"I'm afraid you do not understand," he answered her steadily. "I want to live. To do it, you are necessary to me. I need your eyes. Very well, whether you like it or not, you are going with me."
He rose quickly, and stretched his muscles. His head ached, his whole being cried for water. He knew he could not carry her far, but without her he was powerless.
"Suppose," she suggested, her eyes flashing from hazel to deep-brown, "suppose you do take me. Have you any assurance that my eyes will serve you rightly?"
"Your own life, which is pleasant to you, will depend upon your eyes serving me rightly," he said coldly, as he stooped over her.
She laid a restraining hand on his arm. "And in the long days that we may have to go on together, what will you do in return for my eyes?"
"Very well, but there are two things you must know," she said quietly. "First, that I am married; second, that I am quite as steadfast in my belief as I said. If you make one single attempt to establish more than a frank comradeship, based on mutual support in our unforeseen partnership, my eyes will serve you falsely."
He laughed a little as he picked her up. She gasped with pain.
"I can't help hurting you," he said gently.
"It's all right," she answered, putting her arm around his neck so that he might the more easily bear her. "We are off on our great adventure. The halt and the blind! Such a mad pair!"
He smiled, and started slowly up the beach.
"I shall have to develop a system of one word guides," she mused.
"Left--right--slow--ahead--all right--and so on," he admitted.
Suddenly she laughed out merrily. "My friend, a stranger pilgrimage the world never knew. What is your name?"
"Mine," she answered, "is Claire. Go a little to the left."
He turned slightly, and plodded through the sand.
Still exhausted from his recent battle with the waves, Lawrence was not in the best condition for this new struggle. Before he had gone far, he was forced to rest. He lowered Claire to the ground carefully and dropped beside her. His effort in carrying her had made him breathe hard, the sun was beating down on them, and his throat was dry and parched. Speaking was becoming difficult.
"If we don't find water soon, we're ended," he managed to say.