He had no doubt that the boat was haunted, and therefore he
kept his distance, for unless by some subtle and certain charm the
spirits could be driven off, none but a foolhardy man would ever venture
to board the derelict, and Abel was not a foolhardy man.
These superstitions seem very foolish to us, no doubt; but, after all,
were they one whit more foolish or groundless than the countless
superstitions to which many educated and seemingly intelligent Christian
people of civilization are bound? As, for instance, the superstition
that where thirteen sit together at table one will die within the year.
And so Abel Zachariah, being a man of caution, held aloof from the boat
which he had so eagerly set out to salvage; and sitting engrossed in
contemplation, he in his skiff and the dead man in the derelict drifted
for a while side by side toward Itigailit Island. And thus he was
sitting silent and inactive when suddenly he was startled by the cry of
a child in distress.
Abel for a moment was not at all certain that this was not some wicked
plot of the spirits, intended to lure him within their reach, and he
seized his oars, determined to increase the distance between himself and
possible danger. But when the cry was repeated, and presently became a
frightened wail, Abel hesitated. If it was a spirit that emitted the
succeeding wails it was surely a very corporeal spirit, with well
developed lungs and also a very much frightened spirit; and a frightened
spirit could not be dangerous.
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