|
b

iv.] THE WITCHES’ ISLAND. ° 207

The sight of this terrible thing, which Molly at
once came to the conclusion was the ‘Devil-fish’
alluded to in the Rabbit’s directions, was almost
enough to have frightened any ordinary person into
afit. With a kind of hissing roar the dreadful creature
launched itself against the side of the boat, and
accosting the astonished Molly in her own language,
remarked in a gruff and decidedly unpleasant voice,
‘You are mine, woman! you are mine! No mortal
woman can touch this island. You shall make a meal
for Scareman,’

The mouth of the hideous monster was so close to °
her that Molly had scarcely time to perform the act
by which alone she couJd hope to be delivered from
his attack. She was jus¢ able, and only just, to seize
packet number three and hurl it into his mouth, and
had she been a second later it would have gone hard
with her. But the packet was no less valuable to her
and fatal to her adversary jthan the others had proved
before it. Like them, it burst as soon as it touched
the open mouth of the fish, which it completely filled
with sulphuric acid. Ina moment his face changed
to a woful expression of fishlike despair, and he sank
like a log tothe bottom of the sea and was seen no

‘more. Thus, then, her three packets had each de-

livered her from a formidable foe, and the fisherman’s
wife felt that the power and friendship of the rabbits
had not failed her.

THere was still, however, much to be done, and
her main diffitulty at the moment was to decide
what to do when she had landed. She was: now

. within a dozen yards of the island, which at that