"He got out o' the boat to get it--an' it weren't there!

"'Mercy on us!' says he. 'I shot that duck just as sure as I'm soaked
clean through. It musta fell right here. What's become o' it? Where's
it gone to?'

"He looked round and looked round like Robinson Crusoe huntin' fer
somebody. He looked up an' he looked down, an' it wa'n't no use.
Wa'n't no duck there.

"'It musta been magic,' he says. 'Magic. Somethin' queer about this
place!'

"Then he sees little pieces o' wood churnin' around in the foam.

"'What's happened here?' he says to himself. 'Musta been a ship went
to pieces here some time.' 'Cause he found some o' the splinters had
letters on 'em showin' they used to be parts o' boxes, an' pretty soon
he finds a life-preserver that says on it '_The Queen_, St. John's.'

"'Guess I'll climb up to the top o' the rock an' take a look,' says
he. So up he climbs, the birds flappin' round him an' screamin' 'cause
they're afraid maybe he's goin' to hurt their eggs.

"Up an' up he clumb, an' he gets up to the top. The grass is long an'
green an' the soft yellow buttercups is pretty--but what he sees
lyin' there in the buttercups ain't pretty at all.

"Six dead bodies lyin' there stretched out, with the piece o' the old
torn sail over 'em. The bodies is fallin' to pieces, but in the
fingers o' one is some flesh torn out o' the next one to it.

"Then he finds a little book with writin' in it where one of 'em had
been writin' down as long as he could what happened.

"Well sir, what the writin' said was this. He couldn't hardly make it
out it was so faint. It said by an' by they drew lots to see who was
to be killed for the rest to eat."

Here the man with the dog drew a long sigh and said: "That's a fine
kind of a country to be comin' to, ain't it, where things like that
can happen? I'm glad I ain't in Doc Grenfell's rubber boots. He's
goin' to stay. I thank my lucky stars I don't have to. I'll sure be
glad to get back to Yarmouth once more. I used to think it was a hole
in the ground, but it's heaven compared to what we're comin' to."

"Wait a minute, wait a minute!" said the other, "I ain't finished
tellin' you. Lemme get through. I was sayin', they drew lots,
an'--the lot fell to the lady."

"They was goin' to eat the lady!" exclaimed his comrade, in horror.

"Yes, sir, that's what they would 'a' done. But her brother he said
he'd take her place."

"An' then what happened?"

"They don't know no more a