abode of a sorcerer named Jochmus. To secure quiet he
would frequently visit this isolated place, in spite of the resident
devil, the devil-fish, or the devil-strip of treacherous water which ran
between.

He was not ten when, to the amazement of his friends in imitation of
Leander but without the same inducements, he swam the half mile to the
reefs of Castle Cornet and back again, through a boiling sea and
rip-tides that ran like mill-races. This performance he repeated again
and again. For milder amusement he would tramp to the water-lane that
stole through the Moulin Huet, a bower of red roses and perfume, or walk
by moonlight to the mystic cromlechs, where the early pagans and the
warlocks and witches of later days flitted round the ruined altars.

Though Isaac was self-contained and resolute he had a restless spirit.
Fearless, without a touch of the braggart, his courage was of the
valiant order, the quality that accompanies a lofty soul in a strong
body. For his constant courtesy and habit of making sacrifices for his
friends, he was in danger of being canonized by his school-fellows.

About this time, shortly after his father's death, it was suggested he
should leave the Queen Elizabeth School on the Island and study at
Southampton. Here he tried his best, boy though he was, to live up to
the standard of what he had been told were his obligations as a
gentleman, acquiring, too, a little book-learning and much every-day
knowledge.

Isaac's holidays, always spent in his beloved Guernsey, increased the
thirst for adventure. The spirit of conquest, the controlling influence
of his after life, grew upon him. Something accomplished, something
done, was the daily rule. To scale an impossible cliff with the wings of
circling sea-fowl beating in his face, to land a big conger eel without
receiving a shock, to rescue a partridge from a falcon, to shoot a
rabbit at fifty paces, to break a wild pony, or even to scan a
complicated line in his syntax--these were achievements, small perhaps,
but typical of his desire. His young soul was stirred; the blood coursed
in his veins as the sap courses in the trees of the forest in spring;
his mind, susceptible to the influences of nature, was strengthened and
purified by these pursuits.

In the shelter of silent trossach, on wind-swept height, or on wildest,
ever-restless sea, he would, as the mood seized him, take his solitary
outings. These jaunts, he told his mother, gave him