1v.] THE WITCHES?’ ISLAND. 229

lass, is it you come after me ? I don’t rightly know what
has happened or where I be? Bean’t I on the beach,
then?’

‘Oh no, John, my man, you are on the Witches’
Island, and a terrible place it be sure-ly. Come with
T at once or goodness only knows what may happen
yet |’

John still rubbed his eyes in an uncertain manner ;
but Molly was not to be denied. Rousing him from
his dreamy state by sundry exhortations accompanied
by judicious pinches in the fleshy part of his arm, she
got him on his legs, turned his head towards the path
by which she had herself come, and hastened him on
his way towards the spot where she had left the boat.
She determined to ask no more questions at that
moment, but to concentrate all her energies upon the
one object of getting her husband safe home again.
John tramped along unresistingly, like one still ina
dream, and no obstacle appeared in the path.

Meanwhile the sun had reasserted his right to
shine. All these proceedings had not taken half so
long as it takes to write them, and it was not yet five
o'clock. Molly and her husband reached the boat
safely, and entering it without molestation, were just
about to put off from the shore when suddenly a young
and by no means ill-looking damsel ran hastily out of
the part of the wood nearest to the place where the
boat had been moored, and exclaimed in a voice of
entreaty, ‘Oh do take me on board! Please do! I
am so very anxious to get away from this island if I

can! .Let me come with you—there must be room for
one more !’