sn't in any danger of starving. It was lonely,
though--it's lonely enough country, anyhow, and of course I couldn't
help thinking about that Indian and the way big rapids roar. I couldn't
sleep when night came--saw black rocks sticking up out of white water
like the fangs of a mad dog. I was pretty near the horrors, I guess. So
you can imagine I wasn't sorry when, about four o'clock of the next
afternoon, I came back to the river again and a teepee standing up all
by itself on a little pine-crowned bluff. In front of the teepee was an
old squaw--she wasn't very old, really, but you know how Indians
get--boiling something over a fire in a big pot. 'How!' I said, and she
grunted. 'If you'll lend me part of your fire, I'll make some tea,' I
continued. 'And if you're good, I'll give you some when it's done.' Tea
was one of the things cached in the little box that had been saved. She
moved the pot to one side, so I judged she understood, and I trotted
down to the river for water and set to work. As you can guess, I was
pretty anxious for any kind of conversation by then, so after a while I
said brightly: 'All alone?' She grunted again and pointed over her
shoulder to the teepee. 'Well, seeing you're so interested,' said I,
'and that the tea's done, we'll all go inside and ask your man to a
party--if you'll dig up two tin cups. I've got one of my own.' She
raised the flap of the teepee and I followed her. I could see she wasn't
a person who wasted words. Inside a little fire was smouldering, and
seated with his back to us was a big, broad-shouldered buck, with a dark
blanket wrapped around him. 'Your good wife,' I began cheerily--I was
getting pretty darned sick of silence--'has allowed me to make some tea
over your fire. Have some? I'm shipwrecked from a canoe and on my way to
Lower Post. If you don't understand what I say, it doesn't make the
slightest difference, but for God's sake grunt--just once, to show
you're interested.' He grunted. 'Thanks!' I said, and poured the tea
into the three tin cups. The squaw handed one to her buck. Then I sat
down.

"There was nothing to be heard but the gurgling of the river outside and
the rather noisy breathing we three made as we drank; and then--very
clearly, just as if we'd been sitting in an English drawing-room--in the
silence a voice said: 'By Jove, that's the first decent cup of tea I've
had in ten years!' Yes, just that! 'By Jove, that's the first decent cup
of tea I've had in