hich was a
good thing fer me, for when I jumped in I gave her a shove that sent her
away from the shore. I got ther oars inter ther water and pulled. The
critter didn't chase me any arter it reached the edge of the water."

Again the excited speaker wiped his face with the soiled handkerchief,
and then he sat down in a chair, as if the remembrance of the adventure
had taken all the strength out of him. He was shaking all over.

Frank Merriwell and Bruce Browning looked at each other.

"How is that for a vivid imagination?" grunted the big fellow.

"It's pretty good, but he seems to believe it himself," said Frank.

"He does act that way," confessed Bruce.

"I am getting interested," declared Frank. "When I get a chance, I shall
visit Devil Island."

"Where is it?"

"Not far from here, if I remember right."

"If I thought there was anything down there worth seeing, I wouldn't
mind going myself," said the big Yale man; "but these fishermen are such
confounded liars that you can't tell."

Those who had been listening to the story were urging the hunchback to
tell some more. After a little time, he stopped wiping his face and
said:

"That's all. The critter turned tail and disappeared, while I nigh
pulled my arms out gittin' away. Anybody that wants to can go nosin'
round Devil Island, but Put Wiley will keep away. Next time the
critter'd git me sure."

"Now, whut do ye think of that, Sile Collins?" cried Jeb, triumphantly.
"If I'm a liar, I ain't ther only one on Deer Island."

"Humph!" grunted Sile. "Let a yarn like this git started, an' half the
folks that go near Devil Island will see this ere critter. Some folks
is great at seein' such things."

But his appearance of ridicule did not disguise the fact that he had
been impressed by the story of the hunchback.

"Devil Island alwus hes bin haunted," declared one of the listeners.
"That's why it's deserted ter-day. The quarry ain't worked out, but the
big boardin' house stands empty on the island; the house ain't
occupied----"

"Sence that woman from Rockland lived in it," broke in another.

"She didn't live there long. I guess she saw things on the island that
made her reddy to git off."

"Queer freak for a woman to live there all alone, anyhow," observed Jeb.
"We used to see her round the house or on the shore when we run down
past the island, but all to once she was gone."

"Sence then," put in a man who had not spoken before, "I've seen lights