"Hmm!" said the man; "did you look carefully?"
"Yes, Iven, I stood close up to it; a God-forsaken lapwing that had gone to sleep behind the bones flew up shrieking and startled me so that I cracked my whip after it a few times."
"And that was all?"
"Yes, Iven, I didn't see anything else."
"And it's enough," said the man, pulling the boy towards him by the arm and pointing across to the islet. "Do you see anything over there, Karsten?"
"As I live, there it is again!"
"Again?" said the man; "I was looking over there the whole time and it never went away; you went right towards the uncanny thing."
The boy stared at him; a look of horror that did not escape the man appeared on his usually saucy face. "Come," said the latter, "let us go home; seen from here it is alive and over there it is only bones—that is more than you and I can understand. Keep your mouth shut about it; things like that must not be questioned."
So they turned and the boy trotted along beside him; they did not speak and the marsh lay in unbroken silence at their side.
But after the moon had declined and the nights had grown dark something else happened.