They had
been brought up on ghosts and witches and evil spirits, and, fearless as
they might be of things mortal and natural, all that bordered on the
unknown and uncanny held for them unimaginable terrors. The dead man
might serve a useful purpose after all; and the grim idea grew.
He could decide nothing, however, till he learned if he had the rock to
himself; and he determined to take the risk of finding this out.
He cautiously climbed the well, and by the look of the stars he judged
it still very early morning. A brooding grey darkness covered the sea;
the sky was dark even in the east.
He slipped off his coat and left it hanging out of the cleft as a
landmark, and lowered himself silently from rock to rock, till he stood
among the rank grasses below.
Food first--so, after patient listening for smallest sound or sign of a
watch, he crept down to the slope where the puffins' nests were, and,
wrapping his hand in Nance's napkin, managed to get out a dozen eggs
from as many different holes, in spite of the fierce objections of their
legitimate owners.
He tied these up carefully in the blood-spotted cloth, and carried them
up to his cleft.
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