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.

Abel had never heard of a spirit that cried like this one, or of a
spirit that was frightened, and he rose to his feet that he might look
over the gunwale and into the derelict. From this vantage he beheld the
head of a little child, and he could see, also, that this very real
child, and not the much feared spirits, was the source of the loud and
piteous wails.

The spirit of evil, then, had not tarried after striking down the man.
Doubtless God had interposed to save the child, else it, too, would have
been destroyed, and no spirit of evil could remain where God exerted His
power. Here was a subtle and potent charm in which Abel Zachariah had
unwavering faith, for, after all, his faith in God was greater than his