do. The beast can't be far away. And the
Bo'sun's Mate and Joan must come too, because they can't be left alone.
Hubbard, you take the right shore, and you, Sangree, the left, and I'll
go in the middle with the women. In this way we can stretch clean across
the ridge, and nothing bigger than a rabbit can possibly escape us." He
was extraordinarily excited, I thought. Anything affecting Joan, of
course, stirred him prodigiously. "Get your guns and we'll start the
drive at once," he cried. He lit another lantern and handed one each to
his wife and Joan, and while I ran to fetch my gun I heard him singing
to himself with the excitement of it all.

Meanwhile the dawn had come on quickly. It made the flickering lanterns
look pale. The wind, too, was rising, and I heard the trees moaning
overhead and the waves breaking with increasing clamour on the shore. In
the lagoon the boat dipped and splashed, and the sparks from the fire
were carried aloft in a stream and scattered far and wide.

We made our way to the extreme end of the island, measured our distances
carefully, and then began to advance. None of us spoke. Sangree and I,
with cocked guns, watched the shore lines, and all within easy touch and
speaking distance. It was a slow and blundering drive, and there were
many false alarms, but after the best part of half an hour we stood on
the farther end, having made the complete tour, and without putting up
so much as a squirrel. Certainly there was no living creature on that
island but ourselves.

"I know what it is!" cried Maloney, looking out over the dim expanse of
grey sea, and speaking with the air of a man making a discovery; "it's a
dog from one of the farms on the larger islands"--he pointed seawards
where the archipelago thickened--"and it's escaped and turned wild. Our
fires and voices attracted it, and it's probably half starved as well as
savage, poor brute!"

No one said anything in reply, and he began to sing again very low to
himself.

The point where we stood--a huddled, shivering group--faced the wider
channels that led to the open sea and Finland. The grey dawn had broken
in earnest at last, and we could see the racing waves with their angry
crests of white. The surrounding islands showed up as dark masses in the
distance, and in the east, almost as Maloney spoke, the sun came up with
a rush in a stormy and magnificent sky of red and gold. Against this
splashed and gorgeous background black clouds, sh