When she awoke, the ravine was in shadow and the interior of the cave was dark. Her first conscious sensation was that of almost intolerable thirst. Her lips were blistered, her tongue and palate sore, and she asked herself in alarm what new evil was afflicting her, until she remembered the drenching she had received and the amount of salt-laden air that had passed into her lungs. Nevertheless, she cried involuntarily for water, and again she was offered wine. She managed to smile in a strained fashion at this malicious humor of fortune. By a freak of memory she called to mind the somewhat similar predicament of the crew of a storm-tossed ship that she had once read about. They ran short of water, but the vessel carried hundreds of cases of bottled stout. During three long weeks of boating against the wind those wretched men were compelled to drink stout morning, noon, and night, and never did temperance argument apply with greater force to the seafaring community than toward the end of that enforced regimen of malt liquor. Hozier, who had aroused her by touching her shoulder, fancied he saw the gleam of merriment in her face. "What is amusing you?" he asked. She told him, though she spoke with difficulty. "It is not quite so bad as that," he said. "If there is no hitch in our plans, we should be on the island within five hours. We have everything thought out as far as may be in view of the unknown. At any rate, Miss Yorke, if we succeed in getting you safely ashore, you personally will have but slight cause for further anxiety. The proposal is that Marcel shall take you at once to the hut of an old convict whom he can trust----" "A convict!" she gasped. The word was ominous, and she was hardly awake. "The population of Fernando Noronha is almost entirely made of convicts and soldiers," he explained. "But am I to be left there alone?" "What else is there to be done? You cannot join in the attack on a fort--and that offers our only chance, it would seem. Granted an effective surprise, we may carry it. Then your guardian will bring you to us." "What if you fail?" "We must not fail," he said quietly. "Please do not hide the alternative from me," she pleaded. "I have endured so much----" "Well, don't you see, this man--who, by the way, is married, and has a daughter aged fourteen--will, if necessary, reveal your presence to the Governor. By that time, say, in a day or two, the excitement will have died down, the news of your escape will be cabled to England, you will be sent to the coast on the Government steamer, and you can travel home by the next mail." "That sounds very simple--and European," she said, and the pathetic sarcasm was not lost on him.