Page:The Snake's Pass (Stoker).djvu/157

 not until the subject of the bog at Knocknacar was completely exhausted that I got any clue on the subject. I then asked Dick if he had had a good time at Shleenanaher?

"Yes!" he answered. "Thank God! the work is nearly done. We went over the whole place to-day and there was only one indication of iron. This was in the bog just beside an elbow where Joyce's land—his present land—touches ours; no! I mean on Murdock's, the scoundrel!" He was quite angry with himself for using the word "ours" even accidentally.

"And has anything come of it?" I asked him.

"Nothing! Now that he knows it is there, he would not let me go near it on any account. I'm in hopes he'll quarrel with me soon in order to get rid of me, so that he may try by himself to fish it—whatever it may be—out of the bog. If he does quarrel with me! Well! I only hope he will; I have been longing for weeks past to get a chance at him. Then she'll believe, perhaps" He stopped.

"You saw her to-day, Dick!"

"How did you know that?"

"Because you look so happy, old man!"

"Yes! I did see her; but only for a moment. She drove up in the middle of the day, and I saw her go up to the new house. But she didn't even see me," and his face fell. Presently he asked:—

"You didn't see your girl?"

"No, Dick, I did not! But how did you know?"