WEEDS: A STORY OF THE IRISH INVINCIBLES.

Observer, Volume 6, Issue 156, 8 September 1883, Page 10

WEEDS: A STORY OF THE IRISH INVINCIBLES.

ItffiH BOLIOY OF ,\ ASSASSINATION

K *Jb S^SSAiioNAii Sxomr 0.1? the Times. $■'. UMf .';' s Chapter it. " ' V. • ;■■ : ra^ : y^IA^'3;MBISTINa'— DRAWING 1.613— THE ii : 'f--^'l^- v/ .-ASSASSINATION..- :' ; - ■ - '. itMlij^ iaeiovid^re in ibe afternoon of the; day following the meeting ajt^i^^iasrrpadst tavern r-^ Charles . Clifford, ' diSß^f?m J:\ ijark*brpwn fcweed , suit, walked lele^ly^dMh'the high-road "which bordered the farm attached to the Carna House, as Lawder's. residence, was called. ! /On reaching, a clump of limes and chestnuts •which marked a gap by the road, he left the footpath and crossed a couple of meadows— taking care to keep in the shelter of the hedges. About twenty minutes walk brought him to the boundary ditch of the potato field. He looked over cautiously, to see if anj one from the house might be there. The potatoes were ripe, and the digging was to be begun on Monday. Clifford unconsciously repeated to himaelf that piece of intelligence, which had been made Known to him by an old woman whom he had met on the road that morning. Lawder had offered her picking at eighteenpenee a day. Clifford repeated the old woman's words as he looked over at the field. It was a large field and a splendid crop ; and the red head of a poppy showed here and there in the blue-gray mass, brown and scarlet butterflies fluttered over it, ' and the crows were busy in the ridges. Keeping well behind a bush of alder he could see the yellow front of the house. It was a big old ivy- : grown house, square-fronted and plastered yellow, with innumerable square-topped windows, staring like eyes set in a wall, whenever the ivy allowed them to be seen. The roof was low, and the small slates were all set in white plaster. _ Huge overgrown Portugal laurels grew at the sides of the house and hid the out-offices. A stable-door, half of which was open, showed among these. A graveled drive ran around the house and formed a sweep before the porch, which was overhung by a luxuriant if untidy growth of yellow roses and jessamine. The garden stretched down in terraces to the edge of the potato-field. Some former owner had planned it in the Italian stylo. The stone balustrade tbat had marked the steps -was broken, and had tumbled off completely at one. side, taking with it in its fall the little climbing rose that had overgrown it. One of the two cypresses that stood at the top of the terrace -was dead, the shriveled brown of the withered tree contrasting oddly with the glossy dark green of its companion. Lawder counted upon moving shortly, so did not take uiudh trouble with the place. The open hall door gave a view of the hall. New staircarpets wer6 looked down upon by a battered balustrade of which the paint was all worn off. "Every window had fresh clean laco curtains, but the white blinds were tattered. And in the garden-it was the same ; among the gei'aniums and asters there was no lack of groundsel and couch-grass. It was a sultry afternoon ; all the windows ■were open, and the hot air was full of the buzzing of the wasps and flies. For a good