rible imaginings. The smiling landscape was alive with writhing
shapes. She fancied it a monstrous jungle full of serpents and
grotesquely human beasts. The inert mass of the _Kansas_, so modern,
so perfectly appointed in its contours and appurtenances, crushed her
by its immense helplessness. The dominant idea in her mind was one of
voiceless rage against the ship and its occupants. Why should her
lover, who had saved their lives--who had plucked the eight thousand
tons of steel fabric from the sharp-toothed rocks time and again--why
should he be lying dead, disfigured by savage spite, while those to
whom he had rendered such devoted service were coolly discussing his
fate and speculating on their own good fortune? That thought maddened
her. Her very brain seemed to burn with the unfairness of it all.
When Christobal made a serious effort to lead her away, she threatened
him with the fierceness of a mother defending her child from evil.

But relief was vouchsafed in the worst throes of her agony. It was
some poor consolation to let her sorrow-laden eyes rest on the far-off
trees which enshrouded him. What would befall her when night came, and
the ship drew back out of the living world into the narrow gloom of
deck and gangway, she could not know. She felt that her labored heart
would refuse to bear its pangs any longer. If death came, that would
be sweet. Her only hope lay in the life beyond the grave. . . . And
what a grave! For her, the restless tides. For him! Surely her mind
would yield to this increasing madness.

Boyle or Gray had never relaxed their vigil by her side. It was Gray
who made the thrilling discovery that the canoes were returning. As
the fleet crossed the bay it could be seen that they were towing the
life-boat. But never a sign of any prisoners could the most careful
scrutiny detect. The boat was empty; it was easy to count every man in
the canoes as they passed into Otter Creek. And there were wounded
Indians on board many of them. That was a significant, a tremendous,
fact. There had been hard fighting, and the boat was captured, but
some, if not all, of the crew must have joined their comrades in the
sanctuary of the haunted cave. The accuracy of this deduction was
proved by the presence of the smoke column on the hill. Indeed, the
opinion was generally held that its spiral clouds were denser than at
any previous hour, thus showing that the defenders were endeavoring to