We argued like two babies.
But I had now another grievance: though it was the devil to me to be
falling back on grievances.
"I still held the whip-hand over him in this--I could always thong
him by a threat to part company and live by myself on the east side
of the island. He mortally feared to be left, even with the dog for
company.
"The dog remained a mystery. Although, as time went on, we explored
the island pretty thoroughly, we never found his owner, nor any sign
of human habitation. The conies which bred and multiplied on the
hills were our only assurance that man had ever landed here before
us--that is, until we discovered the strange boat: and it was through
the dog that we discovered it."
"During the first three months we made no lengthy excursions, being
occupied in cutting and sawing timber for the two living-huts and a
store-hut; in making a small net (this was my task), and in
sun-drying the fish I caught in it--for, knowing little about these
latitudes, I feared that at any moment the heavenly weather might
break, and we be held prisoners by torrential rains, traces of which
I read in some of the seaward-running gullies.
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