Three Skeleton Key

Why does the narrator take the job at Three Skeleton Key?

• He wants to set aside some money before he gets married.

• He wants to protect the lighthouse.

• He wants to watch the ships sail in the nighttime.

• He is sent there to find three escaped convicts.

Why is it unusual for the lighthouse keepers to see a ship in their waters?

• Sailors are afraid of the Flying Dutchman.

• Sailors know that there are many rats on the island.

• The waters are treacherous.

• The island is off-limits to sailors.

Why does the narrator watch the Cornelius de Witt with tears in his eyes?

• He knows that all the men on board the ship are dead.

• He knows that the ship is about to be wrecked.

• He knows that the rats are on board the ship.

• He had once served on the ship.

How does the narrator convince us that the sea rats in this story are of the worst possible sort?

• He tells of the two terrier dogs on a Dutch ship that were eaten by sea rats.

• He says that sea rats are worse than land rats.

• He says that the rats are able to scratch and tear through wood, metal, and glass.

• He says that Dutch sea rats eat dogs, cats, men, sharks, and one another.

The narrator's descriptions of the window in the lantern room imply that the ------

• thick glass will keep the rats out.

• skeletons will open the window.

• window will collapse.

• rats will eat the class.

How do the rats first get inside the lighthouse?

• They dig a tunnel under the lighthouse.

• The eat a hole through the door.

• The metal sheeting that was sealing the window gives way.

• Crazed by the sight of the rats, Le Gleo opens the door.

Why do the officers and crew of the final patrol boat look at the lighthouse with a horrified expression?

• Sharks are circling the island.

• The light is completely covered by a seething mass of rats.

• Sharks are hungrily devouring the rats.

• The see the skeletons of the three lighthouse keepers.

When some rats return defeated from the attack on the patrol boat, the narrator says that the other rats greeted them with "shrill cries...with...a derisive note..." The author is showing that the rats ---

• can laugh.

• have humanlike qualities.

• do not like each other.

• have begun to attack each other.

All of the following strategies are used to rescue the three men from the island except ----

• the crew tempt the rats onto a barge filled with meat.

• the lighthouse keepers set fire to the island.

• the crew drench the barge with gasoline and then set it on fire.

• the crew shoot any escaping rats and leave the rest to be eaten by the sharks.

What becomes of the three lighthouse attendants?

• One man returns to the key; two refuse to go back to the lighthouse.

• Two men return to Three Skeleton Key; the third man dies.

• One man returns to the key; one goes insane; one dies.

• Two men return to the island; the third man is too frightened to return.