or her! Maren told
me that during this time Karen went to Portsmouth and had her teeth
removed, meaning to provide herself with a new set. At the Jonsens',
where Louis was staying, one day she spoke to Mrs. Jonsen of her
mouth, that it was so sensitive since the teeth had been taken out;
and Mrs. Jonsen asked her how long she must wait before the new set
could be put in. Karen replied that it would be three months. Louis
Wagner was walking up and down at the other end of the room with his
arms folded, his favorite attitude. Mrs. Jonsen's daughter passed near
him and heard him mutter, "Three months! What is the use! In three
months you will be dead!" He did not know the girl was so near, and
turning, he confronted her. He knew she must have heard what he said,
and he glared at her like a wild man.

On the fifth day of March, 1873, John Hontvet, his brother Mathew, and
Ivan Christensen set sail in John's little schooner, the Clara Bella,
to draw their trawls. At that time four of the islands were inhabited:
one family on White Island, at the light-house; the workmen who were
building the new hotel on Star Island, and one or two households
beside; the Hontvet family at Smutty-Nose; and on Appledore, the
household at the large house, and on the southern side, opposite
Smutty-Nose, a little cottage, where lived Joerge Edvardt Ingebertsen,
his wife and children, and several men who fished with him.
Smutty-Nose is not in sight of the large house at Appledore, so we
were in ignorance of all that happened on that dreadful night, longer
than the other inhabitants of the Shoals.

John, Ivan and Mathew went to draw their trawls, which had been set
some miles to the eastward of the islands. They intended to be back to
dinner, and then to go on to Portsmouth with their fish, and bait the
trawls afresh, ready to bring back to set again next day. But the wind
was strong and fair for Portsmouth and ahead for the islands; it would
have been a long beat home against it; so they went on to Portsmouth,
without touching at the island to leave one man to guard the women, as
had been their custom. This was the first night in all the years Maren
had lived there that the house was without a man to protect it. But
John, always thoughtful for her, asked Emil Ingebertsen, whom he met
on the fishing-grounds, to go over from Appledore and tell her that
they had gone on to Portsmouth with the favoring wind, but that they
hoped to be back that night.