E-text prepared by Suzanne Shell,
Project Gutenberg Beginners Projects,
Jonathan Niehof,
and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team
BY ETHEL M. DELL
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
Three stories in this volume, "The Magic Circle," "The Woman of hisDream," and "The Return Game," were first published in The Red Magazine,and are reprinted by permission of the Editor.
Rufus the Red sat on the edge of his boat with his hands clasped betweenhis knees, staring at nothing. His nets were spread to dry in the sun;the morning's work was done. Most of the other men had lounged intotheir cottages for the midday meal, but the massive red giant sitting onthe shore in the merciless heat of noon did not seem to be thinking ofphysical needs.
His eyes under their shaggy red brows were fixed with apparentconcentration upon his red, hairy legs. Now and then his bare toesgripped the moist sand almost savagely, digging deep furrows; but forthe most part he sat in solid contemplation.
There was only one other man within sight along that sunny stretch ofsand—a small, dark man with a shaggy, speckled beard and quick,twinkling eyes. He was at work upon a tangled length of tarred rope,pulling and twisting with much energy