quarter-of-an-hour Clifford couched watching the terrace and the windows. Then he heard the workman's bell ring six o'clock from the yard -a cracked, hideous sounding tocsin ; a gate clanged to, the sound reached him faintly, and the barking of the yard-dog disturbed by it. Was it Lawder coming home or the men going away ? He set hi 9 teeth and watched the terrace fixedly for some minutes ; no one appeared. The master of the house had perhaps entered it from the back. Clifford could remain quiet no longer, he lay flat on his face and crawled round the exposed angle at the two fields, and, once on the right side, let liimself roll into the ditch. On his hands and knees, heedless of the nettles and thistles which stung him as he crawled past, of the slugs and frogs which he disturbed in che dankpeesses of the ditch, or the brambles which lield;- his clothes and stayed him perforce, Clifford made his way along the side ditch, and ere' lon"' was lying, on his back, breathless and gasping, among the fern and harebells in the deep gully that separated the terrace garden from the potato field. He was not long about finding the gun. A layer of withered fern fronds caught his eye at once ; he put his hand into the rabbit-hole, which had been considerably enlarged, and pulled out the oiled leather case. He put the gun together in an instant— it was perfectly dry— loaded it aud laid it beside him in the ditch to wait his quarry's appearance. He looked at his watch ; it was twentj minutes past six ; he had, according to his instructions, over half-an-hour to wait. Then, and not until that moment had he time ifco observe that he was in a terrible heat ; the chops were rolling from his face, and his thick hair was all wet. He took out his handkerchief and rubbed his forehead dry, then he turned over on his face, and, resting his head on his arms, rein^ined immovable for a good while. Suddenly jhe jumped up, and leaving the gun still on the ground, he ran couching where there was a tree, •which formed a screen betweeu him and the liouse. Then he stood upright ; the top of the sunk fence was about level with his breast. Very slowly he put aside a branch cautiously and peered through . •^■ e h a(^ a u^ "" ew °* the dining-room ■win&pvfs, but he could^npt see from the low level at wnicn he was, into the room. Once he saw a -white cap* pass ; l 'it was the head of one of the •female seryants. He watched eagerly,. scarcely "bmilning, and holding £he branch tight as in a rice. After awhile. some one came to one of the •windows. The blind was down nearly to the bottom' panesV Clifford saw, in the space between, a white mass j gradually and with uneven jerks, the blind was drawn up, and he could see a l^bite.i§gure, clad in a white dress. He watched lier'kdenly* A tall slim figure appeared; a bunch of red roses was in her girdle, jit was Lawder's TOfe. , Clfifoird glared at her furiously. She t;W#C)S^.bead- to speak. She was young and 'pretty, fair-haired he could see, too. She.tried 1 'to raisie tiie sash 'of the window. ' In "an insight Xawder was beside her, stooped and lifted it with ttfotaibi^ 1 ,' .'.-■,• * ■ : ' ' : ' "■■"•.: •" ' '■'' : \jpli'c^s^;b'iiwt from Cliff ord's lips jif ke had:

