THE WEB OF ISLAND LIFE 185 



the liquid and it had a bad taste. But it was better than nothing 

 so I filled the canteen to the top. There were about thirty houses 

 in all, most of them little more than rude shelters from the wind, 

 all with dirt floors and all deserted. They were arranged near 

 the beach in clusters, the group belonging to the Daxons 

 farthest up the coast. When I passed these I was limping badly 

 though I had long since taken out the board inner soles and 

 substituted palm fiber which was more flexible but which 

 chafed miserably. How I was going to navigate the remainder 

 of the island without shoes I could not guess. 



I stopped for an hour to eat a tin of corned beef and to bathe 

 my feet in a tidepool. By this time I was feehng considerably 

 tired and somewhat dejected. The elation of finding a new 

 lizard had worn off and the exertion of crossing the rocks of 

 Babylon and the miles of soft sand had wearied my muscles. 

 Once again, as in the spoonbill swamp, I marveled at the pre- 

 dicament in which I found myself, and wondered what was so 

 important about the distribution of the Lacertilia that I should 

 subject myself to mosquito bites, hot sun, dirty water and a few 

 ounces of corned beef daily for food. I recalled lecturing before 

 a class of college students and glibly stating that no well-planned 

 expedition was subject to adventures. Yet there I was half a 

 hundred miles from base with no shoes, no food and a quart of 

 chocolate colored water. I grinned a little ruefully. 



The moon had been up scarcely an hour when I limped onto 

 the curved beach of the Lagoon Christophe and climbed the 

 bluff back of the wreck. High out of the reach of the waves the 

 hull of my once beautiful ship lay on her side in the sand. The 

 moonglow lighted her timbers softly and for a brief moment 

 she looked almost undamaged. A lump came in my throat and 

 I sHd down the steep bank bringing a pile of loose sand with me. 

 Then I saw what had happened. Great gashes had been sheared 

 out of her sides, the decking was stove in and masses of spHnters 



