en
during this dark time I did not cease to pray and to wander about in
search of you. I suppose it was the force of habit, for hope seemed to
have died. Then, at last, Nigel found you. God used him as His
instrument. And now, praise to His name, we are reunited--for ever!"

"Darling father!" were the only words that Winnie could utter as she
laid her head on the hermit's shoulder and wept for joy.

Two ideas, which had not occurred to him before, struck Nigel with great
force at that moment. The one was that whatever or wherever his future
household should be established, if Winnie was to be its chief ornament,
her father must of necessity become a member of it. The other idea was
that he was destined to possess a negro servant with a consequent and
unavoidable monkey attendant! How strange the links of which the chain
of human destiny is formed, and how wonderful the powers of thought by
which that chain is occasionally forecast! How to convey all these
possessions to England and get them comfortably settled there was a
problem which he did not care to tackle just then.

"See, Winnie," said Van der Kemp, pointing with interest to a mark on
the side of Rakata, "yonder is the mouth of my cave. I never saw it so
clearly before because of the trees and bushes, but everything seems now
to have been burnt up."

"Das so, massa, an' what hasn't bin bu'nt up has bin blow'd up!"
remarked the negro.

"Looks very like it, Moses, unless that is a haze which enshrouds the
rest of the island," rejoined the other, shading his eyes with his
hands.

It was no haze, however; for they found, on drawing nearer, that the
greater part of Krakatoa had, as we have already said, actually
disappeared from the face of the earth.

When the boat finally rounded the point which hid the northern part of
the island from view, a sight was presented which it is not often given
to human eyes to look upon. The whole mountain named the Peak of Rakata
(2623 feet high) had been split from top to bottom, and about one-half
of it, with all that part of the island lying to the northward, had been
blown away, leaving a wall or almost sheer precipice which presented a
grand section of the volcano.

Pushing their boat into a creek at the base of this precipice, the party
landed and tried to reach a position from which a commanding view might
be obtained. This was not an easy matter, for there was not a spot for a
foot to rest on which was not covered de