Tmd'lhe gun'fn his "hands then lie would have shot both. They disappeared, and he let go the branch and fell back into the ditch, gnashing his teeth with fury. He got up again after awhile and resumed his watch. He was intensely thirsty ; his very tongue felt dry in his mouth, and his eyes were sore and strained. The time seemed to pass unnaturally slow. He strove to catch some sound from the house, but in vain. The whirr of a cricket in the dry grass, the screams of the swallows coming and going to their nests in the eaves, the buzz of the bees in the flower-beds or the lavender hedge — he could hear them all, and they seemed strangely loud and distinct' Once the breeze that had risen with the advent of tba •evening shook the leaves of a great sycamore, near; at hand with a rustle so loud and sudden, that he threw himself face downwards in the ditch. He got up a moment afterward, and, without looking toward the house, stooped and moved back to where he had left the gun. There was a rhododendron and a clump of cabbage roses, all run to suckers and long brown stumps, close to the edge of the gully It was barely a cover, but he raised his head cautiously and looked up once agaiu over the edge. There was Lawder, standing at the hall door. He was a line-looking man, over six feet in height, black-haired, and with a thick black beard. He wore a light-coloured, close-fitting shooting suit, which showed his brawny figure to advantage. He was in the act of lighting a cigar. To lift the gun from the ground at his feet, and run the barrel through the tangle of the imshes was the work of a second. Clifford had taken his aim ; his finger was actually pressing the trigger, when the little boy ran out of the house after his father, and clinging to his leg, asked some childish favour. It was a terrible moment., he shut his eyes, loosed his hold of the gun, groaning with mingled rage ana anguish. Great drops rolled down his face, he could hear the tones distinctly, and the " Yes — yes, run and tell her," with which Lawder replied, laying his hand as he spoke on the little yellow head. The child went back to the house, Lawder took his cigar from between his teeth, and had just stepped down without the porch, when the shot of a gun burst upon the air. Lawder sprang upward with a smothered cry, and fell upon his face, his body stretched upon his own j threshold. In less time than it takes to tell it Clifford had flung the rifle behind him and was running as fast as the wind along the gully. He crept through a hole in the next ditch, and then, as there was a thick hedge between him and the house, crossed the middle of the next field at a tearing rate. i Down hill all the way to the river he dashed along, keeping close to the hedgerows, through brambles and furze and nettles until his hands and legs were bleeding and his clothes torn. The two and a half miles from Car a to the river were soon accomplished, and at last the broad expanse |of the Suir lay before him. He glanced round cautiously before he left the shelter of the bank ; not a cz'eature was in sight : a cow drinking close by turned tail and ran off affrighted at his apparition. He jumped down aud ran along the, bank to where the tracks indicated the ford. First taking off his boots, which he was careful to keep dry, he plunged in. The water was breast deep ; he stooped his head and drank eagerly and deeply, : splashing up water on his head and rubbing off 1 the blood stains the thorns had left on his hands. He was soon across, and, refreshed and cooled, swung himself up the bank. He sat down for a breathless instant to pull on his boots. A man suddenly stepped from behind an ash-tree and looked fixedly at him. Clifford replied to the look by a nod, and then cursed at him furiously, with hysterical rage. It was Mary Heff email's son. " You've plenty of time," said the man ; " here." He handed Clifford a bottle containing whisky ; he almost drained it, and flung the bottle into the grass. Heffernan caught it up in time to j prevent the contents all running out, and laughed. " Keep close to the bushes, Charley, and get into the chapel from the back of the priest's house ; they're all wait-in' for ye." " I know that, damn you ! Get out of my road, you fool! Are you going to stop there and be seen." "No fear," returned Heffernan, leisurely. "Go on, man. Why, to look at you, one would think ye were frightened !" Clifford was foaming at the mouth and trembling with rage and excitement ; he raised his arm as if to strike as he again* set off up the field. James Heffernan put the bottle, which was a small one, in his pocket, and then went and examined the bank where Clifford had climbed over ; there was no trace of his feet, not a pebble or blade of grass was disturbed, and the water that had dripped from his clothes had all run off among the rank grass and docks. Five miles of a run that hot evening would dry his clothes, and if they were wet, who was there that would notice them ? The sun had set in an angry blaze, and the bats were flitting in the shadows of the churchyard, when Clifford breathless and exhausted, I walked into the parish church of Gortscreen. There were about a dozen men there, kneeling in different parts of the church. It was perfectly still, and growing dark. The crimson glow of the little sanctuary lamp that swung before the | altar was just perceptible in the semi-gloom. The parish priest was in his confessional, and a hoarse mutter seemed to sound from it through the place. Clifford felt a sudden chill s,eize him as he entered, and walked up the aisle and knelt for an instant at the altar-rail. Every eye in the j church followed and watched him as he went, and meaning looks passed from one to the other. He remained there for a moment ; his parched lips moved, but convulsively ; then with a great effort he seized the altar-railing and raised himself with its help, tottered down the aisle again, and half fell* half knelt, beside a pillar, where he remained in a kind of torpor for hours, until they took him away. * * * ♦ *■*-•♦ Heffernan was arrested on suspicion, the ostensible reason being that his people were known; to entertain ill-will to the agent; but Hefferiton's interests: had been taken care of in the rislpr of' an alibi just as effectually as Clifford's^ Clifford was arrested after Heffernan had accouted for himself and had, been discharged j but overwhelming alibis were forthcoming for him, and the reward of £500 was added to the accumulations of blood-money in' Dublin Castlel' ; ; : - ■ XHE END. ' ' ; : /v .' : . '