And so, she
strolled about, resting at intervals, inhaling the odors of the pines,
and dreaming dreams.

In these reveries came no thoughts of time until she saw the
enemy--Pats--approaching. His silent footsteps on the smooth, brown
carpet made him seem but a spirit of the wood,--some unsubstantial
denizen of this enchanted region. But in his face and manner there was
something that dispelled all dreams. He stopped before her, out of
breath. "There is no house here!"

With a frown of dismay she took a backward step. Indicating by a gesture
the cottage out upon the point, she said:

"The house we saw from the boat; what is that?"

"I cannot imagine. But it is no gardener's cottage."

"Then what is it?"

"Heaven knows," he answered with a joyless smile. "It looks like a room
in a museum, or a bric-a-brac shop."

"But how do you know there is no other house?"

"I have been over the whole point. I climbed that cliff, behind there,
and got a view of the country all about. There is not a house in sight."

"Impossible!"

"Nor a settlement of any kind."

"Surely, somebody can give us information."

"So it would seem, but I have hunted in vain for a human being."

"The people you were calling to from the cliff, couldn't they tell you
something?"

"There were no people there. I was trying to stop the steamer."

She regarded him in fresh alarm. "Do you mean they have landed us out of
our way?--at the wrong place?"

He hesitated. "I am not sure. But we can always get the people of this
cottage to take us along in their boat. It is still early; only nine
o'clock."

As they walked toward the cottage she noticed that he was short of
breath and that he seemed tired. But his manner was cheerful, even
inspiriting, and while she took care to remember that he was still in
disgrace, she felt her own courage reviving under the influence of his
livelier spirits. Besides, as they stepped out of the woods into the
open space at the southern end of the point,--a space about two acres in
extent and covered with grass,--and saw the blue sea on three sides, she
found new life in the air that came against her face. In deep breaths
she inhaled this air. Turning her eyes to her left she beheld for the
first time the front of the building they had sighted from the steamer.
This building, one story high, of rough stone, was nearly sixty feet
long by about thirty feet in width.

"What a fascinating cottage!" she exclaimed. "It i