ct, even in the centre I could see
the stones at the bottom. I therefore put on my wading-boots and boldly
crossed. The woods here were mostly of pine, free from undergrowth, and
with the ground softened to the foot by a thick layer of pine needles.

Now that I was on the other side of the creek, I desired to make my way
out of the woods, which could not, I imagined, be very extensive. To
discover a real basis for yesterday's vision, I believed that it would
be necessary to reach open country. Leaving the stream behind me, it was
not long before I came to a rude pathway; and although this seemed to
follow the general direction of the creek, I determined to turn aside
from the course I was taking and follow it. After walking for nearly a
mile, sometimes seeing the waters of the stream, and sometimes entirely
losing sight of them, I found the path making an abrupt turn, and in a
few minutes was out of the woods.

The country before me was very much like that about Captain Jabe's
residence. There were low rolling hills covered with coarse grass and
ragged shrubbery, with here and there a cluster of trees. Not a sign of
human habitation was in sight. Reaching the top of a small hill, I saw
at my right, and not very far before me, a wide expanse of water. This I
concluded must be the bay, although I had not expected to see it in this
direction.

I went down the hill toward the shore. "If what I seek is in reality," I
said to myself, "it will naturally love to live somewhere near the
water." Near the beach I struck a path again, and this I followed, my
mind greatly agitated by the thoughts of what I might discover, as well
as by the fear that I might discover nothing.

After a walk of perhaps a quarter of an hour I stopped suddenly. I had
discovered something. I looked about me, utterly amazed. I was on the
little beach which the Sand Lady had assigned to Walkirk and me as a
camping ground.

I sat down, vainly endeavoring to comprehend the situation. Out of the
mass of wild suppositions and conjectures which crowded themselves into
my mind there came but one conviction, and with that I was satisfied:
Sylvia was here.

It mattered not that the Sand Lady had said that hers was the only house
upon the island; it mattered not that Captain Jabe had said nothing of
his neighbor; in truth, nothing mattered. One sister of the House of
Martha had come to this place; why not another? What I had seen in the
woods had been no fant