slope to the small log shack,
some two hundred yards away.

Jeremy's father helped him drive the sheep into a rude fenced pen beside
the hut, then hurried back to launch his boat and make the return trip.
As he started to climb in, he patted the boy's shoulder. "Good-by, lad,"
said he gently. "Take care of the sheep. Eat your supper and go to bed.
I'll be back before this time tomorrow."

"Aye, Father," answered Jeremy. He tried to look cheerful and
unconcerned, but as the sail filled and the boat drew out of the cove he
had to swallow hard to keep up appearances. For some reason he could not
explain, he felt homesick. Only old Jock, the collie, who shouldered up
to him and gave his hand a companionable lick, kept the boy from
shedding a few unmanly tears.

CHAPTER II

The shelter that Amos Swan had built stood on a small bare knoll, at an
elevation of fifty or sixty feet above the sea. Behind it and sheltering
it from easterly and southerly winds rose the island in sharp and rugged
ridges to a high hilltop perhaps a mile away. Between lay ascending
stretches of dark fir woods, rough outcroppings of stone and patches of
hardy grass and bushes. The crown of the hill was a bare granite ledge,
as round and nearly as smooth as an inverted bowl.

Jeremy, scrambling through the last bit of clinging undergrowth in the
late afternoon, came up against the steep side of this rocky summit and
paused for breath. He had left Jock with the sheep, which comfortably
chewed the cud in their pen, and, slipping a sort pistol, heavy and
brass-mounted, into his belt, had started to explore a bit.

He must have worked halfway round the granite hillock before he found a
place that offered foothold for a climb. A crevice in the side of the
rock in which small stones had become wedged gave him the chance he
wanted, and it took him only a minute to reach the rounded surface near
the top. The ledge on which he found himself was reasonably flat, nearly
circular, and perhaps twenty yards across.

[Illustration]

Its height above the sea must have been several hundred feet, for in the
clear light Jeremy could see not only the whole outline of the island
but most of the bay as well, and far to the west the blue masses of the
Camden Mountains. He was surprised at the size of the new domain spread
out at his feet. The island seemed to be about seven miles in length by
five at its widest part. Two deep bays cut into its otherwise round