I tied the carcass with a piece of rope to a stone above the falls so that the water poured all round it. While I was busy about this business Terry stretched the skin on a flat rock, with the inside up, and pegged it out with stones for the sun to dry. We addressed ourselves once more to the problem of making the cave our home.

Not unnaturally we were more timid and anxious than there was any real need, and for some time we could not work more than a few moments without hearing dangerous sounds, or casting scared eyes all around the void scene. When we had eaten we sat down to regiment our time with as much care as if we were hiding in the centre of a populous country. Other people were so near in time, so present in our thoughts, we could not realize that they were far away, and that we were safe; we felt that our escape had been too easy; we had been too lucky; we feared that luck would undo what it had done, and the chance which preserved us might destroy us with equal ease. We made our arrangements against an infinitesimal chance, and accordingly we were hindered at every turn by excess of caution.

We were determined to keep a routine.

‘I know what will happen if we don’t arrange a time-table,’ Terry declared. ‘We’ll begin like giants, working too much, full of enthusiasm and good intentions. Then we’ll get tired of that. We’ll overdo the work so much that we’ll have to rest. After we rest we won’t be so keen on the dirty jobs. We’ll dodge them, we’ll put them off to a more convenient time. Then we’ll commence to grow lazy and untidy. We’ll think that this life is only temporary, why should we fret ourselves over things as if they were permanent! We’ll say things will do for all the time they’re to last—

‘Regular hours, proper meals properly cooked—no tea dinners and frying-pan feeds, Hugh!—enough sleep and not too much, our affairs planned ahead, are a prime necessity,’ she stated again. ‘If one lives by haphazard in civilized surroundings one grows demoralized. It would be fatal here. We have to think about winter. We may not be here but we can’t take chances.’