Page:Shiana - Peadar Ua Laoghaire.djvu/263

Rh of the early part of the night was already gone. He lit one of the night-work candles. He took the soogaun chair and placed it standing exactly in the place where it was the day it was stuck to the ground at that spot. He put the shilling in under it in the centre, as he had been told to do. He threw a little dust down upon the shilling so that it could not be seen. Then he sat in his work-seat and began to work. When he had been working for a while he thought the hour of midnight could not be far off. He thought no trial he had ever suffered had been hard compared with staying there waiting and watching to see when the Evil One would come. If he had not had the work on hand he could never have endured the waiting. It was as much as he could do to stand it, although he was working as hard as his arms could draw the thread. When he used to think an hour should be spent, he would look at what he had done, and it would be only half an hour's work. He would keep on putting in the stitches as fast as he was able to drive the awl. Byand-by he would think that two hours should be gone. He would look at the work done, and it would be only as much as a man would do within a quarter of an hour, working at his ease. At last the disturbance and oppression and strain that were weighing upon his mind put the watching of the time out of his head in some way, so that the time rushed on unknown to him. He had no idea that the time was spent when he suddenly felt as if there were some one in the room. He raised his head. The Black Man was standing there facing him!