he would not show him where they were, unless he
promised not to kill them. He, of course, had no mind for so rigorous a
method: he both needed the men, and he had no malice against them,--for
the one, Ebsworthy, was a plain, honest, happy-go-lucky sailor, and
as good a hand as there was in the crew; and the other was that same
ne'er-do-weel Will Parracombe, his old schoolfellow, who had been
tempted by the gipsy-Jesuit at Appledore, and resisting that bait, had
made a very fair seaman.

So forth Amyas went, with Ayacanora as a guide, some five miles upward
along the forest slopes, till the girl whispered, "There they are;"
and Amyas, pushing himself gently through a thicket of bamboo, beheld
a scene which, in spite of his wrath, kept him silent, and perhaps
softened, for a minute.

On the farther side of a little lawn, the stream leapt through a chasm
beneath overarching vines, sprinkling eternal freshness upon all around,
and then sank foaming into a clear rock-basin, a bath for Dian's self.
On its farther side, the crag rose some twenty feet in height, bank upon
bank of feathered ferns and cushioned moss, over the rich green beds of
which drooped a thousand orchids, scarlet, white, and orange, and made
the still pool gorgeous with the reflection of their gorgeousness. At
its more quiet outfall, it was half-hidden in huge fantastic leaves and
tall flowering stems; but near the waterfall the grassy bank sloped
down toward the stream, and there, on palm-leaves strewed upon the turf,
beneath the shadow of the crags, lay the two men whom Amyas sought,
and whom, now he had found them, he had hardly heart to wake from their
delicious dream.

For what a nest it was which they had found! the air was heavy with
the scent of flowers, and quivering with the murmur of the stream, the
humming of the colibris and insects, the cheerful song of birds, the
gentle cooing of a hundred doves; while now and then, from far away,
the musical wail of the sloth, or the deep toll of the bell-bird, came
softly to the ear. What was not there which eye or ear could need? And
what which palate could need either? For on the rock above, some strange
tree, leaning forward, dropped every now and then a luscious apple upon
the grass below, and huge wild plantains bent beneath their load of
fruit.

There, on the stream bank, lay the two renegades from civilized life.
They had cast away their clothes, and painted themselves, like the
Indians, with a