and he first
tried filling the pockets with stones. When this seemed entirely
inadequate he trudged back to the abandoned canoe and secured a pair of
blankets from its lading. Of these he made a winding-sheet for each of
the dead men, wrapping the stones in with the bodies, and making all
fast as well as he could with strings fashioned from strips of the
blanketing.

All this took time, and before it was finished, with the two stiffened
bodies settling to the bottom of the deep pool, Prime was sick and
shaken. What remained to be done was less distressing. Going back to the
glade he searched until he found the other hunting-knife. Also, in
groping under the murder tree he found a small buckskin sack filled with
coins. A lighted match showed him the contents--a handful of bright
English sovereigns. The inference was plain; the two men had fought for
the possession of the gold, and both had lost.

Prime went back to the river and, kneeling at the water's edge, scoured
the two knives with sand to remove the blood-stains. That done, and the
knives well hidden in the bow of the canoe, he made another journey to
the glade and carefully scattered the ashes of the five fires.

Owing to the civilized pre-existence, he was fagged and weary to the
point of collapse when he finally returned to the campfire on the lake
beach and flung himself down beside it to sleep. But for long hours
sleep would not come, and when it did come it was little better than a
succession of hideous nightmares in which two dark-faced men were
reproachfully throttling him and dragging him down into the bottomless
depths of the outlet river.

V

A SECRET FOR ONE

PRIME awoke unrefreshed at the moment when the morning sun was beginning
to gild the tops of the highest trees, to find his campmate up and
busying herself housewifely over the breakfast fire.

"You looked so utterly tired and worn out I thought I'd let you sleep as
long as you could," she offered. "Are you feeling any better this
morning?"

"I'm not sick," he protested, wincing a little in spite of himself in
deference to the stiffened thews and sinews.

"You mustn't be," she argued cheerfully. "To-day is the day when we must
go back a few thousand years and become Stone-Age people."

"Meaning that the provisions will be gone?"

"Yes."

"There are rabbits," he asserted. "I saw two of them yesterday. Does
the dom