"Oh, yes, we hear it," drawled Sile, who was calmly filling a black pipe. "But Put allwus was seein' queer things that nobody else could see. I s'pose he dreamed that he saw the demon of Devil Island."
"It waren't no dream," fiercely declared the hunchback. "I saw the critter when I was on the island—more'n that, the varmint chased me."
"Hey?" cried several, the excitement increasing.
"I'll swan to it!" declared Put, stanchly.
"When did all this take place?" asked one of the listeners.
"Last Sunday."
"And we never heard of it before? Say, Put, I never knowed you to tell anything crooked, but it's a big
yarn you're givin' us now. If all this happened last Sunday, why ain't you told of it afore?"
"In the fust place, 'cause I was darn scart. In the second place, 'cause I knowed everybody'd think I was lyin'."
"How did you happen to be down there on Devil Island Sunday?"