dn't have such a well-trained imagination, I might have thought
of that," he said, with a short laugh. "It was a signal, and it was
lighted for the benefit of our aeroplane. How much farther does that get
us?"

The young woman was letting down the flaps of her sleeping-tent, and her
answer was entirely irrelevant.

"I am glad the protective instinct was sufficiently alive to keep you
from telling me at the time," she said, with a little shudder which she
did not try to conceal. "You may not believe it, Donald Prime, but I
still have a few of the civilized weaknesses. Good night; and don't sit
up too long with that horrid tobacco."

IX

SHIPWRECK

THOUGH the castaways had not especially intended to observe the day of
rest, they did so, the Sunday dawning wet and stormy, with lowering
clouds and foggy intervals between the showers to make navigation
extrahazardous. When the rain settled into a steady downpour they pulled
the canoe out of water, turning it bottom-side up to serve as a roof to
shelter them. In the afternoon Prime took one of the guns and went
afield, in the hope of finding fresh meat of some sort, though it was
out of season and he was more than dubious as to his skill as either a
hunter or a marksman. But the smoked meats were becoming terribly
monotonous, and they had not yet had the courage to try the pemmican.
Quite naturally, nothing came of the hunting expedition save a thorough
and prolonged soaking of the hunter.

"The wild things have more sense than I have," he announced on his
return. "They know enough to stay in out of the rain. Can you stand the
cold-storage stuff a little while longer?"

Lucetta said she could, and specialized the Sunday-evening meal by
concocting an appetizing pan-stew of smoked venison and potatoes to vary
the deadly monotonies.

The Monday morning brought a return of the fine weather. The storm had
blown itself out during the night and the skies were clearing. The day
of rain had swollen the river quite perceptibly, and a short distance
below their Sunday camp its volume was further augmented by the inflow
of another river from the east, which fairly doubled its size.

On this day there were fewer water hazards, and the current of the
enlarged river was so swift that they had little to do save to keep
steerageway on the birch-bark. Nevertheless, it was not all plain
sailing. By the middle o