ure perfume-laden air, exhilarating
in its effect as a draught of rich wine; and temporarily forgetting, in
the pleasure of the moment, not only their past sufferings but their
present and future perils, they chatted merrily and arranged a hundred
plans, many of which, could they but have known it, were destined never
to attain fruition.

Hitherto they had been following a faintly defined track in the
luxuriant grass, a track which had always up to the present determined
the direction of their longer walks; but arriving at last at a point
where this trail turned abruptly off, and passed down a gentle declivity
apparently toward the sea on the eastern side of the island, they
determined to abandon it, and, tempted by the shade, to plunge boldly
into a broad expanse of park-like timber which spread before them. The
welcome shade was soon reached; and, somewhat fatigued with their
ramble, they seated themselves at the foot of a gigantic cork-tree, and
in the rich green twilight shadow of its luxuriant foliage discussed the
luncheon with which they had had the forethought to provide themselves.

The luxuriant grass which had hitherto carpeted the earth here gave
place to graceful ferns in rich variety, interspersed with delicate
mosses of velvety texture, and here and there, in the more open spaces,
small patches of a heath-like plant with tiny waxen blossoms of a tint
varying from the purest white to a dainty purple. The silence of the
forest was broken only by the gentle murmur of the wind in the tree-tops
and the soft rustle of the foliage overhead, save when now and then a
twittering bird flashed like a living gem from bough to bough; but there
was a low, deep sound vibrating on the air, which told of the never-
ceasing beat of the surf on the island's rock-girt shore.

Rested and refreshed, the ladies at length rose to their feet once more
and continued their way through the wood. The ground soon began to rise
steeply; and after nearly an hour's steady climbing they emerged once
more into the full and dazzling sunlight to find themselves standing on
the edge of a steep rocky ravine, through which, some fifty feet below,
there flowed a tiny stream of crystal purity.

The rocks were of a character quite new to them, and, ignorant of
geology as they were, they would doubtless have passed them by without a
second glance, had they not been attracted by a peculiar glitter here
and there upon their surface, which procee