Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1901-04-25
NUMBER 8.

ashore at once! There is a witch of
the sea close by, and she will drag us
| down.
| waited ten minutes, and, hearing
nothing more, | picked up the oar and
sculled in to the landing. There |
found the three Cinnamon waiting for
me. and they were in state of great
excitement. They had heard the laugh
ter, and they believed with the boy
that witch of the sea was hanging
about and meant to do us harm. Chi
nese life is made up of legends and
euperstitions, and 1t is useless to COM
bat them. Willis 1 argued that there
was n woman castaway about and
they could not dispute the fact of the
tracks In the sand, could not explain
away the laughter | simply contented
myself with saying that we would
leave some provisions ON the beach
that night and see II they were missing
in the morning and with sleeping with
one eye open to see that the frightened
fellows did not steal the boat and make
off to some other island.
We were down on the beach when
daylight came, and there were fresh
tracks again. The woman had cireled
about the heap of provisions but had
touched nothing There was a trail
leading out of the sea and another lead
Ing back, and there were 200 imprints
of feet to look at. The Chinese were
absolutely knocked ont with cOnsterna-
ton, and only my promise TO watch the
{ all Ifnf MT rar GBr
the witch Gained them down. | re-
manned with them all that day TO pre-
vent them from plotting. and it was
not until midnight that took up my
watch on the shore had two re-
volvers as weapons, but | had no idea
of shooting. l proposed 10 capture the
/ thing. witch or woman. If ii lay in my
/ power Ii was low tide AT o'clock. |
was concealed behind heap of brush,
/ and ii was a starlight night At that
hour a figure which looked like a hu-
man being came out Of the gentle surf
and began TO walk up and down the
| beach AS il walked away from me |
rose up and went forward on tiptoe
and was within 80 feet of 1t when il
caught the alarm and fled back to the
water like a shadow heard an ex-
camation Of alarm and splashes in the
water and saw the wake as the ''it'
swan away. | had meant 10 keep cool.
hut the sight Of the figure excited me,
and its escape when ! figured on cap
ture added To it, and SO, hardly know
ing what did, | drew one Of my re-
volvers and began firing as the swim
mer moved away. | fired six shots.
hut ! heard no cry Of pain or other
sound
/ went back to the Cinnamon and
found them chattering in terror and
/ IL they had nor been afraid Of the witch
/ they would have made a rush for the
/ boat and left me alone on the island. |
sal watching them till daylight came,
4 and then we an went down to the beach.
4 The tide was coming IN, but we found
tracks. as before. While we were
hurrying about arguing and discuss
ing. the tide brought in the naked limb
and foot Of a woman. a white woman.
1t had been torn from the body by the
sharks. and II was the foot which had
made the tracks in the sand. one OF
my shots had struck and killed her as
she swan away. and the blood had
brought the savage sharks to the at
tack There lay the limb before Us,
with the flesh hard and firm, though
showing hruise here ana there, but
no other part of the body came ashore
To whom the limb had belonged. how
she was east away there. where she
was hiding. why she did not seek our
ytrotanffon- uoua Of those quostiorS can
answer. We buried the limb in the
sands aud heard no more Of the nymph
of the sea.