Year: 1877

y
until daybreak to place you in safety
l have been to the ship; l have brought
back one of the boats. The darkness
will befriend us-let us embark while
We cam"


She shrank brack as he took her hand.
MY father" she said, family.


Your father is in no danger. The
canoes are waiting at the cape. l saw
the lights as passed


With that reply, he drew her out of
the hut, and turned his face toward the
sea. Not breath Of the breeze was now
to be felt The dead calm had returned,
and the boat was too large to be easily
managed by one man alone at the oars


The breeze may come again he said
10 her. Wait here my angel. for the
chance


As he spoke. the deep silence of the
forest below them was broken by a
sound. \ harsh, wailing voice was
heard, calling Aimata, Aimatd"


My father" she whispered; he has
missed me. fhe comes here you are
lost"


She kissed him with passionate fervor;
she held him to her for moment with
all her strength. Expect me at day
break" she said, and disappeared down
the landward slope of the cliff. He lis
tened, anxious for her safety. The
voices of the father and daughter just
reached him from among the trees The
priest spoke in no angry tones; she had
apparently found an acceptable excuse
for her absence. Little by little the
failing sound of their voices told him
that they were on their way back to the
temple. The silence fell again. Not a
ripple broke on the beach, not leaf
rustled in the forest. Nothing moved
but the reflected flashes of the black sky
over the main island. 1t was an airless
and an awful calm


He went into the hut, and lay down
on his bed of leaves, not to sleep, but to
rest. All his energies might be requir-
ed to meet the coming events of the
morning. After the voyage to and from
the ship, and the long watching that had
preceded it, strong as he was, he stood
in need of repose.


For some little time he kept awake.
thinking. Insensibly the oppression of
the intense heat, aided in its influence
by his own fatigue, treacherously closed
his eyes. In spite of himself the weary
man fell into deep sleep.


He was awakened by a roar like the
explosion Of a park of artillery. The
volcano on the main island had burst
into state of eruption. Smoky flame
light overspread the sky, and flashed
through the open doorway Of the but.
He sprang from his couch-and found
himself up to his knees in water.


Had the sea Overfiowed the land. He
waded out of the hut, and the water
rose to his middle. He looked round
him by the lurid hame-light of the erup-
ton. The one visible object within his
range ofview was the roof of the hut. In
every other direction the waters of the
hOrrid sea, stained blood-red by the
flaming sky, spread swirling and rip
pling strangely in the dead calm In a
moment more he became conscious that
the earth on which he stood was sink
ing under his feet The water rose 20
his neck; the last vestige of the roof OF
the hut disappeared. He looked round
again. and the truth burst on him. The
island was sinking-slowly, slowly sink
ing into volcanic depths, below the ut
most depths of the sea, The highest OBJ
ject was the hut, and that had dropped.
inch by inch, under water, before his
own eyes. Thrown up to thesur face by
occult volcanic influences, the island had
sunk back back under the same infiu
ences to the obscurity from which it
had emerged,


A black, shadowy object, turning in a
wide circle, came slowly near him as the
all-destroying ocean washed its bitter
waters into his mouth. The buoyant
boat, rising on the sea as the earth de-
serted it, had dragged its anchor, and
was floating round in the vortex made
by the slowly sinking island. With
last desperate hope that Aimata might
have been saved as he had been saved.
he swan to the boat, seized the heavy
oars with the strength of giant, and
made for the place $50 far as he could
guess at it now where the lake and the
Temple had once been.


He look round and round him-he
strained his eyes in the vain attempt to
penetrate below the surface of the
seething, dimpling sea. Had the panic
stricken watchers III the canoes deserted
their post without an effort to save the
father and daughter? Or bad they both
been suffocated before they could make
an attempt to escape from their cavern2
He called her in his misery, as if she
could hear him out Of the fthomless
depths, "Aimatai Aimata" The roar of
the distant eruption answered him.
The mountain fires Lit the solitary sea far
and near over the sinking island. The
boat turned slowly and more slowly in
the lessening vortex. Never again
would those gentle eyes look at him with
unutterable love, Never again would
those fresh lips touch his lips with their
feryent kiss Alone, amid the mighty
forces Of nature in confict,t the miserable
mortal lifted his hands in frantic suppl
cauon-and the burning sky glared
down on him in its pitiless grandeurand
struck him to his knees in the boat His
reason sank with his sinking limbs. In
the merciful frenzy that succeeded the
shock, he saw her afar off, alive again in
her white robe, an angel poised on the
waters, beckOning him to follow her to
the brighter and better world. He zoos
ened the sail, he seized the oars, and the
faster he pursued it, the faster the
mocking vision fed from him over the
empty and endless sea


CHAPTER TX.


The boat was discovered the next
morning from the ship. Al that the
devotion Of the officers of the Fortuna
could do for their unhappy commander