LITERATURE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 4508, 5 October 1882, Page 4

LITERATURE.

A SUBE SHOT: AN IRISH BTORY OF THE PBE3ENI HOUB. (London SocMy.) (Concluded,) She had dropped upon the clay floor. Luke tried to push her baok ; but some whiteness passed into his own features, and he raised a Land to his brow. " Murder ! " he muttered ; "'tain!b that girl. 'Tis nought butaßhoh ■uohas takes off meany a one in the blaze of battle who's niver harmed mortal. We fires the like when our homes ia attacked ; our hard earnin's, our lives." "Not lite, Luke." Jl Ain't it, then ? How's thß breath lep' in ye but by the food -we sows an* sweats furP It's a small taste of itye'd get if we wera stripped as bare as a Kraspin* hand 'ud lave us. There, there, woman. _ I know well what Ibe at, an' that now or niver we must stan* up and givo fight. The folk of the oounthry's bin too long in the two lot* — beasts of burden an' birds of prey. It's a few men ia wantin' in it. If they're to the fore at lost, you should be proud of the same." "Them's not yer wo y ds, Luke," cried Boie ; 41 none was tramplin' on ye. Ye were never left without bit an* Bup, nor found a hnrd hand to pull it back from yor lips. 'Taint the gentry, nather, has made ye afeard now for house and goods, but another sort of folk. Who set the light to our riok, and left us a heap oE blackened dust i'steud of our sweet clover hay ; Wu that a genl'l'man's doia' ? Wast he took the food from ye then ?" Truth broke forth in the utterance, but it was too sharp a weapon for her woman's hand to seize. " Quttyer talk, Roeo Murlagh !" he exolaimed ; *'when yer k iow betther what to say 'tis time enough to say ib. I h'avkened to yo afore, an' 'twaß to our Übs I done it. I'll be no fool ngen." With violence he loosenod her hold of his knees, and, as rho fell bac-k, the weapon was grasped tighter in his hand, and he strode to the door. In one spring the repulsed wife gained her -feet, and stretched after him uppeulinglr. " Ob, for the love of God !" she wailed, '• Luko, Luke, hear to me ! Think of jer wee Kitty; of 'he black woe may follow this niglit. If yer took there'll be a stain on her sweet face fur ever ; she'll be a folori'a child." Who would have continued, bat the words seemed unheard, unheeded—be was tone. Already he was late. He felt that doublo speed must save him from the vengeance of the most cruel and unrelenting of spies. Mia face, dark and shadow* haunted as a Cain's, framed itself in the gloom of the doorway. "Listen," he murmured, and the words came forth in a hissing whisper, '" I've an oath on me ; could I break that ? 'Twould bo my blood, Rose Murtagh — death at yer own door was I stopped nowl" Something was following him, surely something was following him ! Yet he could not look round, tie was a coward, as all are who take a deadly weap m in hand and steal forth secretly to smite friend or foe. It was scarcely six o'clock dow, two hours before the time when Honora had gained the little inn at Ballymourne. Kvery movement of the intended victim was noted and watohed ; more than that, controlled and influenced. He was to be detained in the town until a fixed hour, and, in view of his taking a different return route from the accustomed one, on his own grounds, cm the very avenue of hia own home, he was to fall by the assassin's Bhofc. The drive from the gateway of Foxmount to the house was a long and winding one. It led up a steep hill at lirst. About 50 yards from the entrance there was a thick grove of trees. This grovo was the spot chosen for Luke Murtagh'g ambush. He could gain it easily from pasture- lands without by o leap and a scramble up the bank; and vanish as rapidly, escupo as securely, by the same route, when fcbe time came. Hugh Carolan being mounted, the horse mußt •laoken ita puce at the tome what abrupt asoent in the avnnue ; and, in fao*;, as was well known, the rider always threw the bridle at this pointi on his favourite's neck. Dusk bad come on ; but it was not dark. An aftertwilight lingered in the aky, and made palo the objects beneath it, touohicg them, in the stillness, witn a sort of ghostly hue. In the dull silence of the air every lower tone was significant. The leaves had a startling rustle under Luko Murtagh'a feet. It seemed to follow him, to rise into motion and shrill warning cries. This must be tke pursuing sound h» hoard, and "from which he shrunk, without daring to fathom it. He had only to cross a Sold or two from his own cottage, and the vicinity of Foxmount was gained ; Bnd all too Boon he stood under the gloomy canopy of the fir trees, watohed the white lino of the avenue from between ita covert, and listened keenly for the looked-for sound. Eis brain was now in a numbed state ; his heart hud reaigncd •every struggle for compaß3ionatorrompting; hie senßea only were aroused and expectant ; and ho was on the a!ert to let physical action follow promptly on the signal they convojed to him. He bad not long to wait. The tramp of horses' feet was doteoted in the distance ; the' e teed had been checked, and was coming along at the slow measured pace whioli was to lead its master to his doom. Luko Murtagb made a step forwards. He was a- sure aim ; ho had been for years in the militia ranks, and was the beat Bhofc there. His hand was not unsteady now ; everything in earth and heaven seemed blotted out but the one form which was to draw hia vision, the one doed he was to do. If he had ever a feeling Of shrinking, a thought of pity, it waa gone— struok down by the flerco animal inatinot which seeks and seizes hia pray with the sole leading of cunning and cruelty, The rider came nearer ; Luke's oyoa peered from 'behind the henrselike plumes of tho thickest of the pinea. They formed a eoreen for 'him, but wore a mourning veil all the while, which he could penetrate or raise. One second more, and Hugh Carolan was opposite him. The mana arm was oxtended, tho revolver placed at the true level, the trigger pulled. Again that fltjraoge haunting noise ; the underwood was stirred; there was a rustlo of a thousand blood-red leaves— they seemed to be whirring round hia brain. But all was lost for him in the echoing accenta of a ohild's ory : " Daddy, don't! " His hand had been seized, hia aim Averted, but the shot which had sped found a breast to bury itaelf in ; it had drawn the life-blood of little Kitty. There was a wedding on the morrow, and Jundhine te gild it, but a funeral had to follow too. A day later, and a tiny coffin was borne from the hut in the hollow, and was hud, amid the dewdrops of an early misty morning, in a sweet sheltered nook under the greenest sod of the churchyard, it was a fitting spot for a little one to lie in, for flowers to spring from, for a bride, in all the touohing loveliness of emotion, to shed lean upon, as she remembered in her own happiness that the joy had been paid, for by a young life, that a moment's motousness in her had bo won upon a ohild'e bflirt that it bad sprung to save hers from breaking .to its own death. Spring lights touched the quiet grave now ; it lay under a iflanee from open skies. Earth might bo forgotten in the hopes breathed full upon it from higher airs, in the shining presence of Che Heaven, which have a smile for ever for love and heroism.