The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1911-11-01

|J ANA I Fethard, while the as yet wink |1 AkvN ing and blinking sleepy eye over the +t MlX top of shadowy Slieve-na-mon, Darby MI OGil stood upon the threshold of his #I cottage, impatient to be off to the town. Don't dare tell me another thing" :" f= he said, fercely.
 was only going to say that ye mustn't be stayin go late at Fethard that yell have to be takin the short cut home through Hagans meadow afther dark Te know they do be sayin that most night now re can lights moving round in the ruined abbey &rwhere the crooks O goold are hid"
 @What put the crooks O goold fntfl yer head? ADidn't Mrs O'Hara tell me only last night that fe put the challenge her Dominic to go huntin +Huh Dominic eopHarai We hear ducks taIkin'! That came out of the bottom of the fourth glass if punch Haven't ye amy thing sinsible to say he good womanT
 ~5AFaith, have. an it's this: If ye should meet p with that bliggard Bothered Bill Donohue, the {vilty for him he'll be wantn to come back with P to spind the night.H
 &n7The three counties were in Fethard by the time Darby reached the old town gate. and from that on W slap the shoulder here, and bone.crush- honchal ,every where, that the afternoon md gone before the busy lad could spare thought (pr any of Bridgets commissions But through all lEe friendly greetings of the day there smoldered 1nstant worry in the mans mind, for whichever $ay he turned the sharp gray eye of Bothered Bill p0nohue the tinker, followed him from place to s~Bad luck to him." muttered Darby, ruefully, eff A bring the fhieyfng bHggaM home wid me Bridgetn skirer the two of us Whist! I know what I'll do m slip intil Murphys stable an bide awhile out
 
 fugans an intil the back dure with me"
 No sooner said than done. When at last he 1qred over and poked cautious head in at the back [6or of Dugan's shop well-known voice hailed him: ~Come in. Darby ashore, I've been waitin' for ye LIS half hour I'll be goin' home wid ye the night I'm fhinkin', to give ye hand wid the bundles" md there, sitting calmly upturned tub, lolled Bothered Bill Donohue, the tinker.
 The two were the last at the market
 As the two men went stumbling along the dark Eead. Darby was thinking By the livin' farmer /n 6f0 for hA raold \ an &eIp me. An whin he rayfuges me-as of course he 1IEIM sind him on to ,.i Brdget L an it's meselr Just then Bill spoke up as if vaguely dvining what pns in his companions mind My, but we're the bould man, Darby O'sill! They were sayin' all over inc market today what courageous hayro ye wor to be goin' wid Dominic O'Hara afther the crooks O goold in the oud abbey.'
 In spite of the bundles the hero's chest sweled. We'll. tell ye, Bill," he swaggered, "Im at loss more conthrol over his long tongue than if it be. onged to yerself, and the wurruld knows that my wan so much as mintions pious wurrud twinkle he may be turned into big yellow OK, or Into bit of a starved wran. Now ye know yerseif, LII. that while Dominic is a nice, dacint man wid me best of inntions he has big fault ye niver <1ow whin he's goin' to rip out wid God save ye <pfndly' Saints presarve us.' Now it's what Tor .hinkin yerself Bill; ye said pious Ea0rrud in yer fe an'-
 rfDmptly.
 -It'n be midnight be the time reach 4sgan's meadow went on Darby. "so we'll lave
 
 The oner was like sousing Bill with tub of cold water He stood still in the road and shivered 5thop :" he choked There's nayther luck nor grace n talkin that kind O talk
 @11l go into the meadow here" Darby continued <a1mIy @an' do you Bill kape steady on yer way an 44u be all safe" The words were spoken to the darkness, for Bill had disappeared
 If the ground in Hagan's meadow had been covered s s.sS vSSs ~ss t sst Sszs lave ev6r, Bothered Bill not to be trusted he might b<< watching and listening in the darkness few feet down the road there nothing left for it. and Darby bracing his soul, took the jump and ran a few steps into the haunted field.
 He stood, striving with every vein of his body to make out whether the glimmer of light in the dis lance was from the old abbey or whether it was only Jim through the darkness a sound of terror-the quick fall of pursuing footsteps.
 tFhere weren't three men in the barony that could md never before that night had he put such speed Into his nimble heels But, fast as he vent the fudding footsteps behind gained him every second 4uddenly he electrified by the most terrible cry ke had ever heard It was strange voice in a wild, High shriek, calling his name:1
 k-Da-arby,f Da-arby OGilL F. it walled.
 <Its the black headless joint from Croag Mah ' Thought Darby, and great gorgondies how did it get %ue nameT
 And that would have been mystery for the seven cpnnies only that just then the stuck its head through the clouds and took querulous peep at the Gight. What the knowledgable man saw then Q16ened every nerve and muscle in his body with angry amazement; for from whom had he been K6nning but from Bothered Bill Donohue.
 @Darby! Da-arby! where ye, Dar-rby?" bleated Il Terror had split the tnkers voice into piping 1&Iserr0.
 At the sound every shred of Darbys fear turned Into white rage.
 A~The divI mend yew shouted Darby "Come back i'll bate the lofe out of ye ye umbrageous villain Where yer bundles? What have ye done with the mackeril?'
 But Bill on, deaf with terror, and Darby fol lowed The horse that won the. Curragh Cup would have been proud of their company that night. #x@@AIillia murdher the Omadhaun's maxim straight Tor the fairies bush,' panted Darby Come back l' H8 rOared. Then strange thing happened Darby aaw the tinker throw up both arms, and, with a fzpairins disappear from the face of the earth Now in the middle of Hagan's meadow stands an prfient clump of hazel trees known far and wide as