her face like a wall, and looked steadily over his head at
her course. There is no satisfaction in flinging words against a wall.
Sam's angry voice dwindled to a mutter, then fell silent.

The island lay about a mile offshore. In a chaos of lowering grey sky
and torn white water, it seemed to hang like a serene and lovely
little world of itself.

The distant shores of the lake were spectral in the whirl of the
elements, and the island was the one fixed spot. It was as brilliant
as an emerald in a setting of lead. A beach of yellow sand encircled
it, with a border of willows, and taller trees sticking up in the
middle.

Borne on the shoulders of the great wind, they reached it in a few
minutes. Bela paddled under the lee side and landed in quiet water.
Sam rose on his chilled and stiffened limbs, and stepping ashore,
stood off, scowling at her blackly.

There he was! He knew he couldn't escape alone in that cranky craft;
certainly not while the wind blew. Nor could he hope to swim a mile
through icy water. He wondered bitterly if ever a man before him had
been placed in such a galling position.

Ignoring his black looks, Bela hastened to collect dry sticks.

"I mak' fire and dry everything," she said.

Sam cursed her and strode off around the beach.

"Tak' dry matches if you want fire," Bela called after him.

He would not give any sign that he heard.

He sat down on the other side of the island, as far away as he could
get from her. Here he was full in the path of the driving, unwearied
wind, which further irritated his exacerbated nerves.

He swore at Bela; he swore at the cold, at the wind, at the matches
which went out one after another. He felt that all things animate and
inanimate were leagued against him.

Finally, in the lee of some willows, he did get a fire going, and
crouched in the smoke, choking and sneezing, as angry and unhappy a
specimen of young manhood as might have been found in the world that
morning.

Finally he began to dry out, and a measure of warmth returned to his
limbs. He got his pipe going, and felt a little less like a nihilist.

Suddenly a new, ugly thought made him spring up. Suppose she took
advantage of his absence to steal away and leave him marooned on the
island? Anything might be expected of such a woman. He hastened back
around the beach.

She had not gone. From a distance he saw her busy by a great fire,
with the blankets, and all the goods hanging around to dry