s it?" he demanded.

"We are certainly the primitive pair."

"H-m, I suppose. Anyhow, I feel better for my sleep."

"It's beastly cold," returned Claire, "and my ankle is playing fits and
jerks with me."

"We'll have to do something about it," he said earnestly. She did not
answer.

"We can bind it up, I presume," he went on. "But it's a frightful
inconvenience."

"Admitted," she said quickly. "It can't be helped, however."

"I'm very much for a fire," he suggested, as though he had not noticed
the hints of hardness in her voice.

"Some twenty feet ahead is a flat rock. We might build one there. Have
you matches?"

He shook his head. "We'll have to go it primeval."

"But I don't see how," she began.

"Never mind," he answered, with a malicious grin. "I do know some few
things."

"Perhaps you also know how to find food when there isn't any," she
retorted.

He rose without replying.

"Well," she continued, "I see plenty of roots and stuff. We may as well
prepare to eat them. It's unbelievable that I should be here, and with
you. It's a horrible nightmare, this being stranded and lame out here
somewhere with a blind man."

He winced, but answered quietly: "I'm not especially charmed myself. I
could prefer other things."

She looked at him and smiled. "Don't ever let me repeat those
sentiments," she said, simply. "I'm sorry. Of course you aren't to
blame, and I shouldn't have said that."

He stepped forward timidly. "Will you suggest the best means of finding
dry wood?" he asked, as though the matter were forgotten.

She pursed her lips and looked around her. "This moss seems to be feet
deep," she said at last. "You might dig up some that is dry, and with
that as a starter you can add twigs."

He stopped and began to tear away the moss. His hands were stiff, but he
worked rapidly and before long he had a heap of the brown, dry stuff
from underneath.

She watched him silently. When he stopped, she said: "Straight to your
left is the rock. Get the fire started. Then you can move the invalid."

He took the moss and felt his way to the rock, which was eight or ten
feet square and practically flat, standing up almost a foot from the
ground.

"Now, for a dry stick or two," he said, cheerily.

She directed him, and at last he found what he thought would do. Then
began the age-old procedure of twisting a pointed stick between one's
hands, the point resting on another piece of wood, until friction
br