up confidingly into
mine, as she rested panting against my shoulder, and I could feel her
slender form tremble within my arms.

"You are ill--faint?" I questioned anxiously.

She drew back from me with all gentleness, and did not venture again to
attempt standing entirely without support.

"I am ashamed so to exhibit my weakness," she murmured. "I fear I am
greatly in need of food. What day is this?"

"The twelfth of August."

"And it was the night of the tenth when I drifted out of the mouth of
the river. Ever since then I have been drifting, the sport of the
winds and waves."

"Sit you down here, then," I commanded, now fully awakened to her
immediate need. "The sand is yet warm from the sun, and I have food
with me in my pockets."

CHAPTER VII

A CIRCLE IN THE SAND

I have since thought it almost providential that my food supply was so
limited; for, after first asking me if I had eaten all I required, she
fell upon it like a famished thing, and did not desist until all was
gone. A threatening bank of dark cloud was creeping slowly up the
northern sky as we were resting, but directly overhead the stars were
shining brilliantly, yielding me sufficient light for the study of her
face. She was certainly less than my own age by two or three years, a
girl barely rounding into the slender beauty of her earliest womanhood,
with hints of both in face and form. She was simply dressed, as,
indeed, might naturally be expected in a wilderness far removed from
marts of trade; but her clothing was of excellent texture, and became
her well in spite of its recent exposure, while a bit of rather
expensive lace at the throat and a flutter of gay ribbons about the
wrists told plainly that she did not disdain the usual adornments of
her sex. And this was quickly shown in another way. She had not yet
completed her frugal meal when her mind reverted to her personal
appearance, and she paused, with heightened color, to draw back her
loosened hair and fasten it in place with a knot of scarlet cord. It
was surely a winsome face that smiled up at me then.

"I feel almost guilty of robbery," she said, "in taking all this food,
which was no doubt intended for your own supper."

"Merely what chanced to be left of it," I answered heartily. "Had I so
much as dreamed this stretch of sand was to yield me such
companionship, I should have stinted myself more."

An expression of bewildered surprise crept into her eyes