SHAUN RUADHA. 



gate Hill fashion by a congestion of traffic 

 unmistakably of a Celtic and agricultural cha- 

 racter. And now the sportsman escapes towards 

 the ascent to the moors, or mountains, as they 

 are termed in the district. From the summit 

 he can see a faint green tinge chilling out the 

 stars in the east, and he knows that the grey 

 dim expanse underneath is the side to which 

 even thus early certain wading birds are wend- 

 ing their flight and exchanging pass-words and 

 challenges with each other overhead. Gradually, 

 as if they had been muffled in brown hdlland 

 and then stripped by degrees, the hedgerows, 

 the dark plumes of the fir, the couched cattle 

 and sheep, the dirty, picturesque cabins, come 

 into view. Day arrives at last, sulky and re- 

 luctant. The moor-fowl shooter has reached 

 his starting-point where the cunning Shaun 

 Ruadha (Red John) awaits him with the dogs. 

 The " covered car " is consigned with its coach- 

 man to the hospitality of a farmer resident on 

 the skirts of a wet desert, on which four lean kine 

 are wistfully meditating on the miseries of star- 

 vation. The farmer himself wishes the shooter 

 " good luck,'' while Shaun, eager as the setters 



