his guest in
token of adieu. Franz returned the salute by shaking his handkerchief as
an exchange of signals. After a second, a slight cloud of smoke was seen
at the stern of the vessel, which rose gracefully as it expanded in
the air, and then Franz heard a slight report. "There, do you hear?"
observed Gaetano; "he is bidding you adieu." The young man took his
carbine and fired it in the air, but without any idea that the noise
could be heard at the distance which separated the yacht from the shore.

"What are your excellency's orders?" inquired Gaetano.

"In the first place, light me a torch."

"Ah, yes, I understand," replied the patron, "to find the entrance to
the enchanted apartment. With much pleasure, your excellency, if it
would amuse you; and I will get you the torch you ask for. But I too
have had the idea you have, and two or three times the same fancy has
come over me; but I have always given it up. Giovanni, light a torch,"
he added, "and give it to his excellency."

Giovanni obeyed. Franz took the lamp, and entered the subterranean
grotto, followed by Gaetano. He recognized the place where he had awaked
by the bed of heather that was there; but it was in vain that he carried
his torch all round the exterior surface of the grotto. He saw nothing,
unless that, by traces of smoke, others had before him attempted the
same thing, and, like him, in vain. Yet he did not leave a foot of this
granite wall, as impenetrable as futurity, without strict scrutiny; he
did not see a fissure without introducing the blade of his hunting sword
into it, or a projecting point on which he did not lean and press in
the hopes it would give way. All was vain; and he lost two hours in his
attempts, which were at last utterly useless. At the end of this time he
gave up his search, and Gaetano smiled.

When Franz appeared again on the shore, the yacht only seemed like a
small white speck on the horizon. He looked again through his glass, but
even then he could not distinguish anything. Gaetano reminded him that
he had come for the purpose of shooting goats, which he had utterly
forgotten. He took his fowling-piece, and began to hunt over the island
with the air of a man who is fulfilling a duty, rather than enjoying a
pleasure; and at the end of a quarter of an hour he had killed a goat
and two kids. These animals, though wild and agile as chamois, were too
much like domestic goats, and Franz could not consider them as game.
M