at 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. You are not sorry that you are helping
me? You and Shon McGann are not enemies?'

"After a moment the smile that struck me with dread passed, and he
said, as he drew himself up with a shake: 'Shon McGann and I were good
friends-as good as ever shared a blanket or split a loaf, though he
was free of any evil, and I failed of any good.... Well, there came a
change. We parted. We could meet no more; but who could have guessed
this thing? Yet, hear me--I am no enemy of Shon McGann, as let my deeds
to you prove.' And he paused again, but added presently: 'It's better
you should have come now than two years ago.

"And I had a fear in my heart, and to this asked him why. 'Because then
he was a friend of mine,' he said, 'and ill always comes to those who
are such.' I was troubled at this, and asked him if Shon was in Pipi
Valley yet. 'I do not know,' said he, 'for I've travelled long and far
from there; still, while I do not wish to put doubt into your mind, I
have a thought he may be gone.... He had a gay heart,' he continued,
'and we saw brave days together.'

"And though I questioned him, he told me little more, but became silent,
scannin' the plains as we rode; but once or twice he looked at me in
a strange fashion, and passed his hand across his forehead, and a grey
look came upon his face. I asked him if he was not well. 'Only a kind of
fightin' within,' he said; 'such things soon pass, and it is well they
do, or we should break to pieces.'

"And I said again that I wished not to bring him into danger. And he
replied that these matters were accordin' to Fate; that men like him
must go on when once the die is cast, for they cannot turn back. It
seemed to me a bitter creed, and I was sorry for him. Then for hours we
kept an almost steady silence, and comin' at last to the top of a rise
of land he pointed to a spot