"Then after a while I said: 'We 're in a pretty bad way here--shipwrecked; without anything to eat; with a very small chance of rescue. We 're up against it. There is n't even water.' "But she only laughed. "'We 're not so bad as you 'd think,' she says. 'There 's water. I found it when I looked for something to bathe that cut on your head. And as for food, I 'd been in these islands a while before they put me in the--place--at Papeete. There 's bananas, and there 's cocoanuts, and there 's breadfruit. And that cove is full of fish.' "'You can't eat fish raw,' I tell her. "I 'm turning out my pockets then, leaving things in the sun to dry--my gun, with the shells out in a row; my watch; my knife; my pocketbook. She points at the watch. "'You can make a fire with the crystal of that,' she says. 'Your bananas 'll do for the present. I 'll go off and get some. You need n't worry,' she says as she notices me looking at her. 'I can't get off the island.' "After a while she comes back and sits down. "'Do you know how you got ashore, McCarthy?' "'I don't,' I answer. 'I know nothing.' "'When the boat struck,' she tells me, 'you and I were washed over the reef. Something hit you on the head. But I pulled you in, McCarthy. You went down. You were out cold. I had a job, too,' she laughs nervously. 'Your hair is awfully short.' "'Well, I got to thank you,' I said. "'Don't mind thanking me,' she said. 'Tell me this!' She 's awfully serious. 'Don't you think a life is worth a life?' "I say nothing to that. "'Don't you, McCarthy?' she pleads. "'I 'm sorry,' I tell her. 'I 'm awfully, awfully sorry, but I 've got to bring you in.' "'You 're a hard man, McCarthy.' "'I 'm not a hard man. I 'm just a man sworn in to do my job. I 'm just a man a big trust's been put in, and I can't fall down. Sis, you missed your chance,' I told her. 'You ought to have let me go down, when you saw me going. Then you 'd have been free. You ought to have stood clear and let me drown.' "'Oh, I could n't do that!' she says. "'Neither could I let you go!' "In the afternoon I go around the island to see where we are. But from no point can I see land or a sail or anything. We are just on one of those Pacific atolls, as they call them, away from the line of everything but sailing-ships trading from isle to isle. I look everywhere--north, east, south, and west--and there is nothing but boiling sea, white, muddy, with birds fluttering, or floating in the air.