libut nearly six feet
long. With the exception of the bones but a small portion and the head
remained, for the birds had been gorging on it for some time. The
flesh, however, looked fresh and firm and white.

Jean regarded it thoughtfully. "If we had nothing else to eat, Lollie,
we _might_ eat a fish like this--that is if we got it before the gulls
had been at it." In an emergency even a great storm might be made to
serve, since its very violence flung up from the deep such fare as
this. At any rate, the gulls appreciated it, for even as Loll and Jean
stood there, the birds had flown back, settling upon their find, their
strong, lemon-colored, crimson-splotched beaks tearing greedily at the
flesh. In their eagerness they flew thrillingly close, cold,
gold-ringed eyes staring fiercely into the faces of the two, powerful
wings fanning their cheeks. Loll, seeing Jean shrink away from an
overly bold bird, took her hand and tugged her away from the
discordantly screaming mass.

"Gosh, Jean, if those fellows were very hungry and I was alone, I bet
they'd take a peck at _me_!"

Recalling a day at Katleean, when she had stood by a creek watching the
salmon struggle up through the shallow water, while screeching gulls
swooped exultantly down on the helpless creatures and gouged the eyes
out of the living fish, Jean shuddered and quickened her steps.

They approached the tent cache at the West Camp. It appeared intact.
The wind, being from the southwest had struck with full force on the
opposite end of the Island. Jean untied the flap of the tent and went
inside. The provisions were piled up nearly to the ridgepole at the
back. Lollie, poking about, came upon a piece of rope, which, boylike,
he took outside and wound about his waist. Jean heard him stumbling
over the guy-ropes at the side. Then from the back came his call:

"Jean! Come here!"

The girl ran out and joined him. He was pointing to the back of the
tent. The pegs which had fastened it to the earth were uprooted. The
canvas swung free. But what filled her with momentary conjecture was
that which lay at her feet. A sack of flour evidently had been dragged
out from under the wall of the tent and ripped open, for the sand was
whitened with the doughy mixture resulting from the rain.

At this moment it did not occur to the girl to be frightened. There
were no tracks in the sand other than hers and Loll's. Evidently, she
thought, in the haste to