ed
outline. It was near the shore of the northern one that the hut and
sheep-pen were built. Southwesterly from the hill and farther away,
Jeremy could see the head of the second and larger inlet. Between the
bays the distance could hardly have been more than two miles, but a high
ridge, the backbone of the island, which ran westward from the hilltop,
divided them by its rugged barrier.

Jeremy looked away up the bay where he could still see the speck of
white sail that showed his father hurrying landward on a long tack with
the west wind abeam. The boy's loneliness was gone. He felt himself the
lord of a great maritime province, which, from his high watchtower, he
seemed to hold in undisputed sovereignty.

Beneath him and off to the southward lay a little island or two, and
then the cold blue of the Atlantic stretching away and away to the
world's rim.

Even as he glowed with this feeling of dominion, he suddenly became
aware of a gray spot to the southwest, a tiny spot that nevertheless
interrupted his musing. It was a ship, apparently of good size, bound up
the coast, and bowling smartly nearer before the breeze. The boy's dream
of empire was shattered. He was no longer alone in his universe.

The sun was setting, and he turned with a yawn to descend. Ships were
interesting, but just now he was hungry. At the edge of the crevice he
looked back once more, and was surprised to see a second sail behind the
first--a smaller vessel, it seemed, but shortening the distance between
them rapidly. He was surprised and somewhat disgusted that so much
traffic should pass the doors of this kingdom which he had thought to be
at the world's end. So he clambered down the cliff and made his way
homeward, this time following the summit of the ridge till he came
opposite the northern inlet.

CHAPTER III

It was growing dark already in the dense fir growth that covered the
hillside, and when Jeremy suddenly stepped upon the moss at the brink of
a deep spring, he had to catch a branch to keep from falling in. There
was an opening in the trees above and enough light came through for him
to see the white sand bubbling at the bottom.

At one edge the water lapped softly over the moss and trickled down the
northern slope of the hill in a little rivulet, which had in the course
of time shaped itself a deep, well-defined bed a yard or two across.
Following this, the boy soon came out upon the grassy slope beside the
sheep-pen.