tern World?

SARA -- [runs in, pulling off one of her petticoats.] -- They're going
to hang him. (Holding out petticoat and shawl.) Fit these upon him, and
let him run off to the east.

WIDOW QUIN. He's raving now; but we'll fit them on him, and I'll take
him, in the ferry, to the Achill boat.

CHRISTY -- [struggling feebly.] -- Leave me go, will you? when I'm
thinking of my luck to-day, for she will wed me surely, and I a proven
hero in the end of all. [They try to fasten petticoat round him.]

WIDOW QUIN. Take his left hand, and we'll pull him now. Come on, young
fellow.

CHRISTY -- [suddenly starting up.] -- You'll be taking me from her?
You're jealous, is it, of her wedding me? Go on from this. [He snatches
up a stool, and threatens them with it.]

WIDOW QUIN -- [going.] -- It's in the mad-house they should put him,
not in jail, at all. We'll go by the back-door, to call the doctor, and
we'll save him so. [She goes out, with Sara, through inner room. Men
crowd in the doorway. Christy sits down again by the fire.]

MICHAEL -- [in a terrified whisper.] -- Is the old lad killed surely?

PHILLY. I'm after feeling the last gasps quitting his heart. [They peer
in at Christy.]

MICHAEL -- [with a rope.] -- Look at the way he is. Twist a hangman's
knot on it, and slip it over his head, while he's not minding at all.

PHILLY. Let you take it, Shaneen. You're the soberest of all that's
here.

SHAWN. Is it me to go near him, and he the wickedest and worst with me?
Let you take it, Pegeen Mike.

PEGEEN. Come on, so. [She goes forward with the others, and they drop
the double hitch over his head.]

CHRISTY. What ails you?

SHAWN -- [triumphantly, as they pull the rope tight on his arms.] --
Come on to the peelers, till they stretch you now.

CHRISTY. Me!

MICHAEL. If we took pity on you, the Lord God would, maybe, bring us
ruin from the law to-day, so you'd best come easy, for hanging is an
easy and a speedy end.

CHRISTY. I'll not stir. (To Pegeen.) And what is it you'll say to me,
and I after doing it this time in the face of all?

PEGEEN. I'll say, a strange man is a marvel, with his mighty talk; but
what's a squabble in your back-yard, and the blow of a loy, have taught
me that there's a great gap between a gallous story and a dirty deed.
(To Men.) Take him on from this, or the lot of us will be likely put on
trial for his deed to-day.

CHRISTY -- [with horror in his voice.] -- And it's yourself will