emark that it was a brute of a
coast he had never grumbled against the place or abused it or the
Almighty for making it, as many a man has done; and now at the summit of
things two words sufficed him.

Then, leaving the skeleton to the wind and the sky and the countless
ages, they turned and went on their way west.

CHAPTER XXX

THE BAY

It took them till dusk to reach the foot of the western rise of ground;
here they slept under a rock, continuing their way next morning,
climbing till they reached the summit of the rise and keeping their
course along the edge of a cliff that fell a sheer three hundred feet to
the shore below.

Sometimes Raft peeped over the cliff edge and once the girl drew close
and looked, too, dizzy with the height, made more dreadful by the gulls
flying far below.

At noon, far ahead of them, they saw something that made them pause; a
little mound. As they drew closer they knew. It was another cache, a
cache made of heaped earth and loose stones with about a foot of sign
post protruding from it. The post had been broken off in some storm and
blown away.

"There'll be stuff under there," said Raft, "and if we have to go back
it'll come in handy. It's a pointer to the bay anyhow; there must be
some landin' place near here, we've only got to keep on."

They sat down and rested and had some food, eating as much as they
wanted now that they had a store to depend on. They had drunk twice
that morning from pot holes still half-filled with the rain of a few
days ago and they had no need of water--it is the one thing a man never
needs in Kerguelen. They were in good spirits; the haunting fear that
their provisions might not be enough to last them for the return journey
was gone; also, if the bay were near, they could remain now some time,
even take up their quarters here to wait on the chance of a ship.

The idea came to them to make a burrow into the cache, now, working with
the harpoon and their hands, and for the purpose of verifying the
contents; but they put it away, the desire to get on drove them like a
whip and they went on, halting towards dusk and sleeping in a hollow
that gave them shelter from the wind that was blowing from the south.

Towards dawn the wind changed to the west and at the first rays of light
Raft awoke, sat up and sniffed. Then he laid his hand on the girl's
shoulder.

"Smell that!" cried he.

She sat up, her eyes half-blind with sleep.

"Smell the wind!