ar to me," returned the
hermit with a sigh, as he submitted to the operation. "I thought I had
fallen somehow into the hands of pirates. Surely an accident must have
happened. How did I get here? Where are my comrades--Nigel and the
negro?"

"My son Nigel is all right, sir, and so is your man Moses. Make your
mind easy--an' pray don't speak while I'm working at you. I'll explain
it all in good time. Stay, I'll be with you in a moment."

The captain--fearing that Kathleen might come out from curiosity to see
what was going on, and remembering his son's injunction--went to the
girl's berth with the intention of ordering her to keep close until he
should give her leave to come out. Opening the door softly and looking
in, he was startled, almost horrified, to see Kathleen standing
motionless like a statue, with both hands pressed tightly over her
heart. The colour had fled from her beautiful face; her long hair was
flung back; her large lustrous eyes were wide open and her lips slightly
parted, as if her whole being had been concentrated in eager expectancy.

"What's wrong, my girl?" asked the captain anxiously. "You've no cause
for fear. I just looked in to--."

"That voice!" exclaimed Kathleen, with something of awe in her
tones--"Oh! I've heard it so often in my dreams."

"Hush! shush! my girl," said the captain in a low tone, looking
anxiously round at the wounded man. But his precautions were
unavailing,--Van der Kemp had also heard a voice which he thought had
long been silent in death. The girl's expression was almost repeated in
his face. Before the well-meaning mariner could decide what to do,
Kathleen brushed lightly past him, and stood in the cabin gazing as if
spell-bound at the hermit.

"Winnie!" he whispered, as if scarcely daring to utter the name.

"Father!"

She extended both hands towards him as she spoke. Then, with a piercing
shriek, she staggered backward, and would have fallen had not the
captain caught her and let her gently down.

Van der Kemp vaulted the table, fell on his knees beside her, and,
raising her light form, clasped her to his heart, just as Nigel and
Moses, alarmed by the scream, sprang into the cabin.

"Come, come; away wi' you--you stoopid grampusses!" cried the captain,
pushing the intruders out of the cabin, following them, and closing the
door behind him. "This is no place for bunglers like you an' me. We
might have known that natur' would have her way,