t. "By the Lord, the place is going to burst up!" said Mr.
Duncalf. "Come what may of it, we must find the Captain to-night!"

V.

WHAT was the Captain doing? and what chance had the crew of finding him
that night?

He had committed himself to his desperate adventure, without forming
any plan for the preservation of his own safety; without giving even a
momentary consideration to the consequences which might follow the risk
that he had run. The charming figure that he had seen haunted him night
and day. The image of the innocent creature, secluded from humanity
in her island solitude, was the one image that filled his mind. A man,
passing a woman in the street, acts on the impulse to turn and follow
her, and in that one thoughtless moment shapes the destiny of his future
life. The Captain had acted on a similar impulse, when he took the first
canoe he had found on the beach, and shaped his reckless course for the
tabooed island.

Reaching the shore while it was still dark, he did one sensible
thing--he hid the canoe so that it might not betray him when the
daylight came. That done, he waited for the morning on the outskirts of
the forest.

The trembling light of dawn revealed the mysterious solitude around him.
Following the outer limits of the trees, first in one direction, then
in another, and finding no trace of any living creature, he decided on
penetrating to the interior of the island. He entered the forest.

An hour of walking brought him to rising ground. Continuing the ascent,
he got clear of the trees, and stood on the grassy top of a broad cliff
which overlooked the sea. An open hut was on the cliff. He cautiously
looked in, and discovered that it was empty. The few household utensils
left about, and the simple bed of leaves in a corner, were covered with
fine sandy dust. Night-birds flew blundering out of the inner cavities
of the roof, and took refuge in the shadows of the forest below. It was
plain that the hut had not been inhabited for some time past.

Standing at the open doorway and considering what he should do next,
the Captain saw a bird flying toward him out of the forest. It was a
turtle-dove, so tame that it fluttered close up to him. At the same
moment the sound of sweet laughter became audible among the trees. His
heart beat fast; he advanced a few steps and stopped. In a moment more
the nymph of the island appeared, in her white robe, ascending the cliff
in pursuit of her truant bird.