THE MILK POND OYSTERS. 65 



the wretch determined to get rid of his partner. 

 From the conception of this odious project to its 

 execution there was but one step, and this he was 

 not long in taking. One evening, just about night- 

 fall, when Minton was about taking his last plunge, 

 Drake dashed in after him like a shark, seized him 

 by the neck, and never let go as long as he thought 

 there was any life in his body. Then returning to 

 the shore, he dressed himself quickly, packed up 

 the oysters which they had gathered in a sack, and 

 went to open them behind a rock about half a league 

 distant from the scene of his crime, in the certainty 

 that no one had been witness to his crime. When 

 the examination was concluded, the ruffian cast a 

 look around Milk Pond Bay, over which the moon 

 was shedding its pale rays, and started off for the 

 Quarantine to get on board the steamer for New 

 York. 



Whilst the murderer was hastening from Milk 

 Pond, poor Minton was washed ashore by the 

 waves, when gradually the freshness of the night 

 revived him, and after a time his apparently inani- 

 mate body began to move, first of all an arm, and 

 then a leg. " Help ! help ! " he cried in a feeble 

 voice, when a fisherman came round Shrewsbury 

 Rock on his way to Borrax Creek to pull up his 

 nets. 



" Hulloa ! " cried he, " what have we here ? A 

 corpse surely.^' 



VOL. ir. F 



