n the coast and that he had kept
these things as relics. That was the fact.

When he had secured the matches his next thought was of the firewood and
the baling tin. There was a saucepan away at the back of the cave under
the other things but he could not see it. He could see the tin but he
dreaded going in to get it lest he should wake the woman and she should
clutch his thumb again.

That was a bad experience and he told himself that if she had not
relaxed her hold he would have been sitting there still tied hand and
foot and not daring to move--strength in the clutch of weakness, to whom
God has given a power greater that that of strength.

He crawled in and secured the tin without wakening her and as much
firewood as he wanted. It was fairly dry and with the help of the
blubber he soon had it burning between two big stones, then he put the
tin on, half filled with water, and dropped in the seal meat cut fine.
He was making soup for himself as well as for her. He had been without
hot food for ages and the smell of the stuff as it began to cook made
him sometimes forget her entirely.

Predatory gulls had found the pelt and the head in the rock crevice and
their quarrelling filled the beach. He turned his head sometimes to look
at them as he sat squatting like a gipsy before the little fire, tilting
the tin by the handle and stirring the contents with his knife. He was a
man of resource for, before filling the tin with fresh water, he had
dipped it in the sea so as to get some salt into the mess.

Then when the stuff was cooked, having no spoon, he had to wait until it
cooled a bit before tasting it. He went to the cave mouth to have a
look at the woman. The quarrelling of the great gulls had evidently
awakened her, for her eyes were open, and as his figure cut the light at
the cave entrance her head moved. He ran back for the precious tin and,
carrying it carefully, and half carried away by the entrancing smell of
it, knelt down beside her, then picking up the spoon began to feed her
before feeding himself.

CHAPTER XXIII

RAFT

It took him three days to bring her back safe to life. It poured with
rain during those three days but he managed to light little fires in one
of the caves with seal blubber and routing out the things in her cave he
found everything she had so carefully salved, the cups and plates, the
tin of coffee, half empty now--everything, even to the tobacco the men
had taken from the c