CHAPTER XX 



From Dugort to Clare Island "Where Troubles do not come 

 and Rates are never paid " 



OUR two days and three nights stay at the Slieve- 

 more Hotel was made very comfortable by the 

 hostess, and a more jolly man than the host, or 

 one more capable of guiding his guests to what 

 they seek, it would be hard to find ; indeed, the 

 only fault he seemed to have was inability to oblige 

 his fishing guests with the rain they so sorely 

 needed. 



Our plan was to go from Dugort to Clare Island, 

 via the coast, to where we could get a boat to take 

 us over. As the car stage of this journey was 

 eighteen Irish miles, with no certainty of a boat 

 when at the end of it, we determined on a some- 

 what early start that we might have a reserve of 

 time to meet that or any other difficulty. It would 

 have been easy to go by train to Westport and 

 from there by boat, but we wanted the drive, which 

 would take us past so many miles of old-world 

 scenes that probably would well repay us for the 

 time it would take. 



The mist that shut us in at starting thinned 

 and then disappeared, leaving us with the com- 

 mencement of a glorious Autumn day that coloured 

 all we saw in cheerful hues. The portions of the 

 drive that wound out and in to meet the widenings 



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