see dothing," inquired the victim,
anxiously.

"One, two, three, four, FIVE, by jingo! Faith, you've beat the crowd, so
far, this spring, and when you were stone-blind, almost, at that. Well,
it's pretty dark, and we'd better be getting home now, I think."

The geese were picked up, and, with the others,--about twenty in
all,--were loaded upon the "taboggin," which the two hunters with some
difficulty drew through the drifts to the house where, on their arrival,
they found that Pat had arrived from the city with some small stores,
papers, letters, &c., but the boys had not accompanied him.

"They'll be out on skates wid Carlo and his slid on Monday," he said.
"Now, Misther Kennedy, whiniver you're ready, ye'll find me to the fore
in the kitchen."

"Mr. Kennedy mustn't go until he gives us a story in his turn. Now the
moon rises to-night, at about nine o'clock, and it will be much
pleasanter and safer on the ice by moonlight. What say you, Pat?"

"Faith, I'm agreeable, and I'd a little rather, to tell the truth; for
there's an ugly bit of road across the Pint there."

"Well, Kennedy will have time to eat supper, and then we'll have his
story, when it will be time for us to go to bed, and just right for him
to start for town."

"Or, in other words," said La Salle, "it will be 'time for honest folk
to be abed, and rogues on the road.'"

All sat down to supper, including Pat, to whom a plate of roast goose
and two or three cups of strong, hot, black tea were very refreshing
after his ten-mile drive; and then, after the little preparations for
the next day's shooting, and Kennedy's little arrangements for his
departure, the little group gathered round the blazing hearth, and
Kennedy, with some little hesitation, began the story of

"A NIGHT OF PERIL.

"I am but a short man, and, as my time is short, you must not complain
if my story is short, too.

"I am not so imaginative as the captain; I haven't pestered all the old
men and women of the island to death for legends and stories, like my
friend Charley here, who will surely bore you to death when his turn
comes; I am sure I cannot make you laugh as Hughie and Mr. Risk have
done with their very interesting narratives, and I can only detail a
little adventure which I unexpectedly got into on this coast last
summer, and which I as unexpectedly got out of alive."

"You mean your crossing the straits in a sixteen-foot boat?" said
Captain Lund. "I want to hear abo