Then the other drew off; and Pierre got down, and stooped, and
felt the man's heart, and said to the other: 'Take your friend away, for
he is dead; but drop that pistol of yours on the ground first.' And the
man did so; and Pierre, as he looked at the dead man, added: 'Why did he
make me kill him?'
"Then the two tied the body to the horse, and the man rode away with it.
We travelled on without speakin' for a long time, and then I heard him
say absently: 'I am sick of that. When once you have played shuttlecock
with human life, you have to play it to the end--that is the penalty.
But a woman is a woman, and she must be protected.' Then afterward he
turned and asked me if I had friends in Pipi Valley; and because what he
had done for me had worked upon me, I told him of the man I was goin' to
find. And he started in his saddle, and I could see by the way he
twisted the mouth of his horse that I had stirred him."
Here the priest interposed: "What is the name of the man in Pipi Valley
to whom you are going?"
And the girl replied: "Ah, father, have I not told you? It is Shon
McGann--of Farcalladen Rise."
At this, Father Corraine seemed suddenly troubled, and he looked
strangely and sadly at her. But the girl's eyes were fastened on the
candle in the window, as if she saw her story in it; and she continued:
"A colour spread upon him, and then left him pale; and he said: 'To Shon
McGann--you are going to him? Think of that--that!' For an instant I
thought a horrible smile played upon his face, and I grew frightened, and
said to him: 'You know him.
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