Fou-tan had not broken King's embarrassed silence, but presently the man arose. "Where are you going, Gordon King?" she asked.
"There is some driftwood lodged upon the opposite bank, left there by last season's flood waters. We shall need it for our cooking fire to-night."
"I will go with you and help you," said Fou-tan, and together they crossed the little stream and gathered the dry wood for their fire.
From Che and Kangrey the American had learned to make fire without matches; and he soon had a little blaze burning, far back beneath the shelter of their overhanging rock. He had cleaned and washed the fish and now proceeded to grill them over the fire, while Fou-tan roasted two large tubers impaled upon the ends of sticks.
"I would not exchange this for the palace of a king, Gordon King," she said.
"Nor I, Fou-tan," he replied.
"Are you happy, Gordon King?" she asked.
"Yes," he replied. "And you, Fou-tan, are you happy?"
She nodded her head. "It is because you and I are together," she said simply.
"We come from opposite ends of the earth, Fou-tan," he said, "we are separated by centuries of time, we have nothing in common, your world and my world are as remote from one another as the stars; and yet, Fou-tan, it seems as though I had known you always. It does not seem possible that I have lived all my life up to now without even knowing that you existed."