The After House

"She dropped her salts. I picked them up."

"Exactly! Well, the axe is gone."

He started up on his elbow.

"Gone!"

"Thrown overboard, probably. It is not in the cabin."

It was brutal, perhaps; but the situation was all of that. As Burns

fell back, colorless, Tom, the cook, brought into the tent the wire

key that Singleton had made.

That morning I took from inside of Singleton's mattress a bunch of

keys, a long steel file, and the leg of one of his chairs, carefully

unscrewed and wrapped at the end with wire a formidable club. One

of the keys opened Singleton's door.

That was on Saturday. Early Monday morning we sighted land.