The Beach of Dreams

denly clenched and hitting out from the shoulder of the great i

r from end to end but the yelling Wooley as it met the cliffs and howled inland almost drowned the thunder of the waves. Then it died

Kerguelen. "Here you shall think of nothing but the moment, of the ground beneath

La Touche was cursing the wind. The Wooley had all but blown him down too. He had got up sooner than Bompard and had rec

ell, lasted for a moment, and wa

the cliffs they scarcely felt it but the shift had raised an appalling cross sea. Right away to the islands

in with this yesterday," said B

"This is what you get every day of the week, if all accounts are true-this, and worse. I tell

Dieu! to hear you talk you'd think we'd come here on

at the cave mouth they ate just as the men of the Stone Age ate, with the palms of their hands for plates and their fingers for forks.

irl who brok

t what she said was absolutely spontaneous, the result of a quick, educated mind

't imagine what it is to a person with long hair when they find themselves without a brush and comb. I was grumbling to myself about it when the wind knocked me down. I want just to tell you what is in my mind: we will die or go mad if we do not forget everything as mu

La Touche munching a biscuit

thing, our provision

rd. "Remember those rabbits we saw r

Touche, "but where's the wire to make s

said B

at, hunted in one of the lockers

it at L

your wire

it suddenly born from her words; she had accomplished somethi

get it from?" a

locker," re

r things in the loc

e old fellow. "There's a lot of

others. The wind from the mountains died away but the sea torment remained and, t

was undamaged and the forward locker was still

r fishing and deep sea work, he

the fathoms of fishing line attached, a small American axe with the head vaselined, a canvas housewife with sail-need

s in his pockets as the girl fished the things out one by one, pl

ter and food were concerned they seemed absolutely helpless in front of new conditions. Men are like that, especia

scarcely see at all, she had imagination and she was a woman-that is to s

hand resting on the gunnel of the boat, stood like a housekeeper trying

e and an axe will c

asked La Touche. "There's not a tree on

re's sure to be bushes of some sort-anyhow we will take

caught her eye, she inclu

t, exhibited the mind of Bompard as though that

e there were no boats to be bal

ot to boil things in if they cou

tion in the fact, a satisfaction which Bompard faintly reflected, and for a moment the girl seemed to glimpse in the two men a lethargy of mind almost unthinkable. A le

hildren, and putting the belt with the knife round her waist and picking

ening to smoke and rest themselves whilst the girl, who could not keep still, went back to the boat to explore the other lockers and see if by chance anything else of a useful natur

the future seemed phantoms before the tremendous and insistent present. Fate could perhaps have broken her spirit only in one way, by casting her upon the sordid. If she had been socially shipwrecked and thrown onto a Paris slum she might have go

discovered two more Maconochie tins that Bompard had overlooked

ht them up to the cave before w

ar into the cave as he could reach, then he resumed his pipe whilst Cléo standing and s

eat them. I'm sure there must be lots of food to be found here on the beach. Then there is a big break in the cliffs lower down that seems to lead inland. I think the best thing we can do

were dispo

Touche began to argue about star-fish. He had never heard of people eating star-fish. If they were to be condemned to eat stuff like

as though the two were in league against her, just as children get in lea

aced the new found Maconochie tins, the cotton waste, the bradawl and wire with the rest of the stores, far back in the cave, and

bending upon itself; here they parted, the men striking up

r some wood," she cried aft

d, "we'll be on the l

lone, picking up things as she went, turning

ceding tide and the stretch of wet sand below high tide mark was strewn with huge kelp ribbons,

creature half-bedded in the sand just above the tide mark, possibly cast up in some storm. She thought it might be the skull of a

ver came back? The thought clutched her heart like

, fighting down the surging in her throat, and continuing her way steadily and with renewed strength. She had not cast the t

rawn up in long lines at the base of the cliff and the sight of them de

were standing, two facing one another bowing and discussing something, the third standin

thought of coming back empty handed after all her talk to the men pursued

thought of what would happen when those tins in the cave were empty came at her just as the terror of finding hersel

he slender food barrier that held hunger only a month away

ere with weed. The cliffs had fallen away, giving a view of the broken country and the mountains with their snow-covered tops, i

d explained by the beach noises, the sound of the surf, th

st time in all its utter nakedness. If no food were to be found on the busy beach, what food could be

sound behind her m

. She watched it with dilated eyes as it scrambled and hurried along, vanishing at last like a spectre in some cleft of the rock. There was something of a skeleton about it as well as something of a spider, it was like a caricature of food drawn by Famine. It made

roosting on its top, and just as a person fixes on some object as the limi

ead of a ship, the form of a woman with ample breasts, broken and scarred by years of weather and stained with the droppings

e head and it had an appearance of life that almost daunted the girl as she stood looking, watching

, ships timber was all about, sanded over, and in places half uncovered. Here was firewood enough for

of life and became simply a block of wood, and from this point she could see the beach over which she had travelled st

and she had found something wo

y-handed, but she had kept on and she registered that fact deeply i

age, so the waves must have come a hundred feet or more beyond where she was sitting. Perhaps it was at night with all this coast roaring in the darkness and the wind yelling above t

ck she glanced inland towards the m

shaded

each and amongst the high