simply, "O-oh!"

"Lord, bless my soul!" exclaimed Sir Ommaney, in a low voice, but
fervently.

"I--I thought you were the Commandant," stammered Vashti, for once in
this history taken thoroughly aback.

"Mademoiselle Cara!... You? And here, of all places in the world!"

But upon this they both turned, as the door opened and the Commandant
stood on the threshold.

"Miss Vashti!" The Commandant stared from one to the other.

Vashti broke the silence with her ready laugh.

"Sir Ommaney Ward and I have met before. He does not know that this is
my native home; but"--she dropped them both a curtsey--"the point is
that you are both to come with me, and at once."

CHAPTER XXVIII

THE FINDING

The two men followed her out into the darkness and across the turfed
slope towards the Keg of Butter. The Commandant, amid much that was
bewildering, guessed that her boat lay moored there, and that she meant
them to accompany her, either to Saaron or to Inniscaw. There was no
danger of meeting anyone by the way, either on the hill or down by the
shore; for the search had drawn off all the coastguard. Nevertheless,
though he carried a lantern, he did not light it.

The moon would not be up for an hour yet, but the nor'-westerly breeze
had blown the sky clear of clouds. The stars--bright as always when the
wind sets over the Islands from that quarter--lent a pale radiance by
which Sir Ommaney managed to steer his way, and at a fair pace, beside
his more expert companion, and the Commandant, when they reached the
cliff-path, lent him a hand.

"But you don't tell me you have come over from Saaron in that
cockleshell of yours?" asked the Commandant, peering down into the
darkness for a glimpse of the boat.

Vashti, who was leading the way down the track, turned with a laugh.
"No, and for a very good reason. I could not take you two back in her,
for she would not carry you, and I could not borrow yours and leave her
here for the coastguard to discover; and again the wind, though it has
fallen, is against us--we shall have to pull, and there would be no
sense in towing a boat, even a little one, for we are in a hurry. So I
sailed across in Eli's. But please do not deride my poor cockleshell,
as you call it; for without her I had never such news as I bring you."

"When are we to hear it?"

She laughed again as she stooped and found the shore-line of
Tregarthen's boat. "Not yet. No, and you need not light the lantern. We