"What's that? I could believe the side of a house of you, my brave fellow!" cried Mr. Kitto. "I only mean that your companion hasn't found her way up in your absence." "Ah, if she could!" sighed Denis. "But she is so weak I am afraid we shall have to carry her up between us." The squatter smiled, but said nothing. "If only she is no weaker--if only she has slept right through!" Denis went on, and repeated himself all the way down; but at the base he button-holed his guide. "Do I look very awful, sir? Is my face as bad as my hands? Wait a bit, then--stay where you are." And his injured feet could still dance him down to the water's edge; but he came stealing back, one index finger to his lips, signing with the other to Mr. Kitto to let him go first; and the smile on the cleansed face told that good man a tale. The mouth of the greater cave was just as Denis had left it. He crept on all fours between the table legs, and listened. There was no sound. He leaped up and looked over. The cave was empty. CHAPTER IV LOST AND FOUND Mr. Kitto saw the ragged figure shoot from the cave as though propelled by some unseen power within; and for one second he imagined the worst. He was relieved when the shipwrecked sailor raised his voice. "Nan! Nan!" he yelled. "Miss Merridew! Miss Merridew! Nan! Nan! Nan!" The squatter, running up, alone interrupted him. "She's gone!" cried Denis in terrible excitement. "Gone clean away--God knows where! Look for yourself, if you like; with the sun pouring in you can see to the very end. Do you think I would miss her if it were ten times the size? See, there's where I left her lying; that was all the pillow I could give her; you can almost see the shape of her head!" And the hoarse voice broke piteously; but such a firm, kind hand had him by the arm, that Denis bit his lips and blinked the tears back to their source. "Come, now," said Kitto, "there's nothing wonderful in this; the only wonder is that we didn't expect it. Why should she have slept so much longer than you? She had done far less; and they are tougher than you think. She would wake up and find you flown----" "Poor Nan! Poor Nan!" "And having the vitality she must have, to say nothing of the pluck, you wouldn't expect her to sit still and wait, would you?" "I suppose not," said Denis, gloomily. "I only know I would have died to save her what she must have gone through alone--alone." "You have done your best to die for her," retorted Mr. Kitto, with his kind smile. "Were her people on board with her?" "Her father, yes; she has no one else." "Then you may have to live for her," the older man said gravely. "So don't commit any more of your follies, and above all don't make yourself ill without a cause. She is probably trying to find her own way to the station, and it's safe to be the wrong way." "But you said no one had been up those stairs." Mr. Kitto stood confounded in the sun.