Page:Barbour--Joan of the ilsand.djvu/292

280 handling their household goods both Keith and the girl kept a wary eye open for the possibility of running across the missing pearls, but without success.

"How quickly a home can become impersonal!" exclaimed Joan, as she surveyed the interior of the bungalow after it had been practically dismantled. "I wonder whether any one will ever live here again?"

"Shipwrecked sailors, perhaps," said Keith. "Good luck to them if they do come, but somehow I hope they won't take any notion into their heads to alter the old place, or add to it or anything."

"If it's any comfort to them they're welcome to do as they please, surely," commented the girl.

"As a matter of fact it's ten thousand to one that nobody will ever sleep under the roof again after to-night, and in the next few years it will crumble down, but I should like to think always of it as still there, so that if ever I were passing this part of the world I could just pop ashore and have a peep at the place where I met you."

Joan blushed prettily, and for a brief interval the operation of packing was definitely interrupted. Although the island had memories for her that were better forgotten, it was to remain in her memory always that her first meeting with Keith had been there.

Chester returned from Tamba late in the afternoon, reporting that he had made arrangements for