Page:Shiana - Peadar Ua Laoghaire.djvu/134

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120
SHIANA
it just like that. I was in Macroom one day with Nell, and she pointed him out to me, and upon my word, when I saw him it made me shudder. There he was grey and strong, walking the street as boldly as if he had never done such a deed. I couldn't help staring hard at his right hand. He noticed me looking at that hand, and the villain got blue in the face. I was dying to get away out of his sight, I can tell you.
Sheila.—Who is he, Kate?
Kate.—Why, that old rogue below, Dr. White.
Sheila.—And why wasn't he hanged?
Abbie.—Ay, indeed! Why wasn't he hanged! Why wasn't Malachi hanged? No. It was the MacCarthys that were hanged, when Malachi swore that they had done the deed that he had done himself.
Kate.—Wasn't it Cormac MacCarthy that shot Bob Hutchinson, Abbie?
Abbie.—Yes, when Malachi Duggan stood behind him and put the muzzle of his gun up to his back, and said " Shoot him, Cormac, or I'll shoot you!" And indeed, there were none of the MacCarthys there except Cormac. Neither Callaghan nor Thade was there at all, yet all three were hanged. But no fear, Sheila, that Malachi was hanged.
Sheila.—Why, anybody would think, by what you say, Abbie, that it is the guilty people that mostly go free, and that it is the honest people that are hanged. The old man west at Rathmore was hanged, but the people who hanged him were not hanged. The MacCarthys were hanged,