n the direction of the
island. The oars were being plied by a woman, or a girl,--I could not
tell which, as her back was toward me and she was still a good way off.
She handled her oars as if she were a part of the boat itself and the
boat were a living thing.

She stopped every now and then, rose from her seat and busied herself
with something. I wondered what she was doing. I saw her haul
something into the boat. As she examined it in her hand, the sun
flashed upon it. I could hear her laugh happily as she tossed it into
the bottom of the boat.

She was trolling for fish and, evidently, getting a plentiful supply.

She rowed in as if intent upon fishing round the island. But, all at
once, she changed her mind, turned the boat, pulled in her fishing line
and shot into a sandy beach, springing out and pulling the boat clear
of the tide.

She straightened herself as she turned and faced the plateau on the far
incline of which I lay hidden. I saw at a glance that, though a mere
girl in years,--somewhere between sixteen and eighteen,--yet she was a
woman, maturing as a June rose, as a butterfly stretching its pretty
wings for the first time in the ecstasy of its new birth. Of medium
height; her hair was the darkest shade of brown and hung in two long,
thick braids down to her neat waist. She seemed not at all of the
countrified type I might have expected to encounter so far in the wilds.

She was dressed in a spotless white blouse, the sleeves of which were
rolled back almost to her shoulders; with a dark-coloured, serviceable
skirt, the hem of which hung high above a pair of small, bare feet and
neat, supple-looking ankles. I could see her shoes and stockings,
brown in colour, lying in the bow of the boat. She reached over,
picked them up, then sat on a rock by the water's edge and pulled them
on her feet.

But, after all, it was not her dress that held my attention; although
in the main this was pleasing to the eye, nor yet was it the girl's
features, for she was still rather far off for me to observe these
distinctly. What riveted me was the light, agile rapidity of her every
action; and her evident abandonment of everything else for what, for
the moment, absorbed her.

As I watched, I became filled with conflicting thoughts. Should I
remain where I was, or should I at once betray my presence?

I decided that the island was large enough for both of us. She was not
interested in me, so why should