one with excitement. "It--it--it was a wild beast's
tracks, Jean. This long--" He measured off about twelve inches between
his trembling hands--"and it had claws--big ones that digged deep into
the sand!"

"But there are no beasts on the Island, Loll! You must be mistaken!"

"No, no!" Loll's face quivered in his anxiety to convince her of the
truth of his statements. Knowing the youngster's unconscious tendency
toward exaggeration, she was doubtful. There could be no animal on the
Island. But . . . to make sure . . . she herself would go back to see.

She looked about for Kobuk, but the dog had gone on toward the bluff.
Impressing on Loll the necessity of remaining where he was until she
should come back she turned toward the lake again, running.

As she drew near the margin, unreasoning terror of the unknown began to
take possession of her. Every pile of driftwood, every alder bush
became alive with sinister possibilities. She drove herself forward.
She could see the stretch of sand where Loll had stood. She could see
that there were marks of some kind upon it. Trembling, fearful, her
heart beating like a hammer in her breast, she pressed forward and
looked closely at the marks. . . . Loll was right. Here on Kon Klayu
were monster tracks of--what she did not know.

She wheeled swiftly and ran back to where the boy waited. Without a
word she snatched his hand and fled with him down the beach toward the
bluff and home.

Kobuk, far in advance, was picking his way along the bluff, and now as
they ran Jean became aware that a new danger threatened them. The tide
had come in so far that even from a distance she could see the foam of
spent breakers washing up against the rocky wall ahead. Boreland had
said to wait until the tide fell, before attempting to pass the bluff,
but with the new, strange terror behind them, she had no thought of
obeying. The sea, roaring almost at her feet, seemed kinder and more
to be trusted than the unknown beast lurking in the alders, or perhaps
slinking along, even now, above the beach line, watching, waiting to
spring out at them any moment.

Arrived at the bluff she saw, with dismay, that all along, the
back-wash of breakers licked the base. She stopped, tightening her
hold on Loll's hand. She looked a long moment at the huge rollers of
the incoming tide that crashed so close to her, and then back from
whence she had come.

Loll raised his sober little face to the s