Page:Anderson--Isle of seven moons.djvu/255

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THE ISLE OF SEVEN MOONS
243

on. I've looked up through the palms, and the stars did not keep their relative positions to us, and the branches moved slowly across them, as if we were sailing, headed west. I was wide awake, and after I did fall asleep and later woke up in the morning, it has always seemed as if we had drifted in the night, on and on over the horizon into some sea that was never charted."

He laughed queerly, then added:

"Of course I laid it to nerves and the loneliness."

"Of course, dear, but did you see the seven moons?"

"The moons?" he repeated.

"Yes, Spanish Dick says there are seven."

"He's crazy—but——"

He never finished the sentence, and Sally thinking he had had enough of spookiness, jumped up. "Let's see that trail," she said.

So hand and hand, as all true lovers at one and twenty should, they passed along the curve of the shining sands to Coral Cove. Behind them rose the terraces of the green isle, in varying shades of that lovely colour, ascending to the cone of mountain, tinted richly blue, like a swallow's wings, and sharply picked out against a turquoise sky as innocent of white clouds as the surrounding sea of human sail—all crystal clear and yet unreal, as the boy had said.

They reached Coral Cove and there, where the white cliffs cast cooling shadows, came on the object of their search.

At their feet, half buried in the sands, white and pink-flushed from the myriad coral particles sifting through them, lay the bleaching bones; the perfect bars of the ribs, and the