o get
out--pounded to pieces, like the last vessel Doanes had owned. Near as
he could come to getting back to sea. Near as he deserved to come--him
freezing fish with ginnies. And there'd _be_ no fireless cooker!

He twisted his shoulders to wedge in where it wouldn't be easy to wedge
out. Face turned up, he saw something move on the great flat rock above
the jagged rocks. He pulled himself up a little; he rose; he swung up to
the big rock above him. On one flat-topped boulder stood Joe Doane. On
the other flat-topped boulder stood the government goat.

"Go to hell!" said Joe Doane, and he was sobbing. "Go to _hell_!"

The government goat nodded her head a little in a way that wagged her
beard and shook her bag.

"Go home! Drown yourself! Let me be! Go 'way!" It was fast, and choked,
and he was shaking.

The goat would do none of these things. He sat down, his back to the
government goat, and tried to forget that she was there. But there are
moments when a goat is not easy to forget. He was willing there should
be _some_ joke to his death--like caught in the breakwater, but he
wasn't going to die before a _goat_. After all, he'd amounted to a
little more than _that_. He'd look around to see if perhaps she had
started home. But she was always standing right there looking at him.

Finally he jumped up in a fury. "What'd you come for? What do you _want_
of me? How do you expect to get home?" Between each question he'd wait
for an answer. None came.

He picked up a small rock and threw it at the government goat. She
jumped, slipped, and would have fallen from the boulder if he hadn't
caught at her hind legs. Having saved her, he yelled: "You needn't
expect _me_ to save you. Don't expect anything from _me_!"

He'd have new gusts of fury at her. "What you out here for? Think you
was a _mountain_ goat? Don't you know the tide's comin' in? Think you
can get back easy as you got _out_?"

He kicked at her hind legs to make her move on. She stood and looked at
the water which covered the in-between rocks on which she had picked her
way out. "Course," said Joe Doane. "Tide's in--you fool! You damned
_goat_!" With the strength of a man who is full of fury he picked her up
and threw her to the next boulder. "Hope you kill yourself!" was his
heartening word.

But the government goat did not kill herself. She only looked around for
further help.

To get away from her, he had to get her ashore. He guided and lifted,
plante