He stood looking at the stored things for a moment as if to
make sure they would be all right, then he kicked an old tin away into a
cleft of the rocks as though to tidy the place, then he took up the
harpoon and slung the bundle on his shoulder.

The girl rose and looked around her. This place where she had suffered
and nearly died was still warm with memories, and the sea creatures were
like friends, she had grown to love them just as people love trees or
familiar inanimate things.

To associate the idea of home with that desolate beach, those moving
monsters, those caves, would seem absurd. Well, it was like leaving
home, and as she stood looking around her a tightness came in her throat
and her eyes grew misty. But Raft was moving now and she followed him,
glancing back now and then until they crossed the river where she looked
back for the last time. The river was almost deserted now by the young
sea elephants, except at its mouth. A few little girl seals lay about,
delicate or unadventurous creatures whose lives would doubtless be short
in a world that is only for the strong. These little girl seals had
attracted her attention before, they had almost the ways of fine ladies.
It was as though some germ of civilization in the herd had become
concentrated in them and she had wondered whether they would ever pull
through the rough and tumble of life, recognising vaguely that nature is
opposed to civilization at heart. They seemed allied to herself and
their future seemed as doubtful as her own here where nothing helped,
where everything opposed.

She caressed them with her eyes for the last time; then as she turned
and followed Raft she forgot them. Her brave mind, that nothing could
daunt but loneliness, faced the great adventure ahead not only undaunted
but uplifted. The way was terrific, the chances were small, so small, so
remote, that they could scarcely be called chances, and the penalty of
failure was return and a winter here when the beach would be deserted by
all but the gulls. The very desperation of the business made it great,
and from the greatness came the uplift.

They passed the figure-head with its sphinx-like face staring over the
sea, and the great skull half sanded over by the recent blow. Then they
drew near the caves and the boat.

The boat had been blown over on its other side by the wind and lay with
one gunnel deep buried in the sand and its keel presented to the cliffs;
she glanced only