among the
bushes, leaving the Englishman tingling for the chase.

At twilight, as they made their way back to the cavern, they came upon
a tiny lake lying asleep within the crater of a dead volcano. From the
sides little clouds of ashes rose, floating softly away on the breezes
of evening. The princess gathered a handful and murmuring some musical
words in her own tongue she threw them into the air.

"And would it be amiss for me to ask what 'tis you do?" questioned her
companion, observing her closely.

"I was sending a prayer to Wakan-ate, the Great Spirit," she replied
quietly.

"A prayer,--and borne to heaven on the wings of ashes!" He seemed
amused. "But what hast thou to pray for, oh fair princess?"

Her cheeks glowing with quick color, she replied: "It were not fitting
that any maiden tell for what she prays!"

The words were spoken with such gravity that the young man flushed under
the rebuke.

When she left him at the doorway of the cavern that evening she said as
she made a gay little gesture of farewell: "Today the land, but tomorrow
we shall find still more beautiful things that lie hidden under the deep
waters. You shall see!"

And once again with dawn she came. This time it was the splash of a
paddle that brought him to the opening in the rock.

"Aloho-ate, lazy one!" she called gaily from below. "Make haste! The
world is always loveliest while it lies waiting for the sun!"

That day, perhaps, from among them all, lived longest within the memory
of young Harold,--the porpoises playing fearlessly around her canoe
as the princess, with graceful, effortless strokes, paddled around one
after another of the pointed tongues of rock; the flying fish, skimming
the surface of the ocean until, by virtue of their speed alone, they
rose like gleaming bows of silver from the foam. Intent to show him all
her treasures, Wildenai guided him to a quiet stretch of water lying
close to shore within the shadow of tall cliffs which rose at that point
with precipitous abruptness from the sea itself.

"Here are my gardens that grow under the water," she explained, as they
glided above the spot. "Look well at them. They are most beautiful."

And gazing down at her command through the clear green into the luminous
depths below, he caught glimpses of these gardens of the sea where
goldfish darted like tropical birds among the branches of tall tree-like
stalks of swaying seaweed, and strange shapes of jade and blue fl