He strolled up and down the glistening beach, feeling a great content.
After a while, he threw off his clothes and swam in the invigorating
sea, keeping well inside the white line of the breakers, in those waters
into which the sharks did not come. When he had sunned himself again on
the sand he went to the creek, took his dinghy from the bushes, where it
had been so well hidden, and rowed out to sea, partly to feel the spring
of the muscles in his arms, and partly to sit off at a distance and look
at his island. Surely if one had to be cast away that was the very
island on which he would choose to be cast! Not too big! Not too hot!
And not too cold! Without savage man or savage beasts, but with plenty
of wild cattle for the taking, and good fish in the lakes, and in the
seas about it. Plenty of stores of all kinds from the slaver's schooner,
even books to read. So far from being unfortunate he was one of the
lucky. A period of retirement from the companionship of his own kind
might be trying on the spirit, but it also meant meditation and mental
growth.

His joy over the departure of the pirates was so great and his
temperament was such that he felt a mighty revulsion of the spirits. He
had a period of extravagant elation. He took off his cap and saluted his
island. He made little speeches of glowing compliment to it, he called
it the pearl of its kind, the choicest gem of the Gulf or the Caribbean,
and, if pirates came again while he was there, he would drive them away
once more with the aid of the good spirits.

He rowed back, hid his boat in the old covert among the bushes at the
edge of the creek, and, rifle on shoulder, started through the forest
toward his peak of observation. On the way, he passed the lake and saw
the herd of wild cattle grazing there, the old bull at its head. The big
fellow, assured now by use and long immunity, cocked his head on one