--and even more triumphant than when you came."

"I have never felt so triumphant as on this morn-
ing, dear senorita. I had not hoped to give you
so much pleasure."

Her cheeks were as pink as her reboso, her great
black eyes were dancing. Her hands strained at
the railing. "I shall see La Bellissima! La Bellis-
sima!" she cried.

They rounded the low broken point of the island,
sailed through the racing currents between the lower
end of La Bellissima and "Our Lady of the An-
gels," more slowly past what looked to be a per-
pendicular forest. From water to crest the gulches
and converging spurs of this hillside in the sea were
a dense mass of oaks, bays, underbrush; here and
there a tall slender tree with a bark like red kid and
a flirting polished leaf, at which Concha clapped her
hands as at sight of an old friend and called "El
Madrono." It was a primeval bit of nature, but
sweet and silent and peaceful; there was no sugges-
tion either of gloom or of discourteous beast.

"We shall have our dinner here, Excellency.
There on that little beach; and afterward we shall
climb to the top. See, there are trails! The In-
dians have been here."