Shannon

“ As Shannon watched, a great light awoke within her, suddenly revealing the unsuspected existence of a wondrous thing that had come into her life—a thing which a moment later dragged her from her saddle and sent her stumbling down the hill into the burning ravine, to the side of Custer Pennington. ”

“ The spirit of Shannon was at peace.
His mind was calm, his own. He remained, outstretched foreclaws touching this new life, where death had been certain. His inner being was like the quiet surface of a pool. A tiny pebble fell into it, and as the ripples smoothed outward and the settled stone touched bottom, he understood.
"It is a strange truth that the path to beauty and meaning often lies through fear and ugliness." After a time another part of his being added this. "God may exist; at times I feel him. Yet we must walk dark paths alone, and endure." ”

“ The Proserpine brings me some cases of specie, but my true treasure is on board the Shannon. She carries my bride, sir."
"Oh, indeed! Miss Rolleston."
"Ah, I remember; you have seen her. Then you will not be surprised at a proposal I shall make you. Underwrite the Shannon a million pounds, to be paid by you if harm befalls my Helen. You need not look so astonished; I was only joking; you gentlemen deal with none but substantial values; and, as for me, a million would no more compensate me for losing her, than for losing my own life." ”

“ Then had followed quickly those lovely days in Dublin, she stopping with him as "Mrs. Henry Shannon" at a grand hotel. He had given her a wedding-ring, but while it remained upon her finger it was ever the little accusing symbol, filling her with an intense conviction of her sin.
This great adventure had marked the beginning of her acquaintance with the world beyond the valley, and, even now, through the gloom of her mood, she could remember it with a certain amount of gladness coming back to her mind. ”

“ Yes, this young man, this Ulick Shannon, was the son of Henry Shannon and Henry Shannon was the one who had brought the great darkness into her life.... It would [Pg 28] be queer, she thought, beyond all the queerness of the world, to see the son of that man and her son walking together through the valley. The things that must be said of them, the terrible sneer by which they would be surrounded—Henry Shannon's son and the son of Nan Byrne.... ”

“ Every bloom to be was so sweetly foretold to her in this warm air. She could not give it up. There must be something to live for and love. She suffered most from the breaking of this habit of loving. And the shock she had of discovering that she still loved her husband disturbed her more than the possible attitude Shannon might assume toward her. She was that far from suspecting, you understand, the imaginary activities of gossips who are never contented with the bare facts, but must invent explanations of these facts according to their fancies. ”

“ Downs's drunkenness and desertion, beyond doubt, were chargeable to her, as well as another and worse crime, unless all indications were at fault. Then there was the breach between Carmody and Shannon, formerly stanch friends and comrades, and now Carmody lay buried beneath the rocks in Bear Cañon, and Shannon, as gallant and useful a sergeant as ever served, had thrown to the winds his record of the past and his hopes for the future, and gone in mad pursuit of a worthless hoyden. And all because Clarice would have that woman with her wherever she might go. ”

“ The other was silent.
"What chance?" repeated Harrod. "And, when I tell you that she is unsuspicious, and that she reasons only with her heart, answer me—what chance has she with a man? For you know men, and so do I, Shannon, so do I."
"Who is she, Harrod?"
"The victim of divorced parents—awarded to her mother. Let her parents answer; they are answering now, Shannon. But their plea is no concern of yours. What concerns you is the living. The child, grown to womanhood, is here, advertising for employment—here in New York, asking for a chance. What chance has she?" ”

“ He shall find that he has met one worthy of his steel, one who will balk, thwart, and laugh at him. Or, if need be, Shannon, who will wipe him from the face of the earth!”
Shannon shrugged his broad shoulders and smiled grimly. It was not the first time that he had heard [100] such sentiments as these, and seen that same gleam and glitter in the eyes of the man confronting him, eyes with a glare like that of madness.
“You will not quit, then?” he said inquiringly.
“Quit!” Doctor Devoll sneered scornfully. “Only curs and cowards quit, Shannon, and throw up the sponge. Sit down at my desk. ”

