A PLAGUE OF MICE 143 intriguing and puzzling details. At a short distance from the settlement stands Red House —and every red house has a tale. This one is no exception. I got the story gradually. At first I did not quite believe it, but I have subsequently checked the details and found that they are true. Here in this Red House lived a certain Mr. Heal , one of the first coroners of the Island. Apparently, he took every precaution after a suicide. A man, whose name is now unknown, took his own life. The coroner ordered that he should be buried at the cross¬ roads in front of the Red House , with a stake driven through his body. It was done. There he still lies, but the stake is nowhere to be seen, and over this lonely grave at the cross-roads grow wild flowers and weeds. Over it birds sing their familiar songs and insects hum. These are now the only companions of this disappointed and life-weary mortal. The cross¬ road's X marks the spot. This whole district is haunted with mystery . . . intrigue . . . jealousy, and yet there is not a fairer spot on the Island. From this district Captain Cooper sailed away with his family to California and left them. Here lies the unhappy suicide. And here, too, the district still remembers the modern rendition of the old, old story of Cain and Abel. Still, to-day, the cape bears the name of the ill-famed land agent whose envious wife inadvertently caused his death. To this district came Irish immigrants . . . So many people just happened to come and settle on the Island, and many who intended to settle here, later found themselves clearing land in Quebec instead, or catching cod off the Newfoundland coast. It was all so very vague. There were so many "St.