Vocabulary from "The Sniper"

The long June twilight faded into night.

Dublin lay enveloped in darkness but for the dim light of the moon that shone through fleecy clouds, casting a pale light as of approaching dawn over the streets and the dark waters of the Liffey.

Dublin lay enveloped in darkness but for the dim light of the moon that shone through fleecy clouds, casting a pale light as of approaching dawn over the streets and the dark waters of the Liffey.

Dublin lay enveloped in darkness but for the dim light of the moon that shone through fleecy clouds, casting a pale light as of approaching dawn over the streets and the dark waters of the Liffey.

Around the beleaguered Four Courts the heavy guns roared.

Around the beleaguered Four Courts the heavy guns roared.

Here and there through the city, machine guns and rifles broke the silence of the night, spasmodically, like dogs barking on lone farms.

Here and there through the city, machine guns and rifles broke the silence of the night, spasmodically, like dogs barking on lone farms.

Republicans and Free Staters were waging civil war.

Republicans and Free Staters were waging civil war.

His face was the face of a student, thin and ascetic, but his eyes had the cold gleam of the fanatic.

His face was the face of a student, thin and ascetic, but his eyes had the cold gleam of the fanatic.

His face was the face of a student, thin and ascetic, but his eyes had the cold gleam of the fanatic.

They were deep and thoughtful, the eyes of a man who is used to looking at death.

He finished the sandwich, and, taking a flask of whiskey from his pocket, he took a short drought.

He paused for a moment, considering whether he should risk a smoke.

Placing a cigarette between his lips, he struck a match, inhaled the smoke hurriedly and put out the light.

Almost immediately, a bullet flattened itself against the parapet of the roof.

Almost immediately, a bullet flattened itself against the parapet of the roof.

The sniper took another whiff and put out the cigarette.

Cautiously he raised himself and peered over the parapet.

Cautiously he raised himself and peered over the parapet.

It came from the opposite side of the street.

He rolled over the roof to a chimney stack in the rear, and slowly drew himself up behind it, until his eyes were level with the top of the parapet.

Just then an armored car came across the bridge and advanced slowly up the street.

The sniper could hear the dull panting of the motor.

He wanted to fire, but he knew it was useless.

His bullets would never pierce the steel that covered the gray monster.

Then round the corner of a side street came an old woman, her head covered by a tattered shawl.

She began to talk to the man in the turret of the car.

The woman whirled round and fell with a shriek into the gutter.

The woman whirled round and fell with a shriek into the gutter.

Suddenly from the opposite roof a shot rang out and the sniper dropped his rifle with a curse.

He stooped to pick the rifle up.

"I'm hit," he muttered.

The blood was oozing through the sleeve of his coat.

There was no pain--just a deadened sensation, as if the arm had been cut off.

It must have fractured it.

He bent the arm below the wound. the arm bent back easily.

He ground his teeth to overcome the pain.

He broke the neck of the iodine bottle and let the bitter fluid drip into the wound.

A paroxysm of pain swept through him.

The woman's corpse lay still in the gutter.

Then he pushed the rifle slowly upward over the parapet, until the cap was visible from the opposite side of the street.

Almost immediately there was a report, and a bullet pierced the center of the cap.

He was now standing before a row of chimney pots, looking across, with his head clearly silhouetted against the western sky.

The Republican sniper smiled and lifted his revolver above the edge of the parapet.

His hand trembled with eagerness.

He was almost deafened with the report and his arm shook with the recoil.

Then when the smoke cleared, he peered across and uttered a cry of joy.

He was reeling over the parapet in his death agony.

The rifle fell from his grasp, hit the parapet, fell over, bounded off the pole of a barber's shop beneath and then clattered on the pavement.

He became bitten by remorse.

Weakened by his wound and the long summer day of fasting and watching on the roof, he revolted from the sight of the shattered mass of his dead enemy.

He looked at the smoking revolver in his hand, and with an oath he hurled it to the roof at his feet.

The revolver went off with a concussion and the bullet whizzed past the sniper's head.

The cloud of fear scattered from his mind and he laughed.

He felt reckless under the influence of the spirit.

He felt reckless under the influence of the spirit.

When the sniper reached the laneway on the street level, he felt a sudden curiosity as to the identity of the enemy sniper whom he had killed.

When the sniper reached the laneway on the street level, he felt a sudden curiosity as to the identity of the enemy sniper whom he had killed.

A machine gun tore up the ground around him with a hail of bullets, but he escaped.