eavy. It was about the
time when Erica would be beginning to look for his return, and when or
how he was ever to return he became less able to imagine, the more he
thought about it. As he fancied Erica gazing down the fiord from the
gallery, or stealing out, hour after hour, to look forth from the beach,
and only to be disappointed every time, till she would be obliged to
give him quite up, and yield to despair, Rolf shed tears. It was the
first time for some years,--the first time since he had been a man, and
when he saw his own tears fall upon the sand, he was ashamed. He
blushed, as if he had not been all alone, dashed away the drops, and
threw himself into the water.

It was too cold by far for safe swimming. All the snows of Sulitelma
could hardly have made the waters more chilly to the swimmer than they
felt at the first plunge; but Rolf would not retreat for this reason.
He thought of the sunshine outside, and of the free open view he should
enjoy, dived beneath the almost closed entrance, and came up on the
other side. The first thing he saw was the schooner, now lying below
his island; and the next thing was a small boat between him and it,
evidently making towards him. When convinced that Hund was one of the
three men in it, he saw that he must go back, or make haste to finish
his expedition. He made haste, swam round so close as to touch the warm
rock in many places, and could not discover, any more than before, any
trace of a footing by which a man might climb to the summit. There was
a crevice or two, however, from which vegetation hung, still left
unsearched. He could not search them now, for he must make haste home.

The boat was indeed so near when he had reached the point he set out
from, that he used every effort to conceal himself; and it seemed that
he could only have escaped by the eyes of his enemies being fixed on the
summit of the rock. When once more in the cave, he rather enjoyed
hearing them come nearer and nearer, so that the bushes which hung down
between him and them shook with the wind of their oars, and dipped into
the waves. He laughed silently when he heard one of them swear that he
would not leave the spot till he had seen something, upon which another
rebuked his presumption. Presently, a voice, which he knew to be
Hund's, called upon his name, at first gently, and then more and more
loudly, as if taking courage at not being answered.

"I will wait till he rounds the po