In the utter heart-break of the hour, and the last stage of physical distress, Denis had half a mind to fling himself over and be done with it all; but only half a mind, and not a hundredth part of the heart. Instead, as he went down gingerly in the dusk, one painful step at a time, he reviled himself from top to bottom for the unnecessary climb which is not wholly credited to this day. It was already at the root of everything in the climber's mind. Had he only explored the smaller cavern, he had been back with succour in one hour instead of three. Mr. Kitto meanwhile had made up his mind. "We shall never find her alive," he whispered to his overseer, who arrived upon the scene a little before Denis's return. "But for that poor fellow's sake we must keep up the pretence a bit longer. I can see there was something between them; and when we find her body it will probably kill him; and after all every soul will have been lost. Did you know the bodies were beginning to come ashore? There's a little chap I take to be the skipper: last to leave and first to land." "But you aren't looking for this girl among them?" the overseer exclaimed aghast. "Not yet; but it will come to that," whispered Kitto. "I cooeyed till I was hoarse; that's why I can't raise my voice above a whisper now; and all the rest of us are in the same box. Mark my words, it's a case of suicide, and a fearful case: the poor thing was so terrified at her position when she awoke and found herself deserted on this desert coast, that it drove her clean out of her mind. I almost hope he won't live to realize it was that--though he's the sort we want in this colony--if he gave up the sea." "Was there no tracking her?" "Scarcely a yard from the mouth of the cave, and he doesn't know I did that; the sand is so heavy outside. But the tracks I did find pointed straight to the sea. I grant you there were not enough of them to mean anything in themselves." They chanced to be passing close to the ti-tree clump as they conversed. Suddenly the overseer stood still. "You've looked in there, I suppose?" "In there? What would be the good? It's not above a dozen yards thick, though so dense; if she were alive in there she'd have heard us long ago; if she's dead she's in the sea. Why do you ask?" "I thought I heard something. That was all." They moved on a few yards. "I say, Mr. Kitto, I do hear something! Listen, sir--listen to that!" They heard the voice distinctly, faint and feeble though it was. "I am dying!" it moaned. "_Oh, Denis, where are you?_" Mr. Kitto almost choked. "Thank God--but if she does die!" he croaked and whispered in one breath. "We're coming! We're coming, my dear, dear young lady! But," in his whisper, "who's that hobbling toward us--dot-and-carry-one? It's Dent, man, it's Dent himself; go and tell him like a good fellow--only don't raise too much hope." And deeply agitated, the squatter thrust his lantern among the outer branches of the thicket.