g the footprint,
cannibals, the man Friday--can't you see it?"

The Governor seemed to see it. "Fine--that's so!" He stared above the
director's head for the space of two inhalations from his cigarette,
imbuing Merton Gill with gratitude that he need not smoke again that
day. "But say, look here, how about your love interest?"

Henshaw waved this aside with his own cigarette and began to make marks
on the back of an envelope. "Easy enough--Belmore can fix that up. We
talked over one or two ways. How about having Friday's sister brought
over with him to this island? The cannibals are going to eat her, too.
Then the cannibals run to their canoes when they hear the gun, just the
same as in the book. And Crusoe rescues the two. And when he cuts the
girl's bonds he finds she can't be Friday's real sister, because she's
white--see what I mean? Well, we work it out later that she's the
daughter of an English Earl that was wrecked near the cannibal island,
and they rescued her, and Friday's mother brought her up as her own
child. She's saved the papers that came ashore, and she has the Earl's
coat-of-arms tattooed on her shoulder blade, and finally, after Crusoe
has fallen in love with her, and she's remembered a good deal of her
past, along comes the old Earl, her father, in a ship and rescues them
all. How about that?" Henshaw, brightly expectant, awaited the verdict
of his chief.

"Well--I don't know." The other considered. "Where's your conflict,
after the girl is saved from the savages? And Crusoe in the book wears a
long beard. How about that? He won't look like anything--sort of hairy,
and that's all."

Henshaw from the envelope on which he drew squares and oblongs appeared
to gain fresh inspiration. He looked up with new light in his eyes. "I
got it--got the whole thing. Modernize it. This chap is a rich young New
Yorker, cruising on his yacht, and he's wrecked on this island and gets
a lot of stuff ashore and his valet is saved, too--say there's some
good comedy, see what I mean?--valet is one of these stiff English lads,
never been wrecked on an island before and complains all the time about
the lack of conveniences. I can see a lot of good gags for him, having
to milk the goats, and getting scared of the other animals, and no place
to press his master's clothes--things like that, you know. Well, the
young fellow explores the island and finds another party that's been
wrecked on the other side, and it's the girl a