unsullied. What a fine, trim, clean island it was! And how desirable to
be alone on it, when the Gulf and the Caribbean produced only such
visitors as those who had come two nights before! He looked toward the
little bay, fearing to see the topmast of the schooner showing its tip
over the trees, but the sky there, an unbroken blue, was fouled by no
such presence. He was rid of the pirates--and forever he hoped.

It seemed to him that he had passed through an epic time, one of the
great periods of his life. He wondered now how he had been able to carry
out such a plan, how he had managed to summon up courage and resources
enough, and he felt that the good spirits of earth and air and water
must have been on his side. They had fought for him and they had won for
him the victory.

He shouldered his rifle and strolled through the woods toward the beach.
He had never noticed before what a fine forest it was. The trees were
not as magnificent as those of the northern wilderness, but they had a
beauty very peculiarly their own, and they were his. There was not a
single other claimant to them anywhere in the world.

It was a noble beach too, smooth, sloping, piled with white sand,
gleaming now in the sun, and the little frothy waves that ran up it and
lapped at his feet, like puppies nibbling, were just the friendliest
frothy little waves in the world. But there were the remains of the fire
left by the ruffians to defile it, and broken bottles and broken food
were scattered about. The litter hurt his eyes so much that he gathered
up every fragment, one by one, and threw them into the sea. When the
last vestige of the foul invasion was cleared away he felt that he had
his lonely, clean island back again, and he was happy.