"Doctor, there, is always wanting to get away. But he knows we can't build a boat without tools. An' I put it to him--has he so much as set eyes on a tool out yonder since we come ashore?" "I can't say I have, but then I haven't seen as much of the wreckage as you have. There may be any amount of----" "Oh, ay, there mebbe! But so far we haven't struck 'em, an' it's no good talking o' boats till we got the tools." "We will look for them," said The Girl confidently. "Oh, ay, ye can look for 'em, and mebbe sometime a boat'll come ashore ready-made, or one that we can make shift to patch up. Meantime we've got all we want here and there's plenty more for the getting out yonder. So be content, say I, miss, for by rights the Doctor and me ought to be two clean-picked white skeletons out there on the pile, an' you ought to be a little white corp tumbling about on yon spar for the birds to peck at." "Are there skeletons out there?" she asked with a shiver. "Heaps." "I think I will not go. I have seen so much of Death. I would forget it for a time." "Ye'll meet him sure if ye try to get across from here in any boat we could build," growled the mate, and filled his pipe and his pannikin. XXIX Next morning Macro went off as usual to the wreck-pile, and Miss Drummond set to work on her dressmaking. Wulfrey hoisted up out of the hold for her such pieces of silk and linen as she required, and scoured a couple of the smallest needles with sand till they were usable. Then, with the sharpest knife he could find among their stock, he cut out on the deck, under her direction, various lengths and designs which to him were meaningless, but replete with possibilities from her point of view. But when, presently, she saw him preparing to go ashore for water and rabbits, she threw down her needle and said, "I will go also. You will not mind?" "On the contrary, I shall mind very much. I shall feel honoured by your company. It is a pleasure to have someone to talk to again," and he helped her down on to the raft, and thought how much less interesting shoes were than little naked feet. "Do you not then talk much with Mr Macro?" "Sometimes, and sometimes we hardly spoke all day." "You quarrelled?" "Hardly that, but ... well, we had not very much in common, you see. His mind was always full of his discoveries out there, and one got rather tired of it at times." "I do not think I shall like him as much as I thought." "Why that? I'm sorry if I have said anything that seems to reflect on him in any way." "I am used to judging for myself. It is a look that comes into his eyes at times,--like a horse when it is going to bite. No,"--with a decided little nod,--"I shall not like him as much as I hoped; and I am sorry, for I ought to feel grateful to him for pulling me out of the water." "I'm glad you are feeling grateful for being alive, anyway," he said, with a smile. "That is better than being doubtful about it."