CHAPTER XIII 



It rained steadily from Monday afternoon till 

 Thursday morning, and then, as if at the stroke 

 of a great broom, the clouds broke up and were 

 driven in piles over the hills, leaving the sky 

 winter-blue and free; cloud-shadow and sunshine 

 chased one another over the land, and from the 

 cliffs the sea lay foam-capped and in great meadows 

 of different colour. It had blown haK a gale on 

 Tuesday night, and the sea was fretting from it 

 still. Acres of tourmahne-coloured water showed 

 where the " deeps " lay close inshore, and each 

 glass-green roller came running in, capped with 

 foam and shot through with sunUght till — 



Boom! 



A league-long burst of spray told of its death, 

 and from far and near came the sound, the breath- 

 ing of the coast, like the breathing of a leviathan 

 in its sleep. 



It was dark when the train from Dublin drew in 

 at the station of Cloyne, and Mr French and his 

 companion found the outside car waiting for them, 

 in charge of Buck Slane. 



Buck was a helper in the stable, a weedy- 



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