“Well, that’s all settled. Ye’ll let me know in good time about the schools, won’t ye? an’ now I must get back to me work,” and he passed out of the house, and went up the hillside.
Then Norah came back, and with joy I told her that all had been settled; and somehow, we seemed to have taken another step up the ascent that leads from earth to heaven—and that all feet may tread, which are winged with hope.
Presently Norah sent me away for a while, saying that she had some work to do, as she expected both Dick and myself to come back to tea with them; and I went off to look for Dick.
I found him with Murdock. The latter had got over his disappointment, and had evidently made up his mind to trust to Dick’s superior knowledge and intelligence. He was feverishly anxious to continue his search, and when I came up we held a long discussion as to the next measure to be taken. The afternoon faded away in this manner before Murdock summed up the matter thus:—
“The chist was carried on the gun-carriage, and where wan is th’ other is not far off. The min couldn’t have carried the chist far, from what ould Moynahan sez. His father saw the min carryin’ the chist only a wee bit.” Dick said:—
“There is one thing, Murdock, that I must warn you about. You have been digging in the clay bank by the edge of the bog. I told you before how dangerous this is; now, more than ever, I see the danger of it. It was only to-day that we got an idea of the depth of the bog, and it rather frightens me to think that with all this rain falling you should be tampering with what is more important to you than even the foundations of your house. The bog has risen far too much already, and you have only to dig perhaps one spadeful too much in the right place and you’ll have a torrent that will sweep away all you have. I have told you that I don’t like the locality of your house down in the hollow. If the bog ever moves again, God help you! You seem also to have been tampering with the stream that runs into the Cliff Fields. It is all very well for you to try to injure poor Joyce more than you have done—and that’s quite enough, God knows!—but here you are actually imperilling your own safety. That stream is the safety valve of the bog, and if you continue to dam up that cleft in the rock you will have a terrible disaster. Mind now! I warn you seriously against what you are doing. And besides, you do not even know for certain that the treasure is here. Why, it may be anywhere on the mountain, from the brook below the boreen to the Cliff Fields; is the off chance worth the risk you run?” Murdock started when he mentioned the Cliff Fields, and then said suddenly:—
“If ye’re afraid ye can go. I’m not.”
“Man alive!” said Dick, “why not be afraid if you see cause for fear? I don’t suppose I’m a coward any more than you are, but I can see a danger, and a very distinct one, from what you are doing. Your house is directly in the track in which the bog has shifted at any time this hundred years; and if there should be another movement, I would not like to be in the house when the time comes.”
“All right!” he returned doggedly, “I’ll take me chance; and I’ll find the threasure, too, before many days is over!”
“Well; but be reasonable also, or you may find your death!”