Page 35 - An American Robinson Crusoe

about his duties.

But he could not get the footprint out of his mind. He spent many sad and fearful days thinking about it. "How
could it have gotten there? Whose was it? Was the owner savage or not? What did he want on the island?"
were some of the questions that haunted him.

"Perhaps," he thought one day, "I just imagined I saw a footprint, or perhaps it was one of my own that I have
made when going to sail my boat." He took courage at this and began to go about the island again. But he
went in great fear, always looking behind him. He was always ready to run at the first sign of danger. He had
made himself a large, strong, new bow and plenty of arrows. He carried these in a quiver he had made from
his cloth. He fashioned too a sharp-pointed, lance-like weapon which he hurled with a kind of sling. In his belt
he carried some new sharpened stone knives. He had found a better kind of rock out of which to make his
knives. It resembled glass and could be brought to a fine, keen edge.

Armed thus, he began to have more confidence. He had a strong desire to see the footprint again and make up
his mind about it. He wished to measure it. In this way he could tell certainly whether it was a chance print of
his own foot or not. So, after a few days, he again ventured across the island. Alas, on measuring the print it
was much larger than his own! There could no longer be any doubt that it belonged to someone else.

Again great fear fell on poor Robinson. He shook with cold and fright. He resolved to make himself more
secure against attack.

He cut and carried willow stakes and set them in a thick hedge around in front of his shelter. This was outside
the first and enclosed it. In a season or two these had grown to such a height as to shut out all view of his
home from sight to one coming to it from the front.

His flock of goats gave him many troubled thoughts. His goats were his greatest treasure. From them he
obtained without trouble his meat, his milk and butter.

"What if they were discovered and killed or carried away?" He resolved to divide his herd into three parts and
secrete these in separate fenced pastures in different parts of the island. His herd of goats now numbered
twenty-five. He made thorough search about the island for the most secluded and best hidden spots where he
could fence in a pasture.

One day as he was exploring on the west side of the island to find another open space for a goat field, he
thought he spied away out to sea a boat. He looked long and anxiously and yet he was not sure that it was a
boat he saw. But how easy, thought Robinson, for the people of the mainland, which must be at no great
distance to the westward, to come across to this side of the island in fair weather. He thought too, how
fortunate he was to have been cast on the east side of the island. For there he had his shelter in the very safest
part.

As he was coming down from a hill where he had gone to get a better view of the sea he made another
discovery. About him everywhere at the foot of the hill were bones of all kinds. Near by too, were charcoal
and ashes. There could be no mistake, the place was visited by human beings. These were very likely savages.
Everything showed that they came for the purpose of feasting and not for plundering. It was very likely that
they neither sought anything on the island nor expected it.

[Illustration: W ATCHING FOR SAVAGES]

This thought greatly relieved Robinson. He returned home in a very thankful and composed state of mind. He
had now been on the island almost eighteen years and had not been discovered. Yet, no doubt, the island had
been visited many times by the savages since he had been there.