erse from betraying my interest to him or to any one
in the settlement--for, after all, it was my own affair, and hers. So I
determined to pursue my policy of watching and waiting, letting a day or
two elapse before I again went out wandering with my gun.

Probably she would be making another trip to the settlement, before
long. Doubtless, it was for that purpose that she was visiting her very
original safety-deposit vault when I had come so embarrassingly upon
her.

However, inaction, in the circumstances, was difficult, and when two
days had gone without bringing any sign of her, I determined to follow
the trail of my last expedition, and find out whether that strip of
rocky coast, with its hidden cavern, actually did stand firm somewhere
on the solid earth, or was merely a phantom coast fronting

"The foam of perilous seas in faery-land forlorn."

As a matter of fact, I did find it, after having lost my way in the
thick brush several times before doing so. I reckoned, when at last I
emerged upon it, that it was a distance of some six or seven miles from
the settlement, though, owing to my ignorance of the way, it had taken
me a whole morning to cover it. Did _she_ have to thread these thorny
thickets every time she came to the little town? No; doubtless she was
acquainted with some easier and shorter path.

However, here was the cliff-bastioned sea-front, and down there was the
boulder on which she had stood like a statue in the moonlight. I craned
my neck over the edge of the cliffs to catch sight of the entrance to
her cave--but in vain. Nor was there apparent any way of reaching it
from above. Evidently it was only approachable from the sea.

Then I looked about for some signs of a house; but, though it was full
noon-day, the forest presented an unbroken front of close-growing trees,
and a rich confusion of various foliage uncommon on those islands. I
counted at least a dozen varieties, among which were horseflesh, wild
tamarind, redwood, pigeon-plum, poison wood, gum-elemi, fig, logwood,
and mahogany.

Evidently there was an unusually thick layer of soil over the coral rock
in this part of the island, which was in the main composed of the usual
clinker and scrub--where it was not mangrove swamp. Yet in spite of
appearances, it was certain that there must be some sort of dwelling
there-about, and not so very far off either--unless, indeed, my
mysterious girl was but a mermaid after all.

So I left the