Explore "The Keeper of the Light" by Henry Van Dyke on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
They pushed off in the black darkness, among the fragments of ice that / lay along the shore. They crossed the strait in silence, and hid their / canoe among the rocks on the island. They carried their stuff up to the / house and locked it in the kitchen. Then they unlocked the tower, and / went in, Marcel with his shot-gun, and Nataline with her father's old / carabine. They fastened the door again, and bolted it, and sat down in / the dark to wait.
Presently they heard the grating of the prow of the barge on the stones / below, the steps of men stumbling up the steep path, and voices mingled / in confused talk. The glimmer of a couple of lanterns went bobbing in / and out among the rocks and bushes. There was a little crowd of eight or / ten men, and they came on carelessly, chattering and laughing. Three of / them carried axes, and three others a heavy log of wood which they had / picked up on their way.