| JTM Books
Streets of Gold
One Square Mile of Mayhem
Sister Mommy
Honest John
Thin Ice
Biography
Book Cover Photos
|
|
|
Synopsis:
A half century following the end of the Great Potato Famine in Ireland, the modern saga of the Mahony clan near the turn of the twentieth century had its roots. Maggie and James born and raised in County Kerry, unknown to each other as children, marries in America and discovers happiness, sadness and tribulations in their struggle to raise a family aganist enormous opposition.
The First in a series of six stories.
|
|
|
|
Excerpt:
A short time later, Paul and Benny entered the outpost and within fifteen minutes departed walking past a unoccupied supply shed where James had hidden. Facing in the other direction away from James, Paul tripped on the dirt path as he was grabbed by the elebow and given the "bum's rush" down a steep gully into a wooden area below the guard station. Benny running close behind, reached out for James but instead tumbled, rolling against a tree stump at the bottom of the hill.
"Unhand me or I'll call the guards," Paul protested. "I'll see you in prison," he said struggling to get free of James' grip.
"Go ahead. With the roar of the water not a soul will hear ya."
"What are you going to do with me?" Paul asked, glancing at Benny a dozen feet away in the mud striving to gain consciousness.
"You see that enclosure up ther with the railing overlooking the waterfall?"
Paul nodded, staring upward with a frighten look.
"I'm gonna tie your shillelagh to the iron post and swing ya back and forth 'til ya drop in the water. Then while you're fighting to get to shore, I'm gonna pee all over ya 'til ya drown, you bloody rat."
Marching him up the steep embankment, James dragged Paul to the stone floor of the protruding, enclosed ledge that overhung the small lake collecting the current of water, rushing from above. Next he slammed him against the rocky wall of the hill; and in one motion grabbed his ankles suspending him thirty feet above the water below.
"Are ya gonna be bothering the both of us anymore?" James shouted above the deafening roar of the falls. "Talk fast. I can't hold ya forever."
"Help!" Paul screamed. "You won't be hearing from me again," he yelled, struggling to jerk his head upward.
In the meantime Benny had worked his way up the hill and from a distance shouted to James, "Let him go."
"You want I should dump your boss in the lake, do ya now?"
"You know what I mean guv'ner. Pull him up!"
Yanking him to the level of the stone floor of the enclosure, James motioned for Benny to help Paul to his feet, then walking away chided, "Don't let me be catching the both of you in me sight again, boys."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