“ And isn't it grand that Ulick Shannon is at home these times too? Isn't it a pity about Ulick, for he's a decent fellow? Every bit as decent as his father, Henry Shannon, was, and he was a damned decent fellow. Ah, 'tis a great pity of him to be exshpelled. Aye, 'tis a great pity of any one that does be exshpelled."
The meeting with Shamesy Golliher formed as a clearer picture before his mind.
"Arrah me sound man, John, sure I thought you'd be saying the Mass before this time. There's nothing strange in the valley at all. Only 'tis harder than ever to get the rabbits, the weeshy devils! ”

“ While these affairs were taking place, Shannon was having a lively time of it on our poop. He sprang away from the first rush upon him, but so covered our men that his own could not deliver an effective shot without danger of killing their leader. He bawled lustily for his mate, Brannigan, and, being so hard pressed, he could not turn to see what had happened, wondering why he had been so suddenly deserted.
Then he heard shouting recede astern, and, as he listened to Mr. Brannigan’s tongue expressing the grossest possible encomiums upon us, he realized the game was up. ”

“ Not every Inquisitor can tell truth from lies intended only to stop the pain, and most of us who do have that ability have developed it through long experience." He smiled at her in a way Shannon sensed was intended to express only approval, but hid a degree of affection the Raidmaster found both disgusting and amusing. "Go on, then."
Shannon watched critically as she began work. This would be a short interrogation—despite his bravado, the thief was a coward, and already terrified of the two Inquisitors—but it would tell him whether or not Cortin would make the grade. ”

“ But James Mullen, alias Captain Shannon, (271) was scarcely an object for pity, as I was soon reminded, for as he looked up my eye met his, and he read there, I suppose, something of what was passing through my mind. To such a man’s vanity the mere thought of being considered a possible object for pity is unendurable. It implies a consciousness of superiority on the part of the pitier which is resented more fiercely than an insult or a wrong. ”

“ But no man could restore to him the pride and self-respect that went when he realized that he was only one of several plucked and deluded victims of a female sharper. While the Frenchwoman ogled and languished behind the bars, Shannon wandered out into the world again, a deserter from the troop he was ashamed to face, an unfollowed, unsought fugitive among the mining camps in the Sierras. "Three stout soldiers stricken from the rolls—two of them gone to their last account," mused poor Plume, as at last he led his unhappy wife away to the sea, "and all the work of one woman!" ”

“ Shannon fled the Territory in fear of his life. When the troubles were over he came to Kansas and sought the pity and forgiveness of that city he had turned over to the tender mercies of a mob of ruffians. It need not be said that he could have done no better, for his successor, Gov. Geary, had only to speak a word and this tumult of disorder was instantly hushed.
As the years went by the people could not believe that a man that displayed so many good and amiable qualities could have been a party to such outrages as characterized his administration. He died in Lawrence very much respected. ”

“ At the time of our story, Henry Fitzgerald George Vandeleur Shannon was 15th Earl of Warbeck, and one Jane Shannon stood in the inconsiderable relation of niece to his lordship. Jane's father had been the fourth son of the late Earl—a kinship in itself sufficiently contemptible from the standpoint of the heir, but when the said fourth son married the daughter of a yeoman-farmer, he lost even the small right he had to twinkle in the Warbeck heaven, and was considered—not a fallen star, but no star at all. ”

“ Wyse would give out her full opinion of Ulick Shannon.
"He's the quare sort, just like his father. I don't think I've ever seen a son to take after his father so closely. And he was what you might call a quare character in his day. It was said that a girl as well as lost her good name if she was seen talking twice in succession to Henry Shannon, he was that bad. Like father, like son is surely the case between Henry and Ulick Shannon!"
This seemed at all times the strangest talk for Rebecca to be hearing.... It often caused her to shiver even though spring was well on its way. ”

“ Such a matter was it to remember where and when I had seen the face (40) that so reminded me of Captain Shannon. Day after day went by, and yet, cudgel my brains as I would, I could get no nearer to tracing the connection, and but for sheer obstinacy had pitched the whole concern out of my mind and gone about my business. Sometimes I was nigh persuaded that the thing I sought was sentient and alive, and was dodging me of pure devilry and set purpose. ”

