Witches Cove

r away Monhegan, the old Fort Skammel mystery was not entirely neglected

tly been taken up by a wealthy benefactress, found life hanging heavy on her hands. The ladies in the big summer cottage on the hill, which was h

off the rocks at the back of the island and was promptly an

for any wild and desperate adventure. Hiring a punt fr

he old fort was as motionless and silent as were th

ore so? Like the schoolhouse by the road,

otruded, than all this was changed. As if to make reality doubly real, the sun for a moment passed under a

d to turn back. Just in time she th

down the ancient stone stairway. "Down a long passage, around a curve, through a small

like an oil painting on the floor, she probably could not have told. Perhaps she did not expect it. That

ld herself. "It's really her my

wn the narrow passageway t

that moment she would have been surprised and sta

and trying without much success to get the consent of her mind to enjoy the swordfish m

ring two hundred feet above the sea, was glorious beyond compare. The day was clear. There was no storm, yet great br

line of fast racing gray-green surf, they suddenl

she exclaimed as, springing from her rocky

a rugged trail that led downwa

grave danger, might seem strange. Strange or not, she walked deliberately now. Dropping here, clinging there to drop

he could reach the ones below in less than a mom

ittle bitterly. "Wouldn't be so bad if

ndangering their lives by playing in the high rolling surf wer

d the two dancing figures before her

e was no wind, no storm upon the sea. But there had been a storm somewhere. That was evident. It might have happened on the faraway coast of Florida. No

man's cabin by the sea, she knew the ocean was no plaything. Twice in her short life she had looked

ild, nymph-like daring of the twelve-year-old girl who in a single cotton garment drenched with salt spray, hatle

the spray hid her. S

here! She

girl, drenched, chilled but triumph

s. They never quarrel. They are generous to a fault. And yet-" she paused for a moment to reflect,

s it. Too much fear was destruct

drifted away from the boy and girl on the rocks. She joyed in the beauty and power of nature revealed in that long

here. Governor Bradford of Plymouth Plantation was once there. And, at this very moment, Ruth caught

and trying to estimate the amount of power th

t spray forty feet high on Black Head's impregnable stronghold. Th

ed tensely once more. "She

With a scream of triumph the

r seen them," sh

all the bright glories of life before her, is somethin

oung people who knew so little of fear and of the sea into the pres

the tiny harbor at Monhegan, a cry had struck her ear. She had taken it for a cry of distress. Surf had been rushing in masses of gray foam ove

ars. Their boat will be

nt of losing her motor boat, she had work

ere using the ocean as a plaything. Having thrown an anchor attached to a lo

ovidence had

e told herself. "I'll leave this i

her ear. No cry of joy, this. As she looked she saw the boy alone on the slan

out there! She'

he same instant an old man, his gray hairs flyi

eached the sp

that no white-haired patriarch could b

new something more. He had measured the boy'

denly panic-stricken and heart-broken

. "If someone is to undo the harm done by your recklessness

r than she. The time had come when she must

are into the arms of a gigantic wave to be carried away by it toward the spot where the white speck, which had a moment before

ll always remain a part of

out, OUT. Nothing else could save them. By a great good fortune this was a moment of comparative calm. But such calms are deceiving. Ruth was not to be deceived. The ocean was a cat playing wi

. There is life," she to

ng its crest, she caught a glimpse of that slig

still battling feebly against th

Now she had covered half the distance, now two-thirds, and now she reached

she mu

shot out. She grasped a shred of white. It

the other. Swimming now with all her might, she

one higher than the last, carried them toward the terrible wall of stone. Now they were five

ad been laid upon the water and a mighty voice ha

younger girl's eyes, re

o my blouse? I c

a grip at the collar t

er out, safer. But Ruth's strength was waning. Th

prow cut a wave a hundred yards beyond t

th joy. Captain Field is the youngest

said, huskily. The girl's

waves snatched them away as they were upon the point of being drawn aboard. But in the end, steady nerves, strong muscles and brave hearts won. Dripping, exhausted, but tri