speculating upon my chances of rescue.

If I had not been so absorbed in my selfish thoughts I might possibly
have prevented a catastrophe which afterward caused me much
self-reproach. Moira had more than once told me that food had
mysteriously disappeared from a cave in which she kept a store of
meat for our use, and she showed me where the rocks in front of this
cave had been scraped of seaweed and mussel-shells as though by the
passage of some cumbersome body. But I gave no heed to her anxieties,
and although she urged me to shift our camp I would not leave the
beacon lest a ship might pass during my absence.

Of the dreadful consequences which followed my selfishness it now only
remains for me to tell.



CHAPTER IV

THE SEA SPIDER


I was occupied one midday, as usual, scanning the horizon from the top
of the cliff near the beacon in search of a passing vessel, when I
noticed Moira urging her canoe toward the shore at a rapid pace. In the
wake of the canoe a disturbance of the water betokened the presence of
some denizen of the deep, and Moira's action in making for the rocks at
top speed betrayed her terror of whatever it was that followed her.
Hastily descending the cliff I ran to her assistance, when I saw Moira
spring on to a flat rock upon which she generally landed from her