Us and the Bottle Man

ally was,-not big at all for an island, but very large for a bare, off-shore rock. I should say that it was just about the bigness of an ordinary house, and very black and beetling, with not a spe

ng a big piece of stone on top of the rope. There was nothing like a beach or even a shelving rock to pull it up on, so that was the best

ly have buried it, unless they'd hewn places in the living rock, like ancient Egyptians. We might have thought of that before, but of course we didn't honestly believe that there was treasure. Somehow the Sea Monster didn't seem nearly so jolly and exciting as it had from Wecanicut. It was so real and big, and whenever a wave came in, it boomed and echoed u

ce well," I said;

he waves must be bigger, or something

sharp ripples all over it, and the waves went slap and frothed white when they hit the rock. The sky had changed, too. It wa

l be late for the next ferry, as it is, and Father

already, judging by the sun. Come along, Greg, and

a Monster threw a long, queer shadow on the water, as if the

t," he shouted,

ggled off by the boat's pulling harder when a wave lifted it. The stone rolled in cornery bounces, with a dull noise, and the rope slipped after it slowly.

!" Jerry said.

. But he plunged wildly, nearly pulling me in, an

aid queerly. "I believe the thin

ietly, as if it were trying to decide which way to go, and then it drifted gently

sun was really low. I don't think Greg altogether realized what had happened. We'd playe

as I live, what a brick Jerry was through the who

nd side. Greg, you climb up on top. If any of us sees a boat near enou

the others had gone, I remembered that Greg had on slippery-soled shoes instead of sneakers, which we usually wear. I thought of calling after him to be caref

, people think of all their past sins when they're in perilous positions, but all I could think of was that a boat must come before dark. I did think of how much it all was my fault, but that was not far enough in the past to count. Presently Jerry came back and said

ly pretending he's the King of the Cannibal

ay," I said, trying to forget the Sea Monster for

p to his name, then," said Jerry. "Keep

ver of sun disappeared behind the point, and the lighthouse on the Headland came out sudde

to think that people are there

e than que

l again, till pre

that funny

supposed it was the horrid noise the water made around on the ot

uck into those echoey hollows. It so

t!" I

toward me and said i

e it could pos

ittle as though something heavy dropped from my throat down to my toes, through me, leaving me all empty, with col

Greg.... It

it

m under him, he pushed me a little and said, "No, no," so I stopped. Then I saw that his right arm was twisted under him horridly and that his shoulder looked all wrong. I touched it very gently and asked him if it was that, and

l like his, and his hand was perfectly cold when I snatched it. I suppose he'd fainted from our carrying him so stupidly, but I'd never seen anybody do it before and I didn't know that was the way it looked. I'd never heard of people dying from hurting their arms, but I thought that perhaps he w

not try to take them off in the ordinary way, so he took out his knife and ripped up the sleeve of Greg's jumper and the shoulder-seam of the white brocaded waistcoat. I don't see how people can stand being Red Cross nurses in France, for I'm sure I never could be one. Greg's shoulder was quite awful,-what we

't listen. So we just sat there in the dark-it was perfectly dark now and we couldn't see one another at all-and I began to count t

hungry,

t, and asked him if

not v

orrid than the noise the water made. It seemed like midnight, but it was really quite early in the evening, when Jerry saw the lights bobbing along the shore of Wecanicut. They were lanterns, two of them, and they stopped quite often, as if the people

nt shouts. Jerry and I braced our feet against the slimy rocks and shrieked into the dark, and

said. "Oh, Chris, the wind is

d, but you can't imagine how high and thin both our voices sounded o

... Jer-r-r-

t to sea, away from Wecanicut. The lanterns stood quite still for a minute more, and then they bobbed away. At first I didn't be

ddenly, in a queer, wheezy voice. He'd

, and my own voice wa

me hard on the

hris! Good

l could hear the way Father's own voice had sounded, calling "Chris-ti-ine!" We almost

ind of way, and Jerry touched my hand s