
every night you may see the ghost of To
bin, the murderer, climbing those steps
with rigid burden hanging from his
shoulder
But as Mike Sheehan assembled the steps
out of the midnight dark he felt no fear.
He changed the gate Of the sacred quiet
place in way that set the silence echoing.
Some mad passion was on Mike Sheehan
| surely, or he would not so have desecrated
the quiet resting place of the dead There
by the ruined gable of the old abbey, was
n fresh mound unusually great in size
Mike S;hechan paused by it.
Jack, " ne cried in a thunderous voice
h0arsc with its passion, "cOmc, let us once
for all see which is the better man! Come
and fight me, Jack, and if you throw INT
let Ellen be yours now and forever.
The blood was in his eyes and the sea
mist curling in from sea. His challenge
spoken, he swayed dizzily moment. Their
his eyes saw. The place seemed full of the
sea mist silvered through with the moon
As he looked TO right and left substantial
things had vanished, but he saw Oh either
him.
Many of them he knew. They were the
boys and girls, the men and women Of hi.
| own village who had died in many years
Others were strange, but he guessed then
ghosts from Kilsallagh, beyond Roscar
berry, the village where Jack used to live
| he looked eagerly among the folk he re
| membered for Ellen's face. There was one
| who might be she, the ghost of woman
Veiled in her shadowy hair, whose eyes he
| could not see. And then Jack was upor
him.
That was a great wrestling in Kilbridc
churchyard. The dead man wound about
the living with his clay cold limbs. caught
him in icy grips that froze the terrified
blood from his heart and breathed upon
him soundlcssly chill breath of the grave
that seemed to wither him, yet Mike
fought furiously as one who fights not
only to satisfy hate, but as one who
| fights to win bride. He had a dim
knowledge of the fight he was making, q
dim premonition that the dead man was
more than his match. The ghostly spec
tators pressed forward more eagerly. Their
shad0wy faces peered. Their shadowy
forms swayed iH the mist.
The ghost had Mike Sheehan in death
|
breath failed, his flesh crept, and his hair
| stood up. He felt himself dying of the
horror of this unnatural combat, when
there was a whisper at his ear. Dimly he
seemed to hear Ellen's voice Dimly turn
ing his failing eyes, he seemed to recog-
nize her eyes under the veil of ashen fair
hair. "Draw him to the left on the
grass, " said the voice, "and trip him. 4"
His old love and his old jealousy seemed
to surge up in Mike Sheehan. With tire
mendous effort he threw off those paralyz-
ing arms. Forgetting his horror he furi-
ously embraced the dead, drew him TO the
left on the grass, slippery as glass after
the summer heats, for second or two
swayed with him to and fro; then the two
went down together with a great violence,
but Mike Sheehan was uppermost, his
knee on the dead mans breast.
When he came to himself in the moon
light, all was calm and peaceful. 1t was
close upon dawn, and the moon was very