The place where the French captain had landed the little party was on the further and opposite end of the isle.  There, too, it was that they had afterwards built their hut.  Nor did the widow in her solitude desert the spot where her loved ones had dwelt with her, and where the dearest of the twain now slept his last long sleep, and all her plaints awaked him not, and he of husbands the most faithful during life.

Now, high, broken land rises between the opposite extremities of the isle.  A ship anchored at one side is invisible from the other.  Neither is the isle so small, but a considerable company might wander for days through the wilderness of one side, and never be seen, or their halloos heard, by any stranger holding aloof on the other.  Hence Hunilla, who naturally associated the possible coming of ships with her own part of the isle, might to the end have remained quite ignorant of the presence of our vessel, were it not for a mysterious presentiment, borne to her, so our mariners averred, by this isle’s enchanted air.  Nor did the widow’s answer undo the thought.

“How did you come to cross the isle this morning, then, Hunilla?” said our Captain.

“Senor, something came flitting by me.  It touched my cheek, my heart, Senor.”

“What do you say, Hunilla?”

“I have said, Senor, something came through the air.”

It was a narrow chance.  For when in crossing the isle Hunilla gained the high land in the centre, she must then for the first have perceived our masts, and also marked that their sails were being loosed, perhaps even heard the echoing chorus of the windlass song.  The strange ship was about to sail, and she behind.  With all haste she now descends the height on the hither side, but soon loses sight of the ship among the sunken jungles at the mountain’s base.  She struggles on through the withered branches, which seek at every step to bar her path, till she comes to the isolated rock, still some way from the water.  This she climbs, to reassure herself.  The ship is still in plainest sight.  But now, worn out with over tension, Hunilla all but faints; she fears to step down from her giddy perch; she is fain to pause, there where she is, and as a last resort catches the turban from her head, unfurls and waves it over the jungles towards us.

During the telling of her story the mariners formed a voiceless circle round Hunilla and the Captain; and when at length the word was given to man the fastest boat, and pull round to the isle’s thither side, to bring away Hunilla’s chest and the tortoise-oil, such alacrity of both cheery and sad obedience seldom before was seen.  Little ado was made.  Already the anchor had been recommitted to the bottom, and the ship swung calmly to it.

But Hunilla insisted upon accompanying the boat as indispensable pilot to her hidden hut.  So being refreshed with the best the steward could supply, she started with us.  Nor did ever any wife of the most famous admiral, in her husband’s barge, receive more silent reverence of respect than poor Hunilla from this boat’s crew.