“I like this—­this is far better than that calm and withering heat—­this rouses me,” said Amine, as she cast her eyes up, and watched the forked lightning till her vision became obscured.  “Yes, this is as it should be.  Lightning, strike me if you please—­waves wash me off and bury me in a briny tomb—­pour the wrath of the whole elements upon this devoted head.—­I care not, I laugh at, I defy it all.  Thou canst but kill, this little steel can do as much.  Let those who hoard up wealth—­those who live in splendour—­those that are happy—­those who have husbands, children, aught to love—­let them tremble, I have nothing.  Elements! be ye fire, or water, or earth, or air, Amine defies you!  And yet—­no, no, deceive not thyself, Amine, there is no hope; thus will I mount my funeral bier, and wait the will of destiny.”  And Amine regained the secure place which Philip had fitted up for her in the centre of the raft, threw herself down upon her bed, and shut her eyes.

The thunder and lightning was followed up by torrents of heavy rain, which fell till daylight; the wind still continued fresh, but the sky cleared, and the sun shone out.  Amine remained shivering in her wet garments; the heat of the sun proved too powerful for her exhausted state, and her brain wandered.  She rose up in a sitting posture, looked around her, saw verdant fields in every direction, the cocoa-nuts waving to the wind—­imagined even that she saw her own Philip in the distance hastening to her; she held out her arms; strove to get up, and run to meet him, but her limbs refused their office; she called to him, she screamed, and sank back exhausted on her resting-place.

Chapter XXVI

We must for a time return to Philip, and follow his strange destiny.  A few hours after he had thrown the pilot into the sea they gained the shore, so long looked at with anxiety and suspense.  The spars of the raft, jerked by the running swell, undulated and rubbed against each other, as they rose and fell to the waves breaking on the beach.  The breeze was fresh, but the surf was trifling, and the landing was without difficulty.  The beach was shelving, of firm white sand, interspersed and strewed with various brilliant-coloured shells; and here and there, the bleached fragments and bones of some animal which had been forced out of its element to die.  The island was, like all the others, covered with a thick wood of cocoa-nut trees, whose tops waved to the breeze, or bowed to the blast, producing a shade and a freshness which would have been duly appreciated by any other party than the present, with the exception only of Krantz; for Philip thought of nothing but his lost wife, and the seamen thought of nothing but of their sudden wealth.  Krantz supported Philip to the beach and led him to the shade; but after a minute he rose, and running down to the nearest point, looked anxiously for the portion of the raft which held Amine, which was now far, far away.  Krantz had followed, aware that, now the first paroxysms were past, there was no fear of Philip’s throwing away his life.