From William Ansley:
3 quoted lines
His behavior also seems rather stupid and dangerous. If I thought a large, powerful animal that I had just shot might not be quite dead, I would avoid poking it in the eye for fear that might provoke it into kicking me in the head, if it still could. Of course, this can certainly be ascribed to Marsch's lack of training for living in the wild.
It does seem as if there is some deeper meaning to this episode, but I don't think that providing evidence of shape shifting is it.
My own reaction, throughout this novella, was that Marsch was killing far more animals that seemed necessary for survival, that some of these animals may have been rather more than animals (judging from the boy's reaction) and that Marsch did seem stupid, destructive and macho in a way that I suppose was quite common 75 years ago (oh, probably now too, though there are laws against it now). I always felt that the boy had reasons for killing him, if that's what happened.
-alga-