he wharf, the rooster leaped lightly to the forward deck. It never
occurred to him that he might be unwelcome. He entered the boat as he
would have the skiff for a voyage with Ichabod. He was a sociable bird,
and fond of a cruise. When the opportunity offered he seized on it with
pleased promptness. By the time that Doctor Gifford Garnet chanced to
observe Shrimp's presence, the launch was at such a distance from the
Island that it would have been folly for him to turn back for the sake
of restoring the creature to its place.

The launch tossed and pitched dangerously when it came into the broad
reaches of Core Sound. It seemed indeed at times that it must inevitably
be swamped. But the Doctor had skill and daring, and now, in the face of
this new danger, he was cool and resourceful. Here there were no rocks
to increase the danger as there had been at Ichabod's Island, and
eventually he guided the launch to safety under the lea of the wooded
shore of the mainland.

The first intention of Garnet was to make a landing in order to await
the coming of night, when, as he knew from past experiences, the wind
would almost certainly fall, after which the voyage could be resumed
without danger and in comparative comfort. The Doctor found, however,
that his plan was impossible of execution. To his discomfiture, he
perceived that the heavily wooded shore was nothing other than a vast
swamp, without anywhere a dry spot on which to step foot. Upon making
this discovery, he allowed the boat to drift a short distance away from
the land, and then dropped overboard the tiny anchor.

After the launch was made secure, the Doctor took from his pocket the
hypodermic syringe. The vial accompanying it, however, was empty. Garnet
searched feverishly through his medicine case, at first in despair, for
he feared that he had no more of the drug. But at last he uttered an
ejaculation of triumph as he drew forth a small bottle of the narcotic.
He removed the cork and dropped the pellets into the palm of his hand.
He counted them rapidly, before replacing all but one in the bottle. The
quantity of the drug was so small as to fill him with the worst
apprehensions. A man held as was Garnet in the clutch of an evil habit
would be placed in a horrible position, were he to run out of his
morphia supply, while thus storm-bound along the desolate shores of Core
Sound. He shuddered at the dreadful thought of such catastrophe. Then he
tried to forget the h