but Jean assured her
that there was no approach from either side of the precipice. The only
way to the cave lay by way of the cleft.

As time dragged on the strain of uncertainty became almost more than
the women could bear. Sometimes as they sat about the table eating the
wild food which was their only sustenance now, Ellen could hardly
control her impulse to hurl at the enigmatic man opposite her the
questions that rose to her lips. Why was he so silent? For what was
he waiting? What did he think of their situation? What did he mean to
do with them?

She realized that they could not go on indefinitely as they were now.
_Something_ must happen to relieve the tension. She had reached a
point where any word, any action that might give her a clew to the
trader's intentions, was welcome. She began to long intensely that he
might do something which would give her an excuse to use the revolver
she carried constantly beneath her blouse.

But beyond looks and an occasional cryptic smile, he did nothing to
alarm either of the women. Yet his very silence and inaction were more
ominous than threats. He instilled in them a crawling dread, a growing
terror and uncertainty that was worse than anything they had hitherto
known.

The twenty-first of June dawned beautiful and clear. It had been
Ellen's turn to watch all night and she was a-stir early, happier and
more cheerful than she had been for months. Today--today Shane must
come. She was sure he would come. He had never failed her, She woke
Jean and Loll, and with that undying instinct which prompts every true
woman to make a feast for her returning man, Ellen prepared an extra
amount of the poor fare at her command: gumboot hash, boiled eggs and
sea-parrot.

Shortly after the mid-day meal the White Chief, now fully recovered,
went off with Swimming Wolf in the direction of the south cliffs.
Ellen with her sister and Lollie climbed hopefully to the Lookout to
begin their watching.

In the bright sunshine the sea below heaved gently and stretched away
to the horizon where, today, the dim outline of the amethyst range
showed. Afar out the smoke of a west-bound steamer smudged the sky
faintly, lending a suggestion of human nearness to the scene that
cheered the waiting ones. Nearly three weeks had gone by since the men
had left the Island, and the weather, with the exception of the one
storm, had been calm. Today, certainly, Shane would come--if he were
ali