sn't for you and Ellen and Loll, I
could be glad we have been put up against it here on Kon Klayu! I've
actually enjoyed the fighting for food and warmth and shelter! . . .
We'll all have a good stake when we leave here, Jean, but already I'm
planning to come back. I have a few ideas about mining that I'd like
to try out."

The girl looked up at him, her eyes glowing with interest. Encouraged,
he took his place once more by the signal fire and began in detail his
plans for the further prospecting and development of the Island.

But not all their hours on the Lookout were spent in the discussion of
mining. They seemed to have the whole world to themselves up there--an
enchanted world, cool, redolent of hidden sprouting green things and
the smell of driftwood smoke; a world tinctured with a sheer beauty
that neither of them had ever known before. They had reached the stage
in their companionship where sometimes they sat silent for long
minutes, only occasionally looking across the fire at each other with
the smile of understanding that is often better than speech. Sometimes
they laughed together as only youth can laugh, over inconsequential
things, and sometimes he sang to her--songs of the sea, men's songs at
first, but these gave place later to the songs of sentiment that may,
when the singer choose, be made more intimate, more tenderly personal
than the most personal spoken word.

Jean, after she had gone down to her little bunk at night, often lay
there wondering how, under the circumstances, she could be so happy,
especially since the food situation was becoming more desperate each
day. But, with the exception of occasional lapses into acute anxiety,
she was strangely content and confident for the future.

One morning she was awakened by Loll's excited whisper.

"Jean! Oh J-e-a-n! Do you hear anything?" The youngster was standing
beside her bunk, the early light falling on his red head, his ear
raised alertly after the manner of the little dog in a famous
phonograph advertisement. She roused herself drowsily and sat up to
listen. Above the sound of the surf on the beach came the faint wild
call of gulls.

"Oh, Loll, winter's gone!" she exclaimed just above a whisper. "The
birds have come back to nest!"

She bounded out of bed and a moment later the two slipped quietly out
to the porch. The light fall of snow had already been gone for weeks.
It was a glorious morning of sunshine and sparkling sea