“Blake!”

I turned my head slowly at this whisper of my name. It was Griggs.

“Let us hang on another day,” he whispered. Then he swooned. “Yes,” I whispered, in an hour, when he recovered consciousness. “Let us hang on.”

I no longer remembered, as I said the words, that our last bite of food had gone down our throats the day before; that our last few pints of water were in the barrel beneath the mast. I would live for love. Griggs crawled back to where the cook lay.

“My darling!”

I barely caught the whisper, ut I had seen her coming and the sight revived me. I tried to put an arm about her waist, but only a hand reached hers.

“Dearest,” she whispered, “don’t let them see us.”

She had kissed my lips and gone before I could utter a word. It was as well, for in a moment more I was looking into the glaring eyes of Jinks.

“We’ll wait another day,” he said; “another day before I die to feed you all.”

His face was withdrawn, but I had not the strength to gaze after his retreating figure. Nor did I think of death any more. My mind ran on that devoted girl. How pretty she seemed among the starving thirty of us! Would she come back and kiss me once again? I managed to lift my head from the bottom of the raft and turned it for a sight of her. The blackness of a Pacific night was upon the deep, yet I could see the outline of the sea chest, behind which she retreated for sleep when the shadows fell. The cook’s bulk obscured its outline to my glance, for he was sprawled in front of it. The dawn could not be far away, unless the stars were lying, but the sea was rising and falling heavily like a sleeper in pain. A vague alarm for her seized me on a sudden, and I essayed to walk to where she was.

I could not get upon my feet. Upon my hands and knees I moved like a shadow. Had I the wealth of Ormuzd and of Ind I would have given all of it to be able to speak her name aloud. But what was her name? It dawned upon me for the first time since we kissed that I knew not her name nor anything about her. She was one of the passengers in the wrecked ship. So was I. Then she could not possibly know my full name, unless some purser or steward had revealed it. Well, I would question her regarding these things when I had reached her side.

Would I ever do so? Minute after minute I spent crawling to the chest. The starving men lay in slumber or in swoon, quite motionless. I wondered if the cook, too, could be asleep.

My head swam from the exertion of so much of my strength as was left after these long days without food or drink. I collapsed and lay motionless, until repose should have brought back some capacity to use my knees and hands.

I heard whispers. Her voice! Slowly I wrenched my neck about until my eyes were on a level with the top of the sea chest. There I clung, fearing the swoon.

“Darling!”

“Wait one day for the woman who loves you.”

Then I heard the sound of a kiss.