THE SNIPER 3 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.1 Around the beleaguered Four Courts2 the IDENTIFY heavy guns roared. Here and there through the city, machine guns and Re-read the opening paragraph. rifles broke the silence of the night, spasmodically, like dogs barking on In what month does the story lone farms. Republicans and Free Staters were waging civil war. take place? Underline the On a rooftop near O’Connell Bridge, a Republican sniper lay sentence that tells you. What city is the setting? Circle the watching. Beside him lay his rifle and over his shoulders was slung a correct answer. 10 pair of field glasses. His face was the face of a student, thin and ascetic,3 INFER but his eyes had the cold gleam of the fanatic. They were deep and What inference can you make thoughtful, the eyes of a man who is used to looking at death. about the sniper’s character, He was eating a sandwich hungrily. He had eaten nothing since based on lines 8–12? Write your conclusion. morning. He had been too excited to eat. He finished the sandwich, and, taking a flask of whiskey from his pocket, he took a short draft. Then he returned the flask to his pocket. He paused for a moment, considering whether he should risk a smoke. It was dangerous. The flash might be seen in the darkness, and there were enemies watching. He decided to take the risk. 20 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 parapet4 of the roof. The sniper took another whiff and put out the cigarette. Then he swore softly and crawled away PREDICT to the left. What do you think may Cautiously he raised himself and peered over the parapet. There was happen to the sniper? Write a flash and a bullet whizzed over his head. He dropped immediately. He a prediction. had seen the flash. 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 30 parapet. There was nothing to be seen—just the dim outline of the opposite housetop against the blue sky. His enemy was under cover. Just then an armored car came across the bridge and advanced slowly up the street. It stopped on the opposite side of the street, fifty yards ahead. The sniper could hear the dull panting of the motor. His INTERPRET heart beat faster. It was an enemy car. He wanted to fire, but he knew it What is the “gray monster” in was useless. His bullets would never pierce the steel that covered the line 37? Circle the answer. 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 40 the car. She was pointing to the roof where the sniper lay. An informer.
1. Liffey: river that runs through Dublin.
2. beleaguered (b§‡l§ºgßd) Four Courts: government buildings in Dublin that were surrounded and under attack. 3. ascetic (√‡setºik): extremely self-disciplined and severe. 4. parapet (parº√‡petª): low wall or railing.
4 PART 1 READING LITERATURE
The turret opened. A man’s head and shoulders appeared, looking toward the sniper. The sniper raised his rifle and fired. The head fell heavily on the turret wall. The woman darted toward the side street. The sniper fired again. The woman whirled round and fell with a shriek into the gutter. RETELL Suddenly from the opposite roof a shot rang out and the sniper Summarize the events narrated dropped his rifle with a curse. The rifle clattered to the roof. The sniper in lines 46–49. thought the noise would wake the dead. He stooped to pick the rifle up. He couldn’t lift it. His forearm was dead. “I’m hit,” he muttered. 50 Dropping flat onto the roof, he crawled back to the parapet. With his left hand he felt the injured right forearm. 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. Quickly he drew his knife from his pocket, opened it on the breastwork5 of the parapet, and ripped open the sleeve. There was a small hole where the bullet had entered. On the other side there was no hole. The bullet had lodged in the bone. 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. 60 Then taking out his field dressing, he ripped open the packet with INFER his knife. He broke the neck of the iodine bottle and let the bitter fluid What can you infer about the drip into the wound. A paroxysm6 of pain swept through him. He placed sniper’s character, based on the cotton wadding over the wound and wrapped the dressing over it. the steps he takes to treat his wound? He tied the ends with his teeth. Then he lay still against the parapet, and, closing his eyes, he made an effort of will to overcome the pain. In the street beneath all was still. The armored car had retired speedily over the bridge, with the machine gunner’s head hanging lifeless over the turret. The woman’s corpse lay still in the gutter. 70 The sniper lay still for a long time nursing his wounded arm and planning escape. Morning must not find him wounded on the roof. The enemy on the opposite roof covered his escape. He must kill that enemy PREDICT and he could not use his rifle. He had only a revolver to do it. Then he What do you think the sniper’s thought of a plan. plan might be?
Taking off his cap, he placed it over the muzzle of his rifle. 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. The sniper slanted the rifle forward. The cap slipped down into the street. Then, 80 catching the rifle in the middle, the sniper dropped his left hand over the roof and let it hang, lifelessly. After a few moments he let the rifle drop to the street. Then he sank to the roof, dragging his hand with him.
5. breastwork: low wall put up as a military defense.
6. paroxysm (parº√ks‡izª√m): sudden attack; fit.
THE SNIPER 5 Crawling quickly to the left, he peered up at the corner of the roof. His ruse had succeeded. The other sniper, seeing the cap and rifle fall, thought that he had killed his man. He was now standing before a row of chimney pots, looking across, with his head clearly silhouetted against the western sky. INFER How has the sniper’s trick The Republican sniper smiled and lifted his revolver above the edge succeeded? Underline the of the parapet. The distance was about fifty yards—a hard shot in the sentence above giving the 90 dim light, and his right arm was paining him like a thousand devils. He answer. took a steady aim. His hand trembled with eagerness. Pressing his lips together, he took a deep breath through his nostrils and fired. He was almost deafened with the report and his arm shook with the recoil. BUILD FLUENCY Then when the smoke cleared he peered across and uttered a cry Read this passage aloud. Use of joy. His enemy had been hit. He was reeling over the parapet in his a tone of voice that is suitable death agony. He struggled to keep his feet, but he was slowly falling for the setting and the atmosphere, or mood. forward, as if in a dream. 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. 100 Then the dying man on the roof crumpled up and fell forward. The body turned over and over in space and hit the ground with a dull thud. IDENTIFY Then it lay still. Circle three details that show The sniper looked at his enemy falling and he shuddered. The lust of the sniper’s sudden change of battle died in him. He became bitten by remorse. The sweat stood out in mood. beads on his forehead. 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. His teeth chattered, he began to INTERPRET gibber to himself, cursing the war, cursing himself, cursing everybody. What effect does war have now He looked at the smoking revolver in his hand, and with an oath on the sniper? 110 he hurled it to the roof at his feet. The revolver went off with the concussion and the bullet whizzed past the sniper’s head. He was frightened back to his senses by the shock. His nerves steadied. The cloud of fear scattered from his mind and he laughed. Taking the whiskey flask from his pocket, he emptied it at a draft. He felt reckless under the influence of the spirit. He decided to leave the roof now and look for his company commander, to report. Everywhere around was quiet. There was not much danger in going through the streets. He picked up his revolver and put it in his pocket. Then he crawled down through the skylight to the house underneath. 120 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. He decided that he was a good shot, whoever he was. He wondered did he know him. Perhaps he had been in his own company before the split in the army. He decided to risk going over to have a look at him. He peered around the corner into O’Connell Street. In the upper part of the street there was heavy firing, but around here all was quiet.
6 PART 1 READING LITERATURE
The sniper darted across the street. A machine gun tore up the ground around him with a hail of bullets, but he escaped. He threw himself face downward beside the corpse. The machine gun stopped. 130 Then the sniper turned over the dead body and looked into his brother’s face. INFER What does this ending imply about the writer’s attitude toward the civil war?
