ground which sloped gently downward toward the center of the island.
Having crossed this space, they arrived at a natural amphitheater of
rock. On one side of it the Temple appeared, partly excavated, partly
formed by a natural cavern. In one of the lateral branches of the cavern
was the dwelling of the Priest and his daughter. The mouth of it looked
out on the rocky basin of the lake. Stooping over the edge, the Captain
discovered, far down in the empty depths, a light cloud of steam. Not a
drop of water was visible, look where he might.

Aimata pointed to the abyss, and hid her face on his bosom. "My father
says," she whispered, "that it is your doing."

The Captain started. "Does your father know that I am on the island?"

She looked up at him with a quick glance of reproach. "Do you think I
would tell him, and put your life in peril?" she asked. "My father felt
the destroyer of the island in the earthquake; my father saw the coming
destruction in the disappearance of the lake." Her eyes rested on him
with a loving languor. "Are you indeed the demon of the prophecy?" she
said, winding his hair round her finger. "I am not afraid of you, if
you are. I am a creature bewitched; I love the demon." She kissed him
passionately. "I don't care if I die," she whispered between the kisses,
"if I only die with you!"

The Captain made no attempt to reason with her. He took the wiser
way--he appealed to her feelings.

"You will come and live with me happily in my own country," he said. "My
ship is waiting for us. I will take you home with me, and you shall be
my wife."

She clapped her hands for joy. Then she thought of her father, and drew
back from him in tears.

The Captain understood her. "Let us leave this dreary place," he
suggested. "We will talk about it in the cool glades of the forest,
where you first said you loved me."

She gave him her hand. "Where I first said I loved you!" she repeated,
smiling tenderly as she looked at him. They left the lake together.

VII.

THE darkness had fallen again; and the ship was still becalmed at sea.

Mr. Duncalf came on deck after his supper. The thin line of smoke, seen
rising from the peak of the mountain that evening, was now succeeded by
ominous flashes of fire from the same quarter, intermittently visible.
The faint hot breeze from the land was felt once more. "There's just an
air of wind," Mr. Duncalf remarked. "I'll try for the Captain while I
have the chance."