IX

THE FACE 0F DEATH

I MUST HAVE FALLEN ASLEEP FR0M EXHAUSTI0N. When I awoke I was veryhungry, and after busying myself searching for fruit for a while,I set off through the jungle to find the beach. I knew that theisland was not so large but that I could easily find the sea if Idid but move in a straight line, but there came the difficulty asthere was no way in which I could direct my course and hold it,the sun, of course, being always directly above my head, and thetrees so thickly set that I could see no distant object which mightserve to guide me in a straight line.

As it was I must have strode for a great distance since I ate fourtimes and slept twice before I reached the sea, but at last I didso, and my pleasure at the sight of it was greatly enhanced by thechance discovery of a hidden canoe among the bushes through whichI had stumbled just prior to coming upon the beach.