The Bowbells tribune., 1905-01-27
CHAPTER I.
The Man and Woman on the Cliff.

thirty miles.
They are three in number-lnish-
more, Inishmain and Inisheer.
The chief of these is the first, more
generally known as Arannore, and so
styled in this story, the date OF which
is in the Seventeenth century-April
5, 1865.
| Aranmore abountis in ruins Of edi-
| fees and fortresses of SO ancient an
| origin that little is known of their
| founders
Upon the broad. fiat crest of one Of
the lofty cliffs on the south and east
| ward coast of Aranmorc, near the hour
| OF noon, April 3, 1868, and seated upon
a wooden bench, were Il man and 4
| woman.
Before and below them was stretch
ed the limitless cxpanse of the Allan
tic ocean. whose s'lrgcs, heavy from
the wrath of a recent storm, doomed
| sullenly along the followed base of
verge.
Behind, and about hundred PAGES
distant from the man and woman, rose,
brokenly, the massive ruins of the an
cient fortress Dun Aengus, which ira
dition says was founded during the
first century. or eighteen hundred
years ago, by three brothers from
Scotland-Aengus, Canchooar ana
Neil.
But from where the man and woman
were seated, and though it was near
the hour of noon, neither the great
ocean below them nor the walls of the
crumbling fortress behind them, could
be seen; for a dense fog enshrouded
their persons in a murky mist.
This pair, man and wife, both were
asleep in sitting posture; the woman
leaning forward, with her elbows upon
her knees and her face resting upon
the palms Of her hands; the man with
his feet drawn up under the bench,
and his head thrown far back at times,
and then rapidly tossed forward with
a spasmodic jerk, only to go gradually
far back again, as he slept and snored.
He was short and square of body,
long Of limb, his legs much bowed out
ward at the knee; and even while his
features were softened by slumber, the
expression of his face was fierce, sor-
did and cruel.
His arms were folded across his
bosom, so as to draw tightly about
him long and voluminous cloak Of
Scotch plaid.
The woman was evidently of large
and muscular stature, though much Of
her figure was hidden beneath her
heavy coarse shawl of a dingy red. OF
her face little could be seen, as the
folds of the shawl were drawn over her
head, and much Of her bronzed and
bony visage was concealed by her
large, sinewy and sunburnt hands.
The pair had como from their dwell
ing amid the ruins Of Dun Aengus to
the crest of the cliff at an early hour
of the day, hoping, though scarce en-
pecting, to see the approach OF the sail
of one whom they served.
When they came forth there was no
fog, though the day was chilly, damp
and cheerlcss, and the sun shone dim
ly amid the flying clouds of the pre-
ceding night.
Much drinking OF strong liquors dur
ing the past night, as they had. Ia
bored at their dwelling to prepare Tor
the coming of the expected one, had
made them very drowsy ,and therefore
they fell asleep after they had gazen
seaward in vain for several hours.
The fog had appeared and settled
down around them while they slept,
coming up coming up suddenly from
the face of the turbulent ocean and
swallowing up the crest Of the Cliff,
and settling there heavily amid the
strangely stagnant air.
The woman was first to awake, and
| a trembling of terror seized upon her
for a moment, for she heard a scream
| in the air and shout from the sea.
The scream in the air was from a
| gull, darting through the mist. The
shout, she thought, was plainly the cry
of a man, or the shrek Of a woman.
"Bashfort! Neil Bashfort!" she
shouted in the ear of the sleeper, shak-
ing him roughly and springing to her
| feet.
| The sudden removal Of her weight
| from the bench and the peculiar pos
ture of the man carried the bench over
with crash, the man shooting over
backward with it, and his spasmodic
clutch upon the woman's arm dragging
her down to the rocky ground with
him.
"Ha, tigress are you at my throat
at last?" cried Neil Bashfort, con
fused by his rude awakening from his
slumber, and scrambling furiously I'm
der the weight of the woman, anG
imagining that he was fiercely attack
ed by his wife. "Of. off, woman, or
will drive my dagger into your back!'
Rapid in all his movements, wheI
aroused, Bashfort had already snatch
ed short dagger with a blade three
fingers broad from his belt, and nov
held it poised above the woman's bacl
Us she lay heavily upon him.