o take form as part of this phenomenon. Then he
remembered the giant peak of Fernando Noronha, that mis-shapen mass
which thrusts its amazing beacon a thousand feet into the air. The
rising moon was gilding El Pico long ere its rays would illumine the
lower land--that was all--yet he hailed the sight as a token of
deliverance. It was not by idle chance that that which he had taken
for a cloud should be transmuted into a torch; there sprang into his
heated brain a new trust. He recalled the unceasing vigilance of One
All-Powerful, who, ages ago, when His people were afflicted, "went
before them by day in a pillar of a cloud, to lead them the way, and by
night in a pillar of fire, to give them light."

Then Marcel came, and aroused him from the stupor that had settled on
him, and together they entered into the hovel, where a dark-skinned
woman and a comely girl uttered words of sympathetic sound when Iris
was laid on a low trestle, and Hozier took a farewell kiss from her
unheeding lips.

The Englishman stumbled away with his guide; he fancied that Marcel
warned him several times to be more circumspect. He did his best, but,
for the time, he was utterly spent. At last the Brazilian signified
that they were near a trysting place. He uttered a cry like a
night-jar's, and the answer came from no great distance. Soon they
encountered Coke and De Sylva, who were awaiting them anxiously, and
wondering, no doubt, why Hozier was missing, since Domingo and Marcel
had fixed on an aged fig-tree as a rendezvous, and Hozier was not to be
found anywhere near it.

The two boatmen hurried away, and De Sylva placed his lips close to
Philip's ear.

"What went wrong?" he asked.

"Iris--Miss Yorke--fainted," was the gasping reply.

"Ah. You had to carry her?"

"Yes."

De Sylva fumbled in a pocket. He produced a flask.

"Here is some brandy. I kept it for just such an extremity. We cannot
have you breaking down. Drink!"

Two weary hours elapsed before the little army of the Grand-pere Rock
was reunited on the shore of Cotton-Tree Bay. Then there was a further
delay, while their indefatigable scouts brought milk and water, some
coarse bread, and a good supply of fruit from the hut. It was part of
their scheme that they should give their friend's habitation a wide
berth. If their plans miscarried he was instructed to say that he had
found the English lady wandering on the shore soon after daybreak. In
any event, t