Page:Shiana - Peadar Ua Laoghaire.djvu/149

Rh The shouting is stopping. They are quieting down. Let us go up," said Dermot.

"Are all the shoes sold, Michael?" said Shiana.

"Yes, all but a very few," said Michael.

"Well, put the horse to," said Shiana, "and drive on home."

Shiana and Grey Dermot went on steadily up to Dermot's house. They found nobody there but a gathering of women and children and old people, and the big tinker explaining to them what had happened.

"What is that he says?" said Dermot to one of them.

"He says," said the man, "that the King's people have carried off Sive, and Nosey Cormac and his men have gone after them at full speed to take her from them and bring her home, because she and Cormac were going to be married."

They went into the house. They found nobody there. They tried the door of the room. It was locked on the inside. They looked at each other.

"Open the door, whoever is there!" said Dermot.

"You shut the house-door first," said Sive—for it was she. He did so.

Then she opened the room-door and appeared before them, wearing the red cloak, and in a state of terror.