1v.| THE WITCHES’ ISLAND. 177

 

on either side of it, which seemed for all the world as if
one of the great crags had taken pity on the engineer
at that particular spot, and split itself on either side
so as to allow his road to run through it without
further trouble. But just before it reached this point

_ another road, or rather cart-track, bore away from the
.main road down towards the sea, and led to the cot-

tage in the cliff which was the abode of the smuggler-
fisherman and his wife. When the latter had arrived
at this point, she turned off and was about to hurry
down to her home, when her attention was suddenly
arrested by a loud and discordant laugh which appar-
ently proceeded from the cleft rock immediatély before
her.

Once more she halted, and looked in the direction

', from whence the sound seemed to come. The sight

which met her eyes was by no means calculated to

calm her already perturbed spirit. Seated upon the

side of the rock, as if it was in a position of extreme
comfort and one to which it was daily accustomed,
was a gigantic Turbot, surveying her with great com-

-placency, and apparently shaking its fat sides with

suppressed laughter.

Molly Goodchild was struck dumb with astonish-
ment. ‘Turbots she had often seen, and, as a fisher-
man’s wife, was well acquainted with their natural
habits and usual methods of proceeding. But so large
a turbot—so far from the water, and evidently so com-
pletely at his ease, Molly had certainly never seen
before, and for a moment she stared at him with open

mouth, scarcely able to believe her own eyes. Was

ita turbot ? and could it have been from Aim that the