“Because at that time there was a branch of the river running along somewhere about here. I’ve indicated it with broken lines, you see. Old Verny wouldn’t have been likely to have built his house right on the river, would he?”
“N—no, probably not. It’s pretty certain he built it somewhere around the south side of the hill, Bee. Around here we usually try to get protection from the north winds, you see.”
BY B. MANSFIELD
“My own idea exactly, Jack,” agreed Bee. “He certainly didn’t build it here at the northeast side because that’s all ledge there and he’d have blown away, I guess. He wouldn’t have put it at the back of the hill because he wouldn’t have had any view of the sea except over toward the north. He’d have kept away from the east side because, as Jack says, he’d have got the north winds more or less. That accounts for three sides, doesn’t it? Well, and it leaves us the south side. He would have been sheltered there and he would have been near the river where he must have kept his boat and where he probably had a landing. Do you think those posts down there are part of his pier, Jack?”
“I think so. It isn’t likely that anyone would have built a wharf here.”
“All right. We’re agreed then that the house or the cabin or whatever he lived in was on the south side of the island. Then the question arises: just where was it on the south side?”