Page:Silver Shoal Light.djvu/279

 CHAPTER XXIII

HE wind had dropped suddenly, though the sea continued heavy, and the faint air that stirred was very soft and warm, with now and then a sweet, inland smell. The Ailouros still lay safely at anchor, but Joan pulled the skiff farther up the sand, for the tide was rising. She collected the supper-things and carried them back to the place where the treasure had been discovered. The sun hung low in the haze above the mainland, a great flat disk of copper.

"Like a big doubloon," Garth said, looking up at it from the fire he was laying. He balanced another chip on the crumpled paper, and Joan struck a match. The little flames licked up the paper in one burst, and a thin line of smoke wavered up against the yellow sky.

"It'll go, now," Garth said; "it's started among the wood. Don't put on such a big piece yet."

He built the wind-break higher, and the flames