The Billings gazette. [volume] (Billings, Mont.) 1896-1919, 1904-02-26
THE WHITE CROSS

was the LATEST man in Connemara.
Others called him a surly dog, but I
always liked him. He had met with
Ill luck and had lost his heart.
A bank holding his little money had
failed, his crops had failed, too; his
last pig had died-everything had gone
badly with him.
To make matters worse he was to be
turned out Of his farm, had quarreled
with his landlord, my friend, Shane
Desmond, who In those days was al
ways at wal with his tenants.
Here, l thought, were the markings Of
a tragedy-a lawless district, an un-
ruly peasantry and a hated landlord.
In November, when the days grew
short and the nights dark. there was a
rumor in the shebeen near Leenane
that some of ''the boys were coming
from Desmond's estate in Claire. A
fishing boat would bring them to the
Killeries and take them back without
any n being the wiser, and their trip
might mend matters. :.
One boisterous evening Murnane was
standing at his window watching his
wife trudging heavily up the mountain
road. He had spent hours that day al
the shebeen. AS he watched his wife
he thought in a muddling way how
pretty she vas when she was young,
though now she was a plain little wo-
man.
He thought of the time when be
first caught her in his arms down yon-
DEF where the Owen-Erriff runs by the
Devils Mother mountain. II love We,
Molly Joyce. Tell me, now, are We
listenin' to me, dheelish?
l love We"
] Though he knew that she was a kind
little woman and that she loved him
like a dog, he had grown hard and cold
with her. Only that evening he had
told her roughly to stop making a hare
Of herself, moping and poking about
doing nothing, and to get out Of that
and spend the night at her fathers,
and she. knowing the little use of
speaking to him, had gone silently.
Then he walked up and down his
cabin. 1t looked wretched. The turf
fire on the hearth had smoldered. The
whitewashed walls were blaekened by
smoke. They had little on them but a
big crucifix. There was little furniture
left. He remembered it bright and
homelike. Now it would be unroofed.
He would be penniless unless Des-
mond was shot that night.
Fol the boat had come from Lescan-
nor, and when Desmond drove back
from Carrala 'the boys were to wait
for him on the lower road. If he came
by the upper road, Murnane would see
him and was to put a light in his win
dow. Then they would change their
ambush.
Murnane's thoughts were not clear.
He kept thinking over and over again,
Sure twas 40 harm lighting a candle;
twas no business of his whatever the
boys below might do. The black cruci-
fix on the wall opposite was shown
plainly by the moonlight. The face of
its figure was bent forward as if
watching him. He could not bear it.
Placing a bench under. he reached to
the nail at the top and wrenched it out.
The moon was covered. The cross
leaned forward in the darkness. He
turned his head away to shun the bent
face and. cropping, tugged out the nail
at the foot. The cross seemed as heavy
as lead. He dared not look. Placing it
In b rne face downward, he COW
cred it with a cloth.
Then he stood again at the window.
The moon shone out, and the wind
lurcAed drunkenly against the door.
There was a stain of rust on his
right hand, and he thought it was
blood; rubbed it, but it was dry; felt
as if a curse had fallen on him. Then
came a pause between the gusts, and
he heard the ring of hoofs. At once
he turned back to light the candle,
took it with a shaky hand, then on the
wall where the cross had been saw a
dazzling white cross.
He staggered, with his eyes fixed on
It. 1t was a miracle, a last warning. |
He dashed the candle on the ground
and crunched it under foot into the
earthen floor. The moon was drowned
by the clouds and left the cabin pitch
dark. The wind crashed against the
door again. He unattached the door.
1t was dashed open. He could not
breathe: tried to pull it to after him.
but could not. Some unseen hand
seemed dragging it. The wind swirled
through the cabineand flung the cloth
from the PROSTATE crucifix.
The next morning was calm, with a
stainless sky. Molly came trudging
down the mountain road from her ia
theirs farm. All that night she had
been crying and praying. AS she
reached the door of the cabin she saw
her man sitting by the hearth with his
head bent forward on his hands. The
cruciix was gone.
1t had been fixed there when the
walls had been shining with fresh