ul changes had indeed taken place, and Van der Kemp, who had
been for some time silently absorbed in contemplation, at last turned to
his daughter and said--

"I had feared at first, Winnie, that my old home had been blown entirely
away, but I see now that the Peak of Rakata still stands, so perhaps I
may yet show you the cave in which I have spent so many years."

"But why did you go to live in such a strange place, dear father?" asked
the girl, laying her hand lovingly on the hermit's arm.

Van der Kemp did not reply at once. He gazed in his child's face with
an increase of that absent air and far-away look which Nigel, ever since
he met him, had observed as one of his characteristics. At this time an
anxious thought crossed him,--that perhaps the blows which his friend
had received on his head when he was thrown on the deck of the
_Sunshine_ might have injured his brain.

"It is not easy to answer your question, dear one," he said after a
time, laying his strong hand on the girl's head, and smoothing her
luxuriant hair which hung in the untrammelled freedom of nature over her
shoulders. "I have felt sometimes, during the last few days, as if I
were awaking out of a long long dream, or recovering from a severe
illness in which delirium had played a prominent part. Even now, though
I see and touch you, I sometimes tremble lest I should really awake and
find that it is all a dream. I have so often--so _very_ often--dreamed
something like it in years gone by, but never so vividly as now! I
cannot doubt--it is sin to doubt--that my prayers have been at last
answered. God is good and wise. He knows what is best and does not
fail in bringing the best to pass. Yet I have doubted Him--again and
again."

Van der Kemp paused here and drew his hand across his brow as if to
clear away sad memories of the past, while Winnie drew closer to him and
looked up tenderly in his face.

"When your mother died, dear one," he resumed, "it seemed to me as if
the sun had left the heavens, and when _you_ were snatched from me, it
was as though my soul had fled and nought but animal life remained. I
lived as if in a terrible dream. I cannot recall exactly what I did or
where I went for a long, long time. I know I wandered through the
archipelago looking for you, because I did not believe at first that you
were dead. It was at this time I took up my abode in the cave of
Rakata, and fell in with my good faithful friend Moses."