unning out on the beach last evening?"

"I can snare rabbits all right," said La Touche, "but where's the wire
to make snares with--see--we're caught everywhere."

"Wait," said Bompard.

He got up and went down to the boat, hunted in one of the lockers and
returned with a spool of wire.

He flung it at La Touche.

"There's your wire," said he.

Cleo's eyes brightened. The spool of wire seemed to her a fruit suddenly
born from her words; she had accomplished something, it was perhaps the
first real accomplishment in her life.

"Where did you get it from?" asked La Touche.

"The forward locker," replied Bompard.

"Are there any other things in the locker?" asked the girl.

"Oh, Mon Dieu, yes," replied the old fellow. "There's a lot of truck,
but it's no use to us."

"Let's go and see," said Cleo. She rose up and came down the beach
followed by the others. The wind from the mountains died away but the
sea torment remained and, though the tide was beginning to ebb, the
spray of the waves almost reached the boat.

It had been listed to one side by the Wooley but was undamaged and the
forward locker was still open as it had been left by the careless
Bompard.

It was one of the boats used for fishing and deep sea work, hence the
contents of the locker.

The steel head of a two pronged fish spear, a fisherman's knife in its
sheath with belt, a paternoster, invaluable for the fathoms of fishing
line attached, a small American axe with the head vaselined, a canvas
housewife with sail-needles, a few darning needles and some pack thread,
and a number of odds and ends including some extra heavy lead sinkers.

Bompard looked on apathetically and La Touche stood with his hands in
his pockets as the girl fished the things out one by one, placing them,
some on the sands and some on the thwarts of the boat.

The things seemed to have no interest for the men. Accustomed all their
lives to being looked after as far as shelter and food were concerned
they seemed absolutely helpless in front of new conditions. Men are like
that, especially men of the people, and when you read of Crusoes and
their wonderful doings on desert islands you read Romance.

The quick, trained mind of the girl seemed to see clearly where they
could scarcely see at all, she had imagination and she was a woman--that
is to say a being more gifted than man, with prevision in affairs purely
material.

Bompard did not see any use in the axe and said