Casey never knew when he was beaten. Dwyer was
getting annoyed. He took Casey by the back of the neck and squeezed him.
Casey humped his shoulders and gasped. Dwyer stared about. A plough-rein
hung on the yard. Dwyer reached for it. Casey yelled, "Murder!" Dwyer
fastened one end of the rope round Casey's body--under the arms--and
stared about again. And again "Murder!" from Casey. Joe jumped off the
yard to get further away. A tree, with a high horizontal limb, stood near.
Dad once used it as a butcher's gallows. Dwyer gathered the loose rein
into a coil and heaved it over the limb, and hauled Casey up. Then he
tied the end of the rope to the yard and drove out the cows.
"When y' want 'im down," Dwyer said to Joe as he walked away,
"cut the rope."
Casey groaned, and one of his boots dropped off. Then he began to spin
round--to wind up and unwind and wind up again. Joe came near and eyed
the twirling form with joy.
Mother and Sal arrived, breathless and excited. They screeched at Joe.
"Undo th' r-r-rope," Joe said, "an' he'll come w-w--WOP."
Sal ran away and procured a sheet, and Mother and she held it under Casey,
and told Joe to unfasten the rope and lower him as steadily as he could.
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