later on that day, he took his telescope with him, and paid a secret
visit to the eminence which overlooked the Holy Island. The next day,
and the next, he privately returned to the same place. On the fourth
day, fatal Destiny favored him. He discovered the nymph of the island.

Standing alone upon the cape on which he had already seen her father,
she was feeding some tame birds which looked like turtle-doves. The
glass showed the Captain her white robe, fluttering in the sea-breeze;
her long black hair falling to her feet; her slim and supple young
figure; her simple grace of attitude, as she turned this way and that,
attending to the wants of her birds. Before her was the blue ocean;
behind her rose the lustrous green of the island forest. He looked and
looked until his eyes and arms ached. When she disappeared among the
trees, followed by her favorite birds, the Captain shut up his telescope
with a sigh, and said to himself: "I have seen an angel!"

From that hour he became an altered man; he was languid, silent,
interested in nothing. General opinion, on board his ship, decided that
he was going to be taken ill.

A week more elapsed, and the officers and crew began to talk of the
voyage to their market in China. The Captain refused to fix a day for
sailing. He even took offense at being asked to decide. Instead of
sleeping in his cabin, he went ashore for the night.

Not many hours afterward (just before daybreak), Mr. Duncalf, snoring
in his cabin on deck, was aroused by a hand laid on his shoulder. The
swinging lamp, still alight, showed him the dusky face of the chief's
son, convulsed with terror. By wild signs, by disconnected words in
the little English which he had learned, the lad tried to make the mate
understand him. Dense Mr. Duncalf, understanding nothing, hailed the
second officer, on the opposite side of the deck. The second officer was
young and intelligent; he rightly interpreted the terrible news that had
come to the ship.

The Captain had broken his own rules. Watching his opportunity, under
cover of the night, he had taken a canoe, and had secretly crossed the
channel to the Holy Island. No one had been near him at the time but
the chief's son. The lad had vainly tried to induce him to abandon his
desperate enterprise, and had vainly waited on the shore in the hope
of hearing the sound of the paddle announcing his return. Beyond all
reasonable doubt, the infatuated man had set foot on the shore