"There's one thing," said he, "there's no call to take water with us,
there's holes full of water everywhere, seems to me in this place."

Then he turned to look at the weather.

The wind was less and the clouds were thinning and the air had the feel
of a break coming. Then, just before sunset the clouds parted in the west
and the sun went down in a sky red as blood.

"We'll start tomorrow," said Raft.

PART V

CHAPTER XXVII

THE CORRIDOR

The next morning broke grey and fair.

When the girl came out she found that Raft had collected the things to
be taken in one bundle tied up in a blanket. He had also set out
breakfast. The remainder of the stores he had stacked at the back of the
cave where he slept.

These stores, with what was still in the cache, would be useful if they
had to come back to the beach.

"But what am I to carry?" asked she.

"Oh, there's no call for you to trouble," answered he, "you've got your
oilskins. I reckon that'll be enough for you to bother with. Them things
in the bundle is no weight for a man."

She tried to argue the question. It seemed to her impossible that any
single person could carry that load for long, but she might just as well
have argued with the gentle wind blowing now shorewards from the
islands. He lifted the bundle with one great hand to demonstrate its
lightness; he was also going to take the harpoon as a sort of walking
stick.

It seemed to her that she had never realized his strength before, nor
his placid determination that seemed more like an elemental force than
the will of a man.

She gave in and sat down to the meal, biscuits and the remains of a
stew, and as she ate she watched the great sea bulls and the cows and
the young ones that now were able to land, boosting through the foam
like their elders, and as she watched she wondered whether she would
ever see these things again, there, against the setting of the sea and
the great islands.

She had put on her boots for the journey and a pair of men's soft
woollen socks from the store in the cache. They were small men's socks
and the wool was so fine and soft that the size did not trouble her. In
her pocket she still carried the few odds and ends including the tobacco
box in which she had placed her rings. She wore the sou'wester, and the
oilskin lay beside her folded and ready to be carried on her arm.

Then, when the meal was finished, Raft washed the plates and stored them
in the cave.