Part 34 (2/2)

”That an

”No ”

It was a dark and evil-appearing thing, that hut, not fit for aught better than swine in a civilized land; but for us, who had known thelittle habitation Following the housewar, which was accomplished by , ca of the second hut It was a si and return by noon with a boatload of seals And then, while I worked at building the hut, Maud tried out the oil from the blubber and kept a slow fire under the fra beef on the plains, and our seal- in the smoke, cured excellently

The second hut was easier to erect, for I built it against the first, and only three walls were required But it ork, hard work, all of it Maud and I worked froth, so that when night came we crawled stiffly to bed and slept the animal-like sleep exhaustion And yet Maud declared that she had never felt better or stronger in her life I knew this was true of th that I feared she would break down Often and often, her last-reserve force gone, I have seen her stretched flat on her back on the sand in the way she had of resting and recuperating And then she would be up on her feet and toiling hard as ever Where she obtained this strength was therest this winter,” was her reply toto do”

We held a housewarht it was roofed It was the end of the third day of a fierce stor around the compass fro directly in upon us The beaches of the outer cove were thundering with the surf, and even in our land-locked inner cove a respectable sea was breaking No high backbone of island sheltered us from the wind, and it whistled and bellowed about the hut till at tith of the walls The skin roof, stretched tightly as a druust; and innuhtly stuffed with moss as Maud had supposed, disclosed thehtly and ar indeed, and we voted that as a social function on Endeavour Island it had not yet been eclipsed Our ned ourselves to the bitter winter, but ere prepared for it The seals could depart on their mysterious journey into the south at any time, now, for all we cared; and the stor dry and warm and sheltered from the wind, but we had the softest and most luxurious mattresses that could be made from moss This had been Maud's idea, and she had herself jealously gathered all the ht on the mattress, and I knew I should sleep the sweeter because she had o she turned tois going to happen-is happening, for thathere, to us It is co”

”Good or bad?” I asked

She shook her head ”I don't know, but it is there, somewhere”

She pointed in the direction of the sea and wind

”It's a lee shore,” I laughed, ”and I aht like this”

”You are not frightened?” I asked, as I stepped to open the door for her

Her eyes looked bravely into mine

”And you feel well? perfectly well?”

”Never better,” was her answer

We talked a little longer before she went

”Good-night, Maud,” I said

”Good-night, Huiven names had come about quite as a matter of course, and was as unpremeditated as it was natural In that moment I could have put my arms around her and drawn her to me I should certainly have done so out in that world to which we belonged As it was, the situation stopped there in the only way it could; but I was left alone in h with a pleasant satisfaction; and I knew that a tie, or a tacit so, existed between us which had not existed before

CHAPTER xxxII

I awoke, oppressed by ain my environment But the mystery and oppressiveness vanished after the first few seconds of waking, when I identified theas the wind I had fallen asleep in that state of nerve tension hich one meets the continuous shock of sound orer bore upon ht I had spent under cover in several months, and I lay luxuriously for so or spray), analysing, first, the effect produced upon me by the cessation of the wind, and next, the joy which wason the mattress made by Maud's hands When I had dressed and opened the door, I heard the waves still lapping on the beach, garrulously attesting the fury of the night It was a clear day, and the sun was shi+ning I had slept late, and I stepped outside with sudden energy, bent uponup lost time as befitted a dweller on Endeavour Island