k. I think that I
forgot all the place about, the sea and the men, the distant shore and
the island's shape, the still night and the dawn to come; and knowing
nothing save that Ruth, little Ruth, was by my side, I went into
dreamland and said, "It shall be forever."

_Monday. At six o'clock._

I cannot sleep and I have come to keep watch on the rock. Old
Clair-de-Lune is with me, but silence is in the house below, where some
sleep and some are seeking sleep. Of all who can discuss our future
bravely, none speaks better sense than this simple old man; and if he
rebukes my own confidence he rebukes it justly. I ask him when the
sleep-time will pass and the sun-time come. He shakes his head, he will
not prophesy.

"God forbid that it should pass," says he. "They will go ashore to the
island, and we--we perish," says he. "Pray that it shall not be,
captain. We have food for three week--month; but what come after? You
pick up by ship, you say. But not so. When your ship come here the
devils set trap, and all is wreck and burn and steal! They take your
ship and you perish, you starve. Ah, monsieur, pray that the sun-time
do not come."

I lay back upon the rock and thought of it. This old man, surety, was
right. Let the fog drift from Ken's Island, the woods awake, life stir
again, and how stood we--where was our benefit?

"It is a fearful position," said I, "and Heaven alone knows what the
end of it will be. That something has happened to Mister Jacob and my
ship I can no longer doubt, Clair-de-Lune. The Southern Cross is on the
rocks, be sure of it, and good men with her. Take it that they are
picked up and set on the American coast. What then? Who finds the money
for another steamer? It is not to be thought of: we must dismiss it
from our minds. You say that we have food for three weeks, and the
condensers down below will give us water. But it won't be three weeks
before we are in or out of it, my friend. If we are starving, others
are starving--those out yonder by Czerny's yacht. He'll give them food
to-day; but how long will they drift like cattle for the rain to beat
on? Your sense will tell you that they won't drift long, but will be
asking questions and wanting their answers. Aye, Clair-de-Lune, we'll
listen with all our ears when that begins!"

He had a glass with him and he began to scan the yacht very closely and
the ship's boats about it. I had not noticed that there was an unusual
stir in the anchorage, bu