“You may be sure the ould fellow looked darker and grimmer than ever at Jack:  but what could he do?  Jack had done his duty? so he sat before the fire, and sung ‘Love among the Roses,’ and the ‘Black Joke,’ with a stouter and a lighter heart than ever, while the black chap, could have seen him skivered.

“When midnight came, Jack, who kept a hawk’s eye to the night, was at the hawthorn with the wild filly, saddled and all—­more betoken, she wasn’t a bit wild then, but as tame as a dog.  Off they set, like Erin-go-bragh, Jack and the lady, and never pulled bridle till it was one o’clock next day, when they stopped at an inn, and had some refreshment.  They then took to the road again, full speed; however, they hadn’t gone far, when they heard a great noise behind them, and the tramp of horses galloping like mad.  ‘Jack,’ says the darling, on hearing the hubbub, ‘look behind you, and see what’s this.’

[Illustration PAGE 676—­ Throw it over your left shoulder]

“‘Och! by the elevens,’ says Jack, ’we’re done at last; it’s the dark fellow, and half the country after us.’  ‘Put your hand,’ says she, ’in the filly’s right ear, and tell me what you find in it.’  ’Nothing at all,’ says Jack, ‘but a weeshy bit of a dry stick.’  ’Throw it over your left shoulder says she, ‘and see what will happen.’  Jack did so at once, and there was a great grove of thick trees growing so close to one another, that a dandy could scarcely get his arm betwixt them.  ‘Now,’ said she, ‘we are safe for another day.’  ‘Well,’ said Jack, as he pushed on the filly, ’you’re the jewel of the world, sure enough; and maybe it’s you that won’t live happy when we get to the Jim of the Ocean.’

“As soon as dark-face saw what happened, he was obliged to scour the country for hatchets and hand-saws, and all kinds of sharp instruments, to hew himself and his men a passage through the grove.  As the saying goes, many hands make light work, and sure enough, it wasn’t long till they had cleared a way for themselves, thick as it was, and set off with double speed after Jack and the lady.

“The next day, about’ one o’clock, he and she were after taking another small refreshment of roast-beef and porther, and pushing on, as before, when they heard the same tramping behind them, only it was ten times louder.

“‘Here they are again,’ says Jack; ’and I’m afeard they’ll come up with us at last.’

“‘If they do,’ says she, ’they’ll put us to death on the spot; but we must try somehow to stop them another day, if we can; search the filly’s right ear again, and let me know what you find in it.’

“Jack pulled out a little three-cornered pebble, telling her that it was all he got; ‘well,’ says she, ’throw it over your left shoulder like the stick.’