Carette of Sark | Page 2

TO SPREAD OUR WINGS 77
CHAPTER X
HOW I BEARDED LIONS IN THEIR DENS 85
CHAPTER XI
HOW WE GREW, AND GROWING, GREW APART 94
CHAPTER XII
HOW AUNT JEANNE GAVE A PARTY 100
CHAPTER XIII
HOW WE RODE GRAY ROBIN 117
CHAPTER XIV
HOW YOUNG TORODE TOOK THE DEVIL OUT OF BLACK
BOY 130
CHAPTER XV
HOW I FELT THE GOLDEN SPUR 142
CHAPTER XVI

HOW I WENT TO SEE TORODE OF HERM 156
CHAPTER XVII
HOW I WENT OUT WITH JOHN OZANNE 167
CHAPTER XVIII
HOW WE CAME ACROSS MAIN ROUGE 172
CHAPTER XIX
HOW I FELL INTO THE RED HAND 184
CHAPTER XX
HOW I LAY IN THE CLEFT OF A ROCK 197
CHAPTER XXI
HOW I FACED DEATHS AND LIVED 202
CHAPTER XXII
HOW THE _JOSÉPHINE_ CAME HOME 214
CHAPTER XXIII
HOW I LAY AMONG LOST SOULS 222
CHAPTER XXIV
HOW I CAME ACROSS ONE AT AMPERDOO 230
CHAPTER XXV
HOW WE SAID GOOD-BYE TO AMPERDOO 237

CHAPTER XXVI
HOW WE FOUND A FRIEND IN NEED 246
CHAPTER XXVII
HOW WE CAME UPON A WHITED SEPULCHRE AND FELL
INTO THE FIRE 253
CHAPTER XXVIII
HOW WE WALKED INTO THE TIGER'S MOUTH 264
CHAPTER XXIX
HOW THE HAWK SWOOPED DOWN ON BRECQHOU 277
CHAPTER XXX
HOW I FOUND MY LOVE IN THE CLEFT 283
CHAPTER XXXI
HOW I HELD THE NARROW WAY 294
CHAPTER XXXII
HOW WE WENT TO EARTH 307
CHAPTER XXXIII
HOW LOVE COULD SEE IN THE DARK 312
CHAPTER XXXIV
HOW LOVE FOUGHT DEATH IN THE DARK 324

CHAPTER XXXV
HOW WE HEARD STRANGE NEWS 332
CHAPTER XXXVI
HOW A STORM CAME OUT OF THE WEST 338
CHAPTER XXXVII
HOW WE HELD OUR HOMES 348
CHAPTER XXXVIII
HOW WE RAN AGAINST THE LAW FOR THE SAKE OF A
WOMAN 357
CHAPTER XXXIX
HOW I CAME INTO RICH TREASURE 373

ILLUSTRATIONS
THE WEST COAST OF SARK AND BRECQHOU Frontispiece THE
CREUX ROAD Facing Page 5 HAVRE GOSSELIN 19 TINTAGEU
47 THE LADY GROTTO 65 A QUIET LANE 117 THE
EPERQUERIE 132 IN THE CLEFT OF A ROCK 197 BELOW
BEAUMANOIR 226 BRECQHOU FROM THE SOUTH 273 THE
COUPÉE 297 THE CHASM OF THE BOUTIQUES 308 THE
WATER CAVE 321 EPERQUERIE BAY 349 DIXCART BAY 352
CREUX TUNNEL 355
CHAPTER I
HOW PAUL MARTEL FELL OUT WITH SERCQ

To give you a clear understanding of matters I must begin at the
beginning and set things down in their proper order, though, as you will
see, that was not by any means the way in which I myself came to learn
them.
For my mother and my grandfather were not given to overmuch talk at
the best of times, and all my boyish questionings concerning my father
left me only the bare knowledge that, like many another Island man in
those times--ay, and in all times--he had gone down to the sea and had
never returned therefrom.
That was too common a thing to require any explanation, and it was not
till long afterwards, when I was a grown man, and so many other
strange things had happened that it was necessary, or at all events
seemly, that I should know all about my father, that George Hamon,
under the compulsion of a very strange and unexpected happening, told
me all he knew of the matter.
This, then, that I tell you now is the picture wrought into my own mind
by what I gathered from him and from others, regarding events which
took place when I was close upon three years old.
And first, let me say that I hold myself a Sercq man born and bred, in
spite of the fact that--well, you will come to that presently. And I count
our little isle of Sercq the very fairest spot on earth, and in that I am not
alone. The three years I spent on ships trading legitimately to the West
Indies and Canada and the Mediterranean made me familiar with many
notable places, but never have I seen one to equal this little pearl of all
islands.
You will say that, being a Sercq man, that is quite how I ought to feel
about my own Island. And that is true, but, apart from the fact that I
have lived there the greater part of my life, and loved there, and
suffered there, and enjoyed there greater happiness than comes to all
men, and that therefore Sercq is to me what no other land ever could
be,--apart from all that, I hold, and always shall hold, that in the matter
of natural beauty, visible to all seeing eyes, our little Island holds her
own against the world.

My grandfather, who had voyaged even more widely than myself,
always said the same, and he was not a man given to windy talk, nor,
indeed, as I have said, to