Was it man or mocking sprite?
The dim little boat, its smears hidden, shone sprite-like now, as if a water-fairy had taken possession of it and infused into the wooden shell an elfin soul which defied the petrified girl-owner through two tiny luminous eyes, the whiteness of whose enchanted glare, at close quarters, made up for the pin-head nature of their size.
Lo and behold! The dory’s blunt, unromantic nose was bewitched into radiating light in the darkness, too. Down it shone a narrow streak, bright as a Milky Way!
“What is it? Who--who could have done it? Could--could it be the phosphorescent trail of some creature thrown up by the tide?”
But the high tide sobbed, “Not guilty!” as the girl--her flesh beginning to creep upon her bones--turned towards it with the question on her lips.
“No! It doesn’t look like any ordinary phosphorescent trail of a slimy thing!” So her chilling lips answered half aloud the question put by her quailing heart.
She retreated a long step--two--three! The luminous eyes, so whitely shining, faded out--were hidden--lost in a veil of darkness.
“Bah! What a goose--an utter goose--I am to feel creepy, even for an instant! If a spirit has got into my dory, it’s a mighty short-sighted one.... ’Twould be easy to dodge it!”
She broke into a low chuckle, sharpened by rising anger.
“It--it’s the work of somebody! That--that seal-hunter! Could he be the--Blighter?”