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THE COLLEEN BAWN
21
"I cant," declared Eily; "I've sworn never to part with it — ye know I have."
Still he demanded and still she refused. Then, exasperated and hopeless of gaining his end, he seized her with hands that trembled as if palsied and, with a mighty effort, thre w her into the dark waters of the lake. She reappeared, clung to the rock and begged wildly to be saved.
"He wants ye dead!" the man cried, then sava g e 1 y loosened the cramped fingers and fl u n g her off.
"I've done it! She 's gone ! " he muttered, then shuddered v i olently.
With these words he himself reeled, lurched, toppled forward, and the water closed over him in foamy ripples. At that instant the sound of a shot rang out, and a thin trail of red tinged his wake as he was carried by t h e current to a rock, where he lapsed into unconscious "HE ness. When he awoke, he found
his boat floating close by. Painfully he crawled into it, and, late that night, staggered into his hut and fell upon his truckle bed, racked by fever. For ten days he raved. During lucid intervals, he said he had been shot while poaching salmon. When the de
lirium was on him he spoke of the glove and Eily and Hardress. Sheelah, terrified, went at last for Father Tom. After getting the boy's confession, the wise old man meditated. "Myles na Coppaleen is at the bottom of this; his whisky still is in that cave, and he has not been seen for ten days past," he said to himself. "I'll go and see M y 1 e s. There is more in this than has come out."
Unknown to the others in the room, there had been a third witness to Danny's confession. It was no less a person than Squire Corrigan, he of the disappointed hopes and the black and vengeful heart. He had been ordered from Tore Cregan by Hardress when he had cal le d for Mrs. Cregan's answer to his proposal. He had been ignored by Miss Chute ; his letters to her had been returned unopened. There were mysteries and doings afoot, including Eily's reported suicide, and he suspected that he could make very good capital of them if he could only run them to earth. So, witli this in mind, he had hidden in the hut during Sheelah 's absence. As Father Tom questioned the boy, the eavesdropper made notes of the answers and gloated over the evidence
WANTS YE DEAD ! DANNY CRIED, THEN FLUNG HER OFF