Island of the Blue Dolphins

Karana saw a ship approach from the North. She believed the ship belonged to the Aleuts but wasn't sure. Regardless, she doused the fire lest it be seen.

I knew that the Aleuts would not come on shore in the dark, and that I had until morning to carry my things to the cave, but I did not wait. Most of the night I worked, making two trips to the cave. At dawn, when everything had been moved, I went back to the house for the last time. There I buried. the ashes of my fires and threw sand over the shelves and the door. I took down the shells I had put up to scare the gulls and tossed them and the abalones over the cliff. At last, with a pelican wing, I brushed away the marks of my feet. When I had finished, it looked as though no one had lived there for a long time.