Witches Cove

be shot across the floor, climbed a stone wall, then suddenly blinked out. The yellow gleam of a tallow candle shot downward. A tin can struck the floor with

t night. Yet it was not the darkness that affected her most

fire, and through that red ba

! I must have blinded him. How perfe

ndle was out. She had counted on the candle to show her the way. The way s

inking feeling at the pit of he

ge a sham battle. And

e. What was the man doing here in the heart of the ol

close to the stone floor

did not injure him after all. He may be at my very feet now. C

a penny box of them in her pocket. Until no

ng to light one. When the fourth flared u

was lit. Then, with bulging

e told hersel

ard. Still nothing. She a

n to shudder again. Had the Roman candle she had fired into the dark revealed a lurk

she told he

no good purpose-couldn't be. I couldn't have blinded him, else he could not have found his way t

lf, she went racing on tip-toe

f standing in a stone archway, looking out upon a sort of op

rs to the rats and bats that have found a home there. Yet there is somet

nd Pearl at the foot of its massive masonr

d Pearl Bracket, for a little picnic. Having been brought up on the island across the bay

Ruth had said,

cats," s

" said Ruth. "Won't hurt

w of the sunset, "I never see a sunset but I feel like I'd like to

"I sometimes feel

ve travel

so

nd traveled on the Great Lakes. And now you're here.

all its own. When you come to it you feel that you have f

th, "but of course I've

everywhe

a hundred miles from here, is one of the most interesting islands in the worl

s headline is bold, a hundred, two hundred feet high. These rocks have strange names. Burnt Head, White Head, Black Head and Skull Rock, that's the names they've given them. They say you can catch beefsteak

onesome,"

s, I guess so. The sea always makes me feel small

amed of the part that bewitching island would play

h with a bundle of Roman candles and a tallow candle stuck in a tin can, they had made their way silently do

aid with a shudder. The sound of her v

g, steep stairway, across a circular court, then into a narro

here! I h

burning candle. "Get a light fro

r a second, then jumped as pop-pop-pop, three balls of fire went shooting down

ways and resounding corridors had sounded the tramp-tramp-tramp of marching soldiers. Through long night watches in time of peace, in stress of war, weary night g

und, some prisoner has sat in solitary confinement to meditate upon his act of

ay down separate corridors to meet sooner or later with screams of terror and laug

llow fire. More often than not it was a rat or a bat that drew the fire, but there is quit

lf alone in a remote corner of the fort and, hearing a soun

one," she told herself. "W

h that strange man," she tol

it she knew well enough, and w

thought with a little tightening at the throat. "They are such good pals. An

very uncomfortable indee

same grade at school, they were always together. At the beach, swimming, boating and

herself, "where is sh

he turned about to go in

byrinth, passages running up and down, this way an

ming? Or, was it some other person, the man of the face in t

here?" There came no answer. "H

at mysterious face, and what i

ir island that overlooks Portland harbor. They had dropped to places beside her, and together for a time they had listened to the bang-bang of fireworks a

d be able to do something for our country, something as brave and

u can honor these by helping to make this th

ed to our hallowed dead, you can help prevent their being defaced or defiled or used for any purpo

, "what sort of den I came upon

he resolve that, come what might, the whole a

ld come!" she whi

?" sounded out in a shri

es! Her

Pearl began to babble excitedly.

y?

talk. C

hree dark forms in it crept

reathed with greater freedom; but even here, as they climbed the steep board stairway that led

at them from here and there, they paused for a moment to whisper together, then

gone when I looked out of the window thi

Black Gull!" Pearl always felt this way

expect the owner of the boat to steal it himsel

all sure the bolts of cloth were silk by this time) and the dory fr

trange face it was, dark and hairy and eyes that gleamed sort of red

o back," said Pearl

Daytime would be different. And someone should go. If that gr

," said Pearl. "Smuggling in goods and men, they say. All sort

"That's what he was! One of them,

ho

the face in

be sure,"

ntil we go back there.

on the slope, Pearl to her home on the water front,

felt that the cozy and comfortable little world she knew, the bay, the cluster

had come sweeping down u

ays longed for these, but now they have begun to come I-I somehow f

t she fe