Beyond the Bright Sea

Osh, Maggie, and Crow sail to Penikese, and find no trace of the supposed gamekeeper. While Osh and Maggie forage on the island, Crow heads back to the leprosarium. Once again, she hears a noise, piquing her curiosity. She discovers that the door is unlocked. Opening one door, she is shocked to see a man “rolled up in a bedsheet, from his chin to his angles, and tied tight in a rope, too” (111). The man is visibly terrified, sobbing, and filthy. Crow sets him free, and gives him a moment to clean himself off in the ocean water. The man, Sloan, tells Osh and Maggie them that he is the real gamekeeper, and recounts the story of what happened to him. When Sloan went to New Bedford for supplies, a large man appeared, asked him for a ride to Cuttyhunk, and then demanded Sloan take him to Penikese. The man was clearly looking for something; he grew upset when Sloan had nothing to tell him. The man bound and gagged Sloan, leaving him stranded on the island.

They prepare to leave Penikese, but Crow goes off on her own to look at the remaining cottages. In one of them, she sees carvings of a lamb and a feather.