of interest to some to find at the end of this volume a list of the
holdings and holders in Sercq about one hundred years ago._

* * * * *

_The photographs from which this book is illustrated were specially taken
for me at considerable expenditure of time and trouble by various good
friends in Sark and elsewhere. If, in one or two cases, we have permitted
ourselves some little license in the adaptation of the present to the past,
it is only for the purpose of presenting to the reader as nearly as
possible what was in the writer's mind when working on the story._

* * * * *

_The map and list of the Forty Men of Sark and their properties in the year
1800 were compiled for me from the old Island records, by my friend Mr.
W.A. Toplis, over twenty years resident in Sark, and for all the time and
labour he expended upon them I here make most grateful acknowledgment._

* * * * *

_The length of the Coupee depends upon--one's feelings, one's temperament,
and the exact spots where it really begins and ends. To the nervous it
seems endless, and some have found themselves unable to cross it under any
conditions whatever. So high an authority as Ansted gives it as 600 feet,
others say 300; the simple fact being that, unless one goes for the express
methodic purpose of measuring it (which no one ever does), all thought,
save that of wonder and admiration, is lost the moment one's foot falls
upon it. The span from cliff to cliff is probably something over 300 feet,
while, from the dip of the path in Sark to the clearing of the rise in
Little Sark, it is probably twice as much._

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I PAGE
HOW PAUL MARTEL FELL OUT WITH SERCQ 1

CHAPTER II
HOW RACHEL CARRE WENT BACK TO HER FATHER 14

CHAPTER III
HOW TWO FOUGHT IN THE DARK 19

CHAPTER IV
HOW MARTEL RAISED THE CLAMEUR BUT FOUND NO RELIEF 24

CHAPTER V
HOW CARETTE AND I WERE GIRL AND BOY TOGETHER 31

CHAPTER VI
HOW CARETTE CAME BY HER GOLDEN BRIDGE 43

CHAPTER VII
HOW I SHOWED ONE THE WAY TO THE BOUTIQUES 53

CHAPTER VIII
HOW I WENT THE FIRST TIME TO BRECQHOU 65

CHAPTER IX
HOW WE BEGAN TO SPREAD OUR WINGS