Page:Shiana - Peadar Ua Laoghaire.djvu/212

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198
SHIANA

that came over me it didn't last long. Soon I felt something like a human hand going into my bosom, where I carried whatever little money I had. No sooner did I feel the hand than I knew at once that it was a living person I had to deal with, and I laid hold upon the hand. It was a vigorous, strong hand, with a well-developed, well-shaped, stout forearm to it. An attempt was made to pull it away from me, but I tell you I kept my grip, and the more I succeeded in keeping my grip, the more my courage and strength returned to me. When the woman saw that it was useless for her to go on pulling, she remained still, but she did not turn her face to me. While she was keeping still and I was trying to make out who she was, my grip slackened unknown to me. The hand was snatched from me, and the woman jumped out of the cart at the far side from me. Just as she jumped out,—as if a hook or something had got caught in her clothing,—she was thrown down. She fell on the road, and the wheel went over her head. At the moment when she alighted on the road her feet went from under her, and her head turned in under the wheel. I was near fainting in good earnest then. 'Her head is cut in two!' said I to myself. I stopped the horse at once. I was sure the woman was dead, and that I had no witness but God as to how the thing had happened. I jumped out of the cart. While I was coming round from my own side of the horse, the woman jumped up and over the fence she went into a grove that was near the road. 'Well!' said I in my own mind, 'I give thanks to God of glory (praise be to Him for ever) whatever sort you are, that you are able to do that!' I drove on here to the Bridge and I stopped at the stage house. As soon as