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TEE COLLEEN BAWN
17
visits here, and I told her who you were. ' '
"Oh! what did she say?" asked the frightened girl.
"It broke her heart," was the gloomy reply.
"Hardress, is there no hope?" she asked, wistfully.
"None. That is, none that — that — I can name."
"There is one. I can see it."
Then he explained that her marriage certificate was the only witness he had to fear.
She drew it from her bosom and tendered it to him.
"Oh, Hardress," she exclaimed fervently, ' ' I love ye ! Take the paper and tear it ! "
He had accepted it from her hand, and, in his anxiety and extremity, would doubtless have taken advantage of her sacrifice, but the door opened suddenly and Myles strode forward.
"No," he exclaimed, "I'll be damned if he shall!"
1 ' Scoundrel ! You have been listening?" demanded Hardress.
"To ivery word," calmly replied Myles. ' ' I saw Danny Mann with his ear agin that dure, so, as there was only wan keyhole, I adopted the windy. Eily, aroon, he will give ye back that paper; ye cant tear up an oath."
"Vagabond! outcast! jail bird! Dare you prate of honor to me?"
"I am an outlaw, Mr. Cregan. a felon, maybe," admitted Myles, "but if you do this thing to that poor girl that loves you so much, had I my neck in a rope, or my fut on the deck of a convict ship, I'd turn 'round and say to ye, 'Hardress Cregan, I make ye a prisint of the contimpt of a rogue ! ' "
"Be it so. Eily. farewell!" said Hardress coldly, throwing down the paper and picking up his hat with a fine show of scorn. "Until my house is clear of these vermin, you will see me no more."
Unheeding her imploring cries, he hurried from the cottage. Eily ran after him, calling piteously to him not
to leave her, but, at the door, Father Tom stopped her.
"He's gone! he's gone!" wailed Eily.
The priest commanded her to kneel and replace the precious paper in her bosom. Then, word for word, he forced her to repeat after him a vow never to part with the proof of her marriage to Hardress.
After his ineffectual scene with Eily, Hardress realized that he was powerless to avert the ruin that was advancing upon him and his mother. His loyal henchman, Danny, grieving to see his beloved young master so troubled, suggested sending Eily out of the country.
"Fool!" growled Hardress. "If she still possesses that certificate, how dare I wed another?"
"Thin, by the powers," answered Danny, "I'd do by Eily as wid the
HARDRESS FLINGS THE MISSHAPEN CREATURE FROM HIM