"I am ashamed so to exhibit my weakness," she murmured. "I fear I am
greatly in need of food. What day is this?"

"The twelfth of August."

"And it was the night of the tenth when I drifted out of the mouth of
the river. Ever since then I have been drifting, the sport of the
winds and waves."

"Sit you down here, then," I commanded, now fully awakened to her
immediate need. "The sand is yet warm from the sun, and I have food
with me in my pockets."




CHAPTER VII

A CIRCLE IN THE SAND

I have since thought it almost providential that my food supply was so
limited; for, after first asking me if I had eaten all I required, she
fell upon it like a famished thing, and did not desist until all was
gone. A threatening bank of dark cloud was creeping slowly up the
northern sky as we were resting, but directly overhead the stars were
shining brilliantly, yielding me sufficient light for the study of her
face. She was certainly less than my own age by two or three years, a
girl barely rounding into the slender beauty of her earliest womanhood,
with hints of both in face and form. She was simply dressed, as,