He stood telling how the Expedition,
fearing then that the case stood as it did, got afloat again, by great
exertion, after the loss of four more tides, and returned to the Island,
where they found the sloop scuttled and the treasure gone. He stood
telling how my officer, Lieutenant Linderwood, was left upon the Island,
with as strong a force as could be got together hurriedly from the
mainland, and how the three boats we saw before us were manned and armed
and had come away, exploring the coast and inlets, in search of any
tidings of us. He stood telling all this, with his face to the river;
and, as he stood telling it, the little arbour of flowers floated in the
sunshine before all the faces there.
Leaning on Captain Carton's shoulder, between him and Miss Maryon, was
Mrs. Fisher, her head drooping on her arm. She asked him, without
raising it, when he had told so much, whether he had found her mother?
"Be comforted! She lies," said the Captain gently, "under the cocoa-nut
trees on the beach."
"And my child, Captain Carton, did you find my child, too? Does my
darling rest with my mother?"
"No. Your pretty child sleeps," said the Captain, "under a shade of
flowers.
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