Come on, so. [She goes forward with the others, and they drop the
double hitch over his head.]
CHRISTY. What ails you?
SHAWN -- [triumphantly, as they pull the rope tight on his arms.] -- Come on
to the peelers, till they stretch you now.
CHRISTY. Me!
MICHAEL. If we took pity on you, the Lord God would, maybe, bring us ruin
from the law to-day, so you'd best come easy, for hanging is an easy and a
speedy end.
CHRISTY. I'll not stir. (To Pegeen.) And what is it you'll say to me, and I
after doing it this time in the face of all?
PEGEEN. I'll say, a strange man is a marvel, with his mighty talk; but what's
a squabble in your back-yard, and the blow of a loy, have taught me that
there's a great gap between a gallous story and a dirty deed. (To Men.) Take
him on from this, or the lot of us will be likely put on trial for his deed
to-day.
CHRISTY -- [with horror in his voice.] -- And it's yourself will send me off,
to have a horny-fingered hangman hitching his bloody slip-knots at the butt of
my ear.
MEN -- [pulling rope.] -- Come on, will you? [He is pulled down on the floor.]
CHRISTY -- [twisting his legs round the table.] -- Cut the rope, Pegeen, and
I'll quit the lot of you, and live from this out, like the madmen of Keel,
eating muck and green weeds, on the faces of the cliffs.
PEGEEN. And leave us to hang, is it, for a saucy liar, the like of you? (To
men.) Take him on, out from this.
SHAWN. Pull a twist on his neck, and squeeze him so.
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