The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1901-10-23

neaVy nldllet' Ilc IoohSu dC tIo SAt
Their eyes met. The face of the CIR
went as gray as the face Of deat
woman.
"God speed YEP" said the smith
from the doorway of the shed. Th'
long sharp stick in the girls hant
slashed down upon the back of The
horse. He bounded forward with
leap that nearly upset the cart. Aw ay
they went down the road, and out o
sight around the corner. The March
wind itself might scarcely overtake
them.
Faith, the pooka isn't in it with
that colt ~ said the smith to his son
The father put his pipe in his mouth
and walked into the thatched house
beside the forge. His wife was in the
kitchen spinning flax.
"At long last our Owney has set bis
eyes upon a girl to his fancy" said
the smith with q laugh.
His wife stopped spinning. She let
her hands fall down by her sides.
"Throth, an I didn't believe there
was mother in the world with col
leen that would please him." said she.
About an hour after that two of the
Kings officers came riding down the
road from themountains. They drew
rein at the forge. They called out the
smith.
did ye happen to see a cart 60 by
this way they demanded.
Owney Joyce walked out of the dark
of the shed. He stood by his fathers
side and listened.
THAT did," said the smith. "And
shod mettlesome colt under that
same cart"
The wind, blowing from far away,
brought with it faint sounds.
"Whistht ~ cried Owney, putting up
his hand. "Wnal's that ?"
The officers and the smith turned
their head in the direction OF the
wind.
The sounds came nearer. :,
"Stand your cattle back out OF
harms way, sirs," said Owney Joyce.
It's a runaway horse with a tangle of
harness about him."'
He ran down the road and past the
corner. The white line of the bog
track was out before him. Coming
along it was the colt the father had
shod. The shafts of the cart were
humping over the ground upon each
side of beast. With every bump the
colt shivered in the alright. Owney
.Joyce stood close by lone thorn on
the roadside. He waited until the
colt was trotting by, stepped out and
seized the bride. He tied the colt to
the skeough and undid the chains that
helm the shafts. AS he did this he
noticed one or two circular dints upon
the wood, Just where it had snapped.
"Thanks be to Godw said Owney
Joyce out loud. He took clasp Knife
from bis pocket. He raised a few
splinters over the dints aud blotted
them out. He united the colt and led
him to the officers.
"Its in a bog-hole ye may go look
for your man, Pm thinking" he said.
"What may We have wanted with
him, good sirs ?" asked the smith.
HE killed a neighbor in quarrel
at the fair of Caltra," answered the
officer. He got away 10 his sister,
and she hid him for days. She got
away with him this morning."
"The man let out they were bound
for Dublin" said Owney. "But she
denied it. They got a shoe on the
colt here. Father wanted them to
see to their shafts, but she said they
hadn't time. She said they were
goin' to their grandfather's funeral.
The shafts are lying below on the
road"
"She'd lose her soul with a lie to
save her brother" said one of the Of
ficers.
WTisn't often ye'd meet with sis
ter like that" said Owney Joyce. He
made no mention of the heavy mallet.
He said nothing about dints he had
seen upon the broken shafts. He
walked by the officers so the place
where they lay. The officers examin-
ed them. They said it was clear they
had snapped away from the cart.
Owney walked after the officers as
they went slowly over the bog, keep
ing sharp eyes to the right and left.
They came to hollow fringed with
rush and reed. Slime and black mud
was within this border.
"See !" said one of the officers to the
other. "here is where the brute backed
in! Look how the place is trampled {.
Take care. and don't 60 too close, man,
unless ye want the mud to swallow ye
upW
They rode back past the smithy.
Owney Joyce followed him.
aye were very glib glvin' informa'
tion," said the father to him, when
the men were gone. He did not like
this spirit in his son.
The young woman meant all that
to be told," said Owney. "If she
didn't she'd have held her tongue"
"She'll not talk much where she is
now" said the father.
The next morning Owney went to
his father. "Give me what's comm
to me, he said. "I'm tired of the life
here. I'll buy an ass and cart pack
ed with delf ware an 60 thravel."
The father was willing to give him
his portion and let him 60 out into
the world and forget the girl who was
swamped in the morass. OWney got
the blessing of his parents and went
forth to see the world.
He struck across the bog, and over
every road that branched from the
track he led his little gray ass. Anc
every cabin he first came to on eacf
| ooparata road he asked the folks /