Page:The Snake's Pass (Stoker).djvu/142

 Faix! an' I thought that ye wor about to jump from aff iv the mountain into the say, like a shtag."

"Why, what do you know about stags, Andy? There are none in this part of the country, are there?" I thought I would drag a new subject across his path. The ruse of the red herring drawn across the scent succeeded!

"Phwhat do I know iv shtags? Faix, I know this, that there does be plinty in me Lard's demesne beyant at Wistport. Sure wan iv thim got out last autumn an' nigh ruined me garden. He kem in at night an' ate up all me cabbages an' all the vigitables I'd got. I frightened him away a lot iv times, but he kem back all the same. At last I could shtand him no longer, and I wint meself an' complained to the Lard. He tould me he was very sorry fur the damage he done, 'an',' sez he, 'Andy, I think he's a bankrup,' sez he, 'an' we must take his body.' 'How is that, Me Lard?' sez I. Sez he, 'I give him to ye, Andy. Do what ye like wid him!' An' wid that I wint home an' I med a thrap iv a clothes line wid a loop in it, an' I put it betune two threes; and shure enough in the night I got him."

"And what did you do with him, Andy?" said I.

"Faith, surr, I shkinned him and ate him!" He said this just in the same tone in which he would speak of the most ordinary occurrence, leaving the impression on one's mind that the skinning and eating were matters done at the moment and quite offhand.

I fondly hoped that Andy's mind was now in quite