king colonel, and
then Desborough cried it to his dying crew. The wind sprang up at the
moment too, and in a few hours they beached the boat upon a low sandy
shore, with the waves breaking gently over it in long easy rollers. It
was a desolate coast, sparsely wooded with small trees, and having
little evidence of human habitation about it; but no glimpse of heaven
could have more rejoiced a dying soul than this bleak haven to which
they had been brought. They staggered, half fell, out of the boat, and
lay exhausted, with ghastly haggard faces, on the shining sands, giving
thanks to God for His mercy.

Desborough, as the strongest of the party, started inland, finding by
and by a little stream of fresh water, and farther on, on higher
ground, seeing a house, the smoke curling from its chimneys showing
that it was inhabited. To the bubbling spring he half led, half
dragged his shipwrecked party. They drank sparingly by his direction,
and were refreshed, for with the cool water life and hope came back to
them once more. Then he left them again and went on to the house.
They had landed on the shore of Virginia, and the people of the house
welcomed and cared for the poor castaways, sharing with them their
humble store with the kindly hospitality for which the land was famous.
Their long voyage was at an end, their troubles were over. The colonel
and Katharine would be free again; they might go home once more, and
Desborough would be a prisoner.

BOOK V

THE DEAD ALIVE AGAIN

CHAPTER XL

_A Final Appeal_

It was springtime again in Virginia. The sky, its blue depths
accentuated by the shifting clouds, was never more clear, wherever it
appeared in the intervals of sunshine, nor the air more fresh and pure,
even in that land famed for its bright skies and its mild climate, than
it was this April day; which, with its sunshine and showers in
unregulated alternation, seemed symbolical of life,--that life of which
every tender blade of grass, every venturesome flower thrusting its
head above the sod, seemed to speak. There was health and strength in
the gentle breeze which wantonly played with the budding leaves of the
great trees, already putting forth little evangels of that splendid
foliage with which they decked themselves in the full glory of summer.
That merry wind which swept through the open boat-house at the end of
the wharf laid a bold hand upon the curls which fell about the neck of
the young gi