Ifie o/dm/fs 



but twirl a big stick jauntily, or better still 

 go quietly on your way without concern, and 

 they would skulk aside and watch you hun- 

 grily out of the corners of their surly eyes, 

 whose lids were red and bloodshot as a mas- 

 tiff's. When the moon rose I noticed them 

 flitting about like witches on the lonely shore, 

 miles away from the hamlet; now sitting on 

 their tails in a solemn circle; now howling 

 all together as if demented, and anon listen- 

 ing intently in the vast silence, as if they 

 heard or smelled or perhaps just felt the 

 presence of some unknown thing that was 

 hidden from human senses. And when I 

 paddled ashore to watch them one ran swiftly 

 past without heeding me, his nose out- 

 stretched, his eyes green as foxfire in the 

 moonlight, while the others vanished like 

 shadows among the black rocks, each intent 

 on his unknown quest. 



That is why I had come up from my warm 

 bunk at midnight to sit alone on the taffrail, 

 listening in the keen air to the howling that 

 made me shiver, spite of myself, and watch- 

 ing in the vague moonlight to understand if 



