PHILLY. Twist yourself. Sure he cannot hurt you, if you keep your distance
from his teeth alone.
SHAWN. I'm afeard of him. (To Pegeen.) Lift a lighted sod, will you, and
scorch his leg.
PEGEEN -- [blowing the fire, with a bellows.] Leave go now, young fellow, or
I'll scorch your shins.
CHRISTY. You're blowing for to torture me (His voice rising and growing
stronger.) That's your kind, is it? Then let the lot of you be wary, for, if
I've to face the gallows, I'll have a gay march down, I tell you, and shed the
blood of some of you before I die.
SHAWN -- [in terror.] -- Keep a good hold, Philly. Be wary, for the love of
God. For I'm thinking he would liefest wreak his pains on me.
CHRISTY -- [almost gaily.] -- If I do lay my hands on you, it's the way you'll
be at the fall of night, hanging as a scarecrow for the fowls of hell. Ah,
you'll have a gallous jaunt I'm saying, coaching out through Limbo with my
father's ghost.
SHAWN -- [to Pegeen.] -- Make haste, will you? Oh, isn't he a holy terror,
and isn't it true for Father Reilly, that all drink's a curse that has the lot
of you so shaky and uncertain now?
CHRISTY. If I can wring a neck among you, I'll have a royal judgment looking
on the trembling jury in the courts of law. And won't there be crying out in
Mayo the day I'm stretched upon the rope with ladies in their silks and satins
snivelling in their lacy kerchiefs, and they rhyming songs and ballads on the
terror of my fate? [He squirms round on the floor and bitesShawn's leg.
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