ed now how he had been able to carry
out such a plan, how he had managed to summon up courage and resources
enough, and he felt that the good spirits of earth and air and water
must have been on his side. They had fought for him and they had won for
him the victory.

He shouldered his rifle and strolled through the woods toward the beach.
He had never noticed before what a fine forest it was. The trees were
not as magnificent as those of the northern wilderness, but they had a
beauty very peculiarly their own, and they were his. There was not a
single other claimant to them anywhere in the world.

It was a noble beach too, smooth, sloping, piled with white sand,
gleaming now in the sun, and the little frothy waves that ran up it and
lapped at his feet, like puppies nibbling, were just the friendliest
frothy little waves in the world. But there were the remains of the fire
left by the ruffians to defile it, and broken bottles and broken food
were scattered about. The litter hurt his eyes so much that he gathered
up every fragment, one by one, and threw them into the sea. When the
last vestige of the foul invasion was cleared away he felt that he had
his lonely, clean island back again, and he was happy.

He strolled up and down the glistening beach, feeling a great content.
After a while, he threw off his clothes and swam in the invigorating
sea, keeping well inside the white line of the breakers, in those waters
into which the sharks did not come. When he had sunned himself again on
the sand he went to the creek, took his dinghy from the bushes, where it
had been so well hidden, and rowed out to sea, partly to feel the spring
of the muscles in his arms, and partly to sit off at a distance and look
at his island. Surely if one had to be cast away that was the very
island on which he would choose to be cast! Not too big! Not too hot!
And not too cold! Without savage man or savage beasts, but with plenty
of wild cattle for the taking, and good fish in the lakes, and in the
seas about it. Plenty of stores of all kinds from the slaver's schooner,
even books to read. So far from being unfortunate he was one of the
lucky. A period of retirement from the companionship of his own kind
might be trying on the spirit, but it also meant meditation and mental
growth.

His joy over the departure of the pirates was so great and his
temperament was such that he felt a mighty revulsion of the spirits. He
had a period of extravagant e