“ Curtis, Jorg, and Bill had fallen upon the crowd pressing about the mate, and now some of the black pirates left the press there and came to Shannon’s aid. One of these sprang within the guard of the trader and smote him heavily. Then he dodged back again as Gull pressed him, cutting him again and again with lightning-like strokes, his cutlass-blade 283glinting like a flash of flame in the light of the lantern set upon the companion slide.
Shannon came steadily on. Yankee Dan reeled and struck out wildly. ”

“ The boy slipped from his saddle and flung Shannon's bridle over the gate-post. Then, as a thought struck him, he turned back and released him, buckling the reins into one stirrup.
“I don't dare to tie you up, old man,” he said. “The beastly fire might swing round. Go home, if you like. I can't take you across that hot ground.” He gave the chestnut's neck a hasty pat; then, putting one hand on the gate, he vaulted it cleanly and ran across the burnt ground. ”

“ Myles Shannon lived a quiet life there in his big house among the trees upon the side of Scarden, one of the hills which overlooked the valley. In lonely, silent moments he often thought of his brother Henry and of the strange manner in which he had burned out his life. With the end of his brother before him always as a deterrent example, he did not interest himself in women. He interested himself in the business of his cattle and sheep all through each and every day of the [Pg 65] year. ”

“ Jane Shannon was a typical pioneer mother. She spun, wove, knit, made leggings of skins, and caps and moccasins, but through multitudinous duties found time to teach her children. "To prepare them for college," she said, "that is my dream. I'd live on hoe-cake for ever to give them a chance." Every one of her six boys inherited that mother's spirit, every one attained distinction.
At fourteen George was sent to his mother's relatives on the Monongahela to school. Here he met Lewis, forted in that winter camp. ”

“ It is my private opinion that if the Lord has been in Springfield once, He will not come the second time!'"
Representative Shannon, previous to the war, had been an "Old Hunker" Democrat. Converted by the Rebellion, he had gone to the other extreme, and was one of the radical Abolitionists of the Thirty-Eighth Congress. ”

“ Dane hoped Shannon was correct in that belief. It would be more chancy than landing at the E-Stat or in the Big Burn—to gauge it just right and put them down on the Terraport apron where they could not be flamed out without destroying too much, where their very position would give them a bargaining point, was going to be a top star job. If Rip could only pull it off! ”

“ Shannon nodded contentedly to Kate Raeburn. “She grouches and growls, but she’s a good sport. She’s got on her best Cleopatra expression; and just look at that darling boy. He’s evidently met the Sphinx for the first time; and gaze at Bluet taking them in, eyes stretched! She’s Red Riding Hood getting her first glimpse of the wolf.”
“I think you’re playing a particularly meddlesome and dangerous game—considering Agra,” said Kate Raeburn dubiously.
“What do you expect of a born gambler?” asked Shannon with her customary blitheness. “I always win on the long chance.” ”

“ Why did everyone say Johnny Shannon was a boy? Inside he was older than most of the men Drew had known—as old and [pg 130] cold as the desert rocks in nighttime. Again the Kentuckian was teased by a scrap of memory. Once before he had seen old eyes in a boy's face, when it had meant deadly danger for him.
"When a man has somethin' as belongs to him, he doesn't step aside easy if another makes a play to grab it," he said.
For the first time then he did see a flicker in Shannon's eyes. And his hand tightened so on the reins that some fraction of his reaction must have reached Shiloh. ”

“ SEANN (Gadhelic) ,
old; e.g. Shanmullagh (the old summit) ; Shandrum (the old ridge) ; Shangarry (the old garden) ; Shanbally and Shanvally (the old dwelling) ; Shanbo, Shanboe, and Shanbogh (the old hut) , in Ireland; also Shankill (old church) , and Shandon, Irish Seandun (old fort) . There are several places in Ireland called Shannon from this word, but it is uncertain what is the origin of the R. Shannon, whose ancient name was Senos; Sanquhar, Gael. Seann-Cathair (the old fortress) , in Dumfriesshire, named from an old castle near the town.
SEE (Ger.) ,
ZEE (Dutch) ,
a lake or sea; e.g. ”