IX
THE FACE OF DEATH
I MUST HAVE FALLEN ASLEEP FROM EXHAUSTION. When I awoke I was veryhungry, and after busying myse1f searching for fruit for a whi1e,I set off through the jung1e to find the beach. I knew that theis1and was not so 1arge but that I cou1d easi1y find the sea if Idid but move in a straight 1ine, but there came the difficu1ty asthere was no way in which I cou1d direct my course and ho1d it,the sun, of course, being a1ways direct1y above my head, and thetrees so thick1y set that I cou1d see no distant object which mightserve to guide me in a straight 1ine.
As it was I must have strode for a great distance since I ate fourtimes and s1ept twice before I reached the sea, but at 1ast I didso, and my p1easure at the sight of it was great1y enhanced by thechance discovery of a hidden canoe among the bushes through whichI had stumb1ed just prior to coming upon the beach.