naythur, that some iv thim isn’t there shtill—for mind ye! it’s a mighty curious thin’ that the bog beyant keeps shiftin’ till this day. And I’m not so sure, naythur, that the shnakes has all left the hill yit!”

There was a chorus of “Thrue for ye!”

“Aye, an’ it’s a black shnake too!” said one.

“An’ wid side-whishkers!” said another.

“Begorra! we want Saint Pathrick to luk in here agin!” said a third.

I whispered to Andy the driver:—

“Who is it they mean?”

“Whisht!” he answered, but without moving his lips; “but don’t let on I tould ye! Sure an’ it’s Black Murdock they mane.”

“Who or what is Murdock?” I queried.

“Sure an’ he is the Gombeen Man.”

“What is that? What is a gombeen man?”

“Whisper me now!” said Andy; “ax some iv the others. They’ll larn it ye more betther nor I can.”

“What is a gombeen man?” I asked to the company generally.

“A gombeen man is it? Well! I’ll tell ye,” said an old, shrewd-looking man at the other side of the hearth. “He’s a man that linds you a few shillin’s or a few pounds[Pg 28] whin ye want it bad, and then niver laves ye till he has tuk all ye’ve got—yer land an’ yer shanty an’ yer holdin’ an’ yer money an’ yer craps; an’ he would take the blood out of yer body if he could sell it or use it anyhow!”

[Pg 28]

“Oh, I see, a sort of usurer.”

“Ushurer? aye that’s it; but a ushurer lives in the city an’ has laws to hould him in. But the gombeen has nayther law nor the fear iv law. He’s like wan that the Scriptures says ‘grinds the faces iv the poor.’ Begor! it’s him that’d do little for God’s sake if the divil was dead!”

“Then I suppose this man Murdock is a man of means—a rich man in his way?”

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