and one starlit evening he grounds on a gravel bar. Disgusted with himself he decides to call it a night. He drags the canoe on shore and pulls his gear out of the hold and tosses it on the ground away from where he sees is a good place for a campfire.

He sets about building a fire; just as he flicks the matchhead on his thumbnail, he hears a female voice: Howdy, stranger.

And there stands a beautiful Japanese woman smiling at him, and him alone.