Keane begged him most earnestly to go with him as he said he _must_ pass the Foul Fords that night, and he would rather go through hell-fire than do so.

Michie asked him why he said he _must_ pass the Foul Fords, as by going a few yards on either side of them he might avoid them entirely.

He persisted that he _must_ pass them and Michie at last left him, a good deal surprised that he should talk of going over the Foul Fords when every one knew that he and his whole family were bound, by a promise to their dead father, never to go by the place.
"Next morning a labouring man from Castle Shields, by name Adam Redpath, was going to his work (digging sheep-drains on the moor), when on the Foul Fords he met Henry Keane lying stone dead and with no mark of violence on his body.

His hat, coat, waistcoat, shoes and stockings were lying at about 100 yards distance from him on the Greenlaw side of the Fords, and while his flannel drawers were off and lying with the rest of his clothes, his trousers were on.

Mr.Ord, the minister of Longformacus, told one or two persons what John Keane (the father) had said to him on his deathbed, and by degrees the story got abroad.