We're off the track to anywhere. We see a ship once in a twelve-month
or so."

He left me abruptly, and went up the beach past this group, and I
think entered the enclosure. The other two men were with Montgomery,
erecting a pile of smaller packages on a low-wheeled truck.
The llama was still on the launch with the rabbit hutches;
the staghounds were still lashed to the thwarts.
The pile of things completed, all three men laid hold of the truck
and began shoving the ton-weight or so upon it after the puma.
Presently Montgomery left them, and coming back to me held out
his hand.

"I'm glad," said he, "for my own part. That captain was a silly ass.
He'd have made things lively for you."

"It was you," said I, "that saved me again".

"That depends. You'll find this island an infernally rum place,
I promise you. I'd watch my goings carefully, if I were you.
_He_--" He hesitated, and seemed to alter his mind about what
was on his lips. "I wish you'd help me with these rabbits,"
he said.

His procedure with the rabbits was singular. I waded
in with him, and helped him lug one of the hutches ashore.
No sooner was that done than he opened the door of it, and tilting
the thing on one end turned its living contents out on the ground.
They fell in a struggling heap one on the top of the other.
He clapped his hands, and forthwith they went off with that hopping