spaces no longer burdened her, and in some
magical way whilst he reduced the proportions of his surroundings they
increased his potency and significance. He was in his true setting, part
of a vast picture without a frame.

It was not alone his physical dimensions. Bompard had been a big man,
but Bompard could not fill that beach. No, it was something else--what
we call, for want of a better expression, "the man himself."

Then there was another thing about him, he found food of all sorts where
Bompard and La Touche had found nothing; he brought in crabs and
cray-fish and penguins eggs, he brought down rabbits with stones. That
was his great art. A stone in the hand of Raft was a terrible missile
and his aim was deadly.

At the end of a week the girl was able to accompany him along the beach
to the cache where he unearthed some stores and came upon the harpoon
which he carried back with them.

Then one day he suddenly appeared before her carrying her lost
sou'wester. He had gone off down the beach in the direction of the
Lizard Point and he came back carrying the hat in his hand. He must have
been into the cave where the remains of La Touche lay, but he said
nothing about that.

It was nearly a fortnight since she had told him of how she had lost it
and he must have treasured the fact up in his mind all that time.

The weather had cleared again, after a tremendous blow from the south,
and as they sat that evening in the sunset blaze before the caves, Raft,
who had been staring steadfastly out to sea as if watching something,
began to talk.

"That chap Ponting told me this side of the coast is no use for ships,"
said he. "They keep beyond them islands for fear of the reefs. I reckon
the old sea cows know that or there wouldn't be so many on this beach.
He said there was a bay round to the westward where ships put in."

"How far?" asked the girl.

"A goodish bit," replied Raft. "I was making for that bay when I struck
you. I was thinking," he finished, "that when you were stronger on your
pins we might make for there."

"Leave here?"

"Ay," said Raft, "there's not much use sticking here."

She said nothing for a moment, she felt disturbed.

Since her recovery she had fallen into a state of quietude. She who had
been the leader of Bompard and La Touche, she who had fought and worked
so determinedly for existence had now no ambition, no desire for
anything but rest. The strength of this man who had given her