42 WILD SPORTS OF THE WEST. 



on the ' tra-buoy,' and his winter near Carrig-a- 

 boddagh." 



" How has he escaped so long, John ? Has he not 

 been often fired at? " 



" A thousand times ; the best marksmen in the 

 country have tried him without success. People say 

 that, like the master otter, he has a charmed life ; and 

 latterly nobody meddles with him." 



Old John's narrative was interrupted by the entrance 

 of another personage ; he was a stout, burly-looking 

 man, with indifferent good features, a figure of uncommon 

 strength, and a complexion of the deepest bronze. He 

 is the skipper of my cousin's hooker. After a career 

 of perilous adventure in piloting the Flushing smugglers 

 to the coast, he has abandoned his dangerous trade, to 

 pass an honester and safer life in future. 

 " Well, Pattigo* what news ? " 



" The night looks dirty enough, sir ; shall we run 

 the hooker round to Tallaghon, and get the rowing- 

 boats drawn up ? " His master assented, and ordered 

 .him the customary glass of poteen. Pattigo received 

 it graciously in the fingers of his right hand for he has 

 lost his thumb by the bursting of a blunderbuss in one 

 of his skirmishes with the Revenue made his ship-shape 

 bow, clapped his sou'-wester on, and vanished. 



The storm came on apace ; large and heavy drops 

 struck heavily against the windows ; the blast moaned 

 round the house ; I heard the boats' keels grate upon 

 the gravel as the fishermen hauled them up the beach ; 

 I saw Pattigo slip his moorings, and, under the skirt of 

 his main-sail, run for a safer anchorage. The rain now 

 fell in torrents ; the sea rose, and broke upon the rocks 

 * A by-name. 



