pungent with the thicket odors. Here and there, in the midst of the
thicket, severe small oak trees and other small trees of which Saxon did
not know the names. Her enthusiasm now vied with Billy's, and, hand in
hand, they started to explore.

"Here's where we can play real Robinson Crusoe," Billy cried, as they
crossed the hard sand from highwater mark to the edge of the water.
"Come on, Robinson. Let's stop over. Of course, I'm your Man Friday, an'
what you say goes."

"But what shall we do with Man Saturday!" She pointed in mock
consternation to a fresh footprint in the sand. "He may be a savage
cannibal, you know."

"No chance. It's not a bare foot but a tennis shoe."

"But a savage could get a tennis shoe from a drowned or eaten sailor,
couldn't hey" she contended.

"But sailors don't wear tennis shoes," was Billy's prompt refutation.

"You know too much for Man Friday," she chided; "but, just the same; if
you'll fetch the packs we'll make camp. Besides, it mightn't have been a
sailor that was eaten. It might have been a passenger."

By the end of an hour a snug camp was completed. The blankets were
spread, a supply of firewood was chopped from the seasoned driftwood,
and over a fire the coffee pot had begun to sing. Saxon called to
Billy, who was improvising a table from a wave-washed plank. She pointed
seaward. On the far point of rocks, naked except for swimming trunks,
stood a man. He was gazing toward them, and they could see his long
mop of dark hair blown by the wind. As he started to climb the rocks
landward Billy called Saxon's attention to the fact that the stranger
wore tennis shoes. In a few minutes he dropped down from the rock to the
beach and walked up to them.

"Gosh!" Billy whispered to Saxon. "He's lean enough, but look at his
muscles. Everybody down here seems to go in for physical culture."

As the newcomer approached, Saxon glimpsed sufficient of his face to
be reminded of the old pioneers and of a certain type of face seen
frequently among the old soldiers: Young though he was--not more than
thirty, she decided--this man had the same long and narrow face, with
the high cheekbones, high and slender forehead, and nose high, lean,
and almost beaked. The lips were thin and sensitive; but the eyes were
different from any she had ever seen in pioneer or veteran or any
man. They were so dark a gray that they seemed brown, and there were a
farness and alertness of vision in them as